Football teams playing in the state championship games earned 54% less on average despite record attendance in the return to the more expensive Mercedes-Benz Stadium in December, GHSA records show. The 16 finalists’ average disbursement was $9,795 compared to $21,068 in 2022.

Travis Roland, who led Mainland of Daytona Beach, Fla., to a state championship last season, will succeed Jeff Herron at Camden County. Roland’s Mainland teams were 30-10 over three seasons. He is 58-22 overall with four previous seasons at Palm Coast in Flagler.

Twenty-five former Georgia high school players are among the 321 invitees to the NFL Scouting Combine, which begins Monday and runs through March 4 in Indianapolis. The 25 Georgians include only one former five-star recruit, Bleckley County’s Amarius Mims, but all 25 were outstanding high school players.

Spalding football coach Carl Kearney Jr. has been charged with first- and second-degree murder for the strangulation death of his girlfriend in Maryland, Prince George’s County police reported late Sunday evening. Kearney, 43, entered a Clinton, Md., police station Saturday morning and confessed to strangling Patrina Best, 38, during an argument in her Accokeek, Md., home, the police report said.

Tift County approved Jeff Littleton as its football coach at a called board meeting Friday afternoon. Littleton led Bainbridge to a 2018 Class 5A championship and has won region titles the past four seasons. His record is 91-46 over 11 seasons, all at Bainbridge. Tift County has not won a playoff game since its 2018 Class 7A quarterfinal run..

Kevin Whitley, who built Stockbridge into a state power before moving into college coaching at Georgia Southern, is the new football coach at Northgate in Coweta County. Whitley’s Stockbridge record was 99-28 in 10 seasons with five region titles at a school that had never won a playoff game until after his arrival in 2009.

Two Cobb County football teams have new coaches as Osborne’s Luqman Salam has taken the Harrison job while Derek Cook has filled Osborne’s vacancy. Salam is the coach behind the remarkable turnaround at Osborne, which had been Cobb County’s most moribund program. Salam’s teams were 1-8, 5-5 and 7-4 at a program that had gone 2-47 the previous five seasons.

Nine Georgia football coaches received GHSF Daily’s Hudl awards Tuesday in Macon at the annual GACA Falcons Coaches Luncheon. The Hudl awards go to coaches of the “most improved winning teams” in each GHSA classification and the GIAA.

Harrison Butker and Mecole Hardman of the Kansas City Chiefs, each poised to participate in their fourth Super Bowls, are among eight active former Georgia high school football players whose teams won their conference championship games Sunday. The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

Jeff Herron, a 300-game winner and the only Georgia football coach to win state championships at three schools, announced his retirement Friday. Herron’s Camden teams won state titles in the highest classification in 2003, 2008 and 2009. Herron also won state championships at Oconee County in 1999 and Grayson in 2016.

Former Georgia football star Terrence Edwards was announced Thursday as Mount Vernon’s football coach. Mount Vernon is a Class A school in Atlanta. The football team reached the playoffs each of the past eight seasons, though never advancing past the second round, under coach Wayne Dabbs. The team was 8-4 in 2023.

Defending Class 3A football champion Cedar Grove will play Class 6A power Douglas County in the prime-time Saturday slot of the 2024 Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The schedule for the 11-game Aug. 14-17 event was announced Tuesday. Cedar Grove and Douglas County will be making their first Corky Kell appearances.

High school running backs with 2,289 yards rushing and 40 touchdowns on 13-1 teams are natural candidates for Georgia player of the year. So are five-star linebackers who make 153 tackles and sign with Clemson. Sammy Brown, a senior at Jefferson, was both. “He does everything you can ask a football player to do,” Jefferson coach Travis Noland said.

Keith Maloof of Norcross is the Atlanta Falcons’ coach of the year, an annual award that recognizes high school football coaches for their character, leadership and work in the community. Maloof, Norcross’ coach since 1999, became the all-time leader in coaching victories in Gwinnett County this season with 202.

Craig Bennett, who started Cambridge’s football program in 2012, was announced as Pickens’ coach on Thursday afternoon. Mount Pisgah Christian and Salem also announced hires this week. Bennett guided Cambridge, a north Fulton County school, to its first region title in 2022 and playoff appearances each of the past four seasons.

Carrollton quarterback Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis is the Gatorade state football player of the year in Georgia, the company announced Wednesday. Lewis, the consensus No. 1 sophomore football prospect nationally, passed for 3,094 yards and 48 touchdowns with only two interceptions for an 11-2 team that reached the Class 7A quarterfinals.

Twenty-seven of Georgia’s most highly recruited football players will play this week in Orlando and San Antonio in the two most prestigious national high school all-star games. The Under Armour All-America game will be played Wednesday in Orlando. The All-American Bowl, in San Antonio, will be Saturday at 1 p.m.

Milton, Thomas County Central and Mill Creek finished as the top Georgia teams in the final 2023 national high school football rankings, which were released last week. Milton, which defeated Walton 31-21 in the Class 7A final to win its second state title in six years, was the state’s highest-rated team in five of eight widely recognized polls.

The football championships’ return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium drew a record paid attendance of 50,622 this week, far outpacing the 27,442 average total attendance from the previous four years at Georgia State’s Center Parc Stadium. “Pleased but not surprised,” GHSA executive director Robin Hines said Thursday.

Milton scored 24 points off turnovers in the second half after trailing 14-7, and Jacorey Stewart finished it with a 5-yard interception return for a touchdown with 52 seconds left. Luke Nickel (committed to Miami) was 19-of-25 passing for 201 yards while Milton registered three interceptions and three sacks against Walton star quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski.