Warner Robins LB/DE Isaiah Gibson, Central of Carrollton RB Jonaz Walker and four of the state’s best defensive backs headline GHSF Daily’s Class 4A preseason all-state. The defensive backs are Jones County’s Javion Butts, Warner Robins’ Rasean Dinkins, Cedartown’s Tae Harris and Jonesboro’s Cortez Redding.

Lee County running back Ousmane Kromah, five offensive linemen ranked in the top 300 nationally, and a seven-man contingent of Milton players headline GHSF Daily’s Class 5A preseason all-state team. Selected from Milton were QB Luke Nickel, WR C.J. Wiley, TE Ethan Barbour, PK Alex Nover, DL Caleb Bell, DB Dylan Lewis and DB Ty Redmond.

GHSF Daily will be announcing a preseason all-state team for each classification, beginning today with Class 6A. Five-star quarterback Julian Lewis of Carrollton, who reclassified as a senior in the offseason, and four defensive linemen that rank among the state’s top 100 players lead the way.

Five Georgia teams will be nationally televised over 10 days this month during ESPN’s 15th High School Football Kickoff series of six games, the network announced Thursday. The teams are Carrollton, Woodward Academy, Grayson, Milton and Rabun Gap-Nacoochee.

Since the final horn blew on the 2023 high school football season, the GHSA has hired a new executive director, warned athletes about illegal NIL deals and given football teams Thanksgiving week off for the first time in more than 100 years. Seventy-four GHSA teams hired coaches, one after a 300-game winner retired, another when a coach with five state titles unretired.

The Georgia High School Association’s board of trustees is expected to amend its bylaws Thursday to make clear that name, image and likeness collectives that pay athletes are illegal and can cost students their eligibility.

The Georgia High School Association warned schools this week that athletes signing up for a certain name, image and likeness (NIL) company are risking their eligibility if boosters pay them for their online news and content.

Kevin Giddens, a former GHSA associate director and Colquitt County athletic director and football coach, died Wednesday at age 59. GHSA executive director Robin Hines confirmed the news to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Giddens joined the GHSA in 2018 and was the association’s football coordinator from 2019 until retiring in June 2023.

The 2024 high school football championship games will be played Dec. 16-18, five days later than last season, and the five playoff rounds will have an unprecedented Thanksgiving week off, GHSA executive director Robin Hines confirmed Friday morning. The playoff dates will be Nov. 8-9 (first round), Nov. 15 (second round), Nov. 22 (third round), Dec. 6 (semifinals) and Dec. 16-18 (finals).

Chip Kell, a former University of Tennessee football All-American who was an inaugural inductee into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame in 2022 for his days at Avondale in DeKalb County, has died at age 75. Kell was a star lineman for Avondale teams that never lost more than one game in a season in the 1960s.

Nine former Georgia players and eight from Georgia Tech are among the 30 selected for this year’s Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame inductions. Another state school, Morris Brown, which shut down its football program in 2003, remarkably had three former players make it, all high school stars from the 1960s

Former Georgia football stars David Greene, Alec Ogletree and Thomas Davis, Georgia Tech legends Kim King and Demaryius Thomas and Atlanta Falcons greats Jessie Tuggle and Alfred Jenkins are among the 40 newest Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame ballot members released Wednesday..

Faced with an unimaginable offseason tragedy with its football coach, Spalding High in Griffin has turned to an old friend to lead the program again. Nick Davis, a Griffin native with 24 years of head coaching experience, was approved by the Griffin-Spalding Schools board Friday afternoon to return to the job he held from 2011 to 2018.

Tim Scott was approved Monday to become the Georgia High School Association’s new executive director starting July 1. Scott will succeed Robin Hines, who has held the position since 2017. Scott spoke with Todd Holcomb this week on topics ranging from his football-playing days to the challenges ahead running the GHSA.

Tim Scott, approved unanimously Monday as the Georgia High School Association’s executive director effective July 1, says he will make communication and openness his priorities when he takes the job, succeeding the retiring Robin Hines. Scott will be the GHSA’s seventh to fill the role and the second behind Hines to join the association from outside of it.

The Georgia High School Association will meet Monday in Macon with a light agenda that peaks with the expected approval of Tim Scott as the retiring Robin Hines’ replacement as executive director. Scott, the superintendent of Dalton Public Schools since 2018, was announced as the sole finalist March 18 by the GHSA’s board of trustees, which served as the interview committee for the position.

Savannah Country Day hired a football coach Monday while Spalding is expected to approve one Tuesday, which would add up to 67 offseason hires with four jobs still open in Georgia. Savannah Country Day settled on Roc Batten, a former Vanderbilt player who has been a head coach for 13 seasons in the Nashville area.

Maurice Freeman, a 250-game winner who led alma mater Brooks County to state titles in 1994 and 2021, resigned Friday and is expected to take an out-of-state job. Brooks County Schools announced the news and said that Josh McFather would be promoted to head coach on an interim basis.

Starr’s Mill promoted defensive backs coach David Cooper to head football coach on Monday. Cooper will replace retiring coach Chad Phillips. Cooper has been on the Starr’s Mill staff since 2015. He coached at Sandy Creek from 2005 to 2014 and was part of three state-championship teams.

Dalton Public Schools superintendent Tim Scott is the GHSA board of trustees’ choice to become the association’s next executive director, succeeding Robin Hines, the GHSA announced Monday. The GHSA’s 75-member executive committee will vote to approve Scott’s hire at its spring meeting April 15 in Macon.