REGION 5AAAAAAA
Three former Class AAAAAA teams join loaded region
By Stuart Steele
MDJ Sports Writer
After winning Region 3AAAAAAA in 2020
and 2021, North Cobb is the favorite to win
Region 5AAAAAAA after this year’s region realignment.
Walton remains a potential threat and should
field another strong team, while K ennesaw Mountain,
KICKOFF ‘22 51
winner of Region 6 AAAAAA last season
will j oin Wheeler and O sborne in making the
leap from Class AAAAAA to Class AAAAAAA.
Cherokee is the lone team from Cherokee County
remaining in the region.
Malachi Singleton is once again set to lead
an explosive North Cobb offense. Coming off a
2021 season in which he accounted for 3,040
total yards and 43 touchdowns, the Arkansas
commit should be able to pick up where he
left off as one of the best players in the state.
North Cobb coach Shane Q ueen said that
while he’ll miss some of the rivalries lost, his
team is looking forward to playing in another
challenging region.
“You’re obviously losing some teams you
played every year, we’ll miss those rivalries,”
Q ueen said. “But K ennesaw Mountain is coming
back in, they won the region for the first
time last year in school history. So they’ve got
a great team coming back, Walton is of course
good every year, were in the final four last year
and then you got Cherokee, who’s been very solid,
last five year run, and then we got Wheeler
and O sborne. So again, top to bottom, another
tough region schedule.”
The combined winning percentage of the
teams on North Cobb’s schedule this year is
.6 40, thanks in large part to several competitive
teams in its region.
Walton remains in the same region as North
Cobb, and coming off a 9 -4 finish in 2021 will
look to push the Warriors for the region title
this season. Walton advanced to the fourth
round of last year’s playoffs, defeating CCHS,
Archer and Brookwood before falling 52-17
against Milton.
K ennesaw Mountain will be playing in the
top classification for the first time since the
2019 season when the Mustangs finished 0-10.
This is a much different team, but it remains
to be seen whether coach Caleb Carmean will
be able to lead a smooth transition coming off
last year’s 10-2 campaign.
“G oing up into (Class) AAAAAAA we’re still
going to play good competition, j ust like we
did the last two years,” Carmean said. “I think
the difference is going to be that you’ve got to
have depth. You got to have the numbers, your
second string guys have got to be, you know,
ready to roll and be competitors, too.”
Cherokee had a middling season in 2021,
finishing 5-6 and 3-2 in region play. The
Warriors were eliminated in their firstround
playoff game against Norcross. Cherokee
finds itself isolated from other teams
in its county as far as its region schedule is
concerned, but remains in a region of teams
it is familiar with.
O sborne and Wheeler have struggled in recent
years, and in 2021 the two programs combined
for a record of 2-18. Both teams will look
to improve on that record but neither is expected
to make a legitimate playoff push in 2022.
PREDICTION
1. NORTH COBB
2. WALTON
3. KENNESAW MTN
4. CHEROKEE
5. OSBORNE
6. WHEELER
File
North Cobb and Walton will be the likely favorites to win the new-look Region 5AAAAAAA.