With the bowing out of Dalton and North Murray in the second round of the high school football playoffs last Friday, another season of high school football came to an end for the Dalton Daily Citizen’s coverage area of Whitfield and Murray counties.
It was a year of progress for plenty, a year of playoffs for four local teams and a near miss for another.
But the coming and going of a high school football season brings with it plenty of storylines. Here are a few that dominated headlines in the 2023 season:
The Cats are back
After two games of dominant Dalton High School football in 2023, a column appeared in the Sept. 8 edition of the Dalton Daily Citizen.
That column asked the question: Are the Cats back?
On paper, the 2023 season for Dalton ended exactly like the 2022 campaign. Dalton reached the second round of the playoffs and was halted there with a loss to Creekside, both seasons.
In the details though is the answer to that question posed early in the year.
Yes, the Cats were back in 2023.
After Dalton limped to its second straight losing season — a 2-8 campaign in 2021 — the days of winning for one of the winningest programs in the state of Georgia appeared far behind — and nowhere in sight for the future.
A 6-6 year and a playoff win for the first time since 2016 was the early sign last year. But that Dalton team felt like one on the precipice of something. Although it had its share of successes, it was the year leading to the year.
In 2023, Dalton delivered.
The 8-4 Catamounts hung in every loss and weren’t all that far from eight, nine or 10 wins in the regular season and a region title. Dalton played with the big boys and dispatched the teams they were “supposed” to beat with relative ease. Dalton beat Calhoun for the first time since 2016. The Catamounts appeared to far outmatch a first-round opponent in the playoffs, going on the road to deliver a 39-17 win over Greater Atlanta Christian.
Dalton got the tough draw of Creekside again in 2023 in the second round. Where a 61-0 trouncing left Dalton heading into last offseason knowing they weren’t ready to compete with the likes of the best in the state, Dalton threw haymakers on the way to a 24-14 lead against the same Seminole squad this season.
Dalton — despite all the progress still a team that relied on a lot of two-way play in Class 5A — just lost steam in the second half.
Had Dalton gotten a different draw, the Cats might still be playing. Region 7-5A’s fourth-seeded team, Cass, which Dalton defeated 38-13 during the regular season, punched through to the quarterfinals with a victory over Mays.
The final tally is the same, a second round exit. But 2023 Dalton felt like a completely different squad than the 2022 version.
Where a fairly one-dimensional attack of rushing existed in 2022, Dalton and quarterback Ethan Long turned in one of the most prolific passing offenses in the state in 2023. Despite the departure of the engine behind that 2022 attack, running back Tyson Greenwade, Dalton kept the run game humming behind Adriel Hernandez, who was named Region 7-5A co-player of the year for his rushing and his play as a linebacker. The defense came online to smother some opponents and make key stops against others.
Several two-way standout seniors — seniors who advanced Dalton football from two straight losing seasons to what it became in 2023 — will depart. Hernandez, Bubba Tanner, Jeffson Locke and Bannon Phelan to name just a few.
But, with Long set to return for another year after making leaps of improvement last offseason, and with head coach Kit Carpenter at the helm, the Catamounts appear ready to continue the program’s winning ways into the future.
Departure of offensive stars led to emergence of more
The Dalton Daily Citizen’s 2023 High School Football Preview, released before the start of the season in August, carried a theme on the front cover.
“Who is next?” the preview asked.
After all, several offensive producers had graduated and left high school football after last season. Class 5A’s leading rusher (Dalton’s Tyson Greenwade), 4A’s leading passer (Northwest Whitfield’s Owen Brooker), 3A’s top passer (Coahulla Creek’s Kace Kinnamon) and 2A’s top passer and receiver (North Murray’s Seth Griffin and Jadyn Rice) were all gone after 2022.
Instead of a dearth of offensive stars, new ones simply moved in to fill the void.
After a trio of passers from the area led their classification in passing yards a year ago, none did that this season, but a few came awfully close.
Dalton quarterback Ethan Long was 13th overall in the state with 2,417 yards. Sophomore Gavin Nuckolls slid right into Brooker’s spot and was 16th in the state with 2,353. North Murray quarterback Skyler Williams, as a first-year starter, was the only player in Georgia with 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing. Williams finished with 2,202 through the air and 1,006 on the ground in the regular season. Christian Heritage quarterback Carter Triplett finished north of 2,800 total yards and 30 touchdowns. Stepping in for Kinnamon at Coahulla Creek, Chase Ward didn’t quite match his predecessor’s passing totals, but passed for 1,415 yards and 13 touchdowns while adding 517 yards and 11 rushing touchdowns.
After finishing second in Class 2A in receiving last year, North Murray’s Judson Petty stepped in to lead 2A in receiving with 1,214 yards, a number which was also good for second overall in the state. Petty set a new state record for receiving yards in a game when he piled up 360 in a win over Pickens this season. Charlie Idom was the beneficiary of Triplett’s passing with 811 receiving yards, while a pair of Hudsons, North Murray’s Hudson Hulett and Northwest’s Hudson Gray, also helped their quarterbacks pile up passing numbers.
Stepping in for Greenwade, Dalton running back Adriel Hernandez rushed for 1,159 yards in the regular season.
Some of those offensive stars, like Long, Nuckolls, Williams and Triplett at QB, return next year, but there is bound to be more stat-stuffers that emerge next season.
Playoff streaks continuing, starting and ending
North Murray’s playoff appearance in 2023 marked its eighth straight. The Neers hadn’t been to the playoffs prior to head coach Preston Poag’s arrival in 2016, and North Murray hasn’t missed the postseason since. A first round win over South Atlanta marked the school’s fourth ever postseason win and sent North Murray past the first round for the first time since 2019.
Northwest Whitfield had a similar streak going before an eighth straight appearance didn’t come to fruition last year. Northwest returned to the playoffs this season, though the Bruins lost their final four games after a 6-1 start.
Christian Heritage was in the playoffs for a sixth straight season this year, though the Lions were guaranteed a playoff appearance before the year started since just three teams in their region play football. This year marked the first in Christian Heritage’s GHSA history that the Lions weren’t led by a Poag brother. Preston Poag led the Lions from 2012 to 2015, then Jay Poag coached Christian Heritage from 2016 through 2022. Frank Barden took over in 2023 and led the Lions to a 5-6 finish after an 0-3 start.
Dalton returned to the playoffs for a second straight year after two years off.
Coahulla Creek found itself barely on the outside looking in of a playoff return thanks to coming up on the wrong end of a tiebreaker.
After losing several key contributors from a team that made the school’s first playoff appearance in 2022, head coach Drew Carter led a Colts team to within a few plays of making a second straight playoff trip. The Colts finished 5-5, marking the second best finish in school history.
For Southeast Whitfield and Murray County, the playoff wait continued in 2023.
The Raiders haven’t reached the postseason since 2014. 2023’s Southeast team showed a lot of fight in early games in the year, but four straight shutout losses to a tough Region 7-4A schedule ended the Raiders’ year at 1-9.
Murray County, coming off a 1-9 mark of their own in 2022, improved to 2-8 in head coach Kurt Napier’s second season and fared far better on offense than the previous year. Murray is building toward trying for the Indians’ first playoff appearance since 2005.
Daniel Mayes is the Sports Editor of the Dalton Daily Citizen