Now the tough work begins for Houston County, Northside

Some variation of this quote has been used many times through the years by high school coaches in this state: “Our region is the SEC of high school football.”

If that’s true, then GHSA Region 1-6A is the SEC West.

While those other regions have been difficult, for sure, not much will match what the teams in Region 1-6A will face the rest of this season. And that begins Friday night.

With region play opening, Northside travels to Valdosta while Houston County travels to Lee County. All four of those teams are ranked in the top six in this week’s Georgia Sports Writers Association Class 6A poll.

Houston County has been No. 1 all season. Northside has been No. 2 almost as long and got the two first-place votes that Houston County didn’t get this week (the Bears got 14). Lee County is No. 4, while Valdosta is No. 6.

Only one other region has four ranked teams: Region 5-3A with Pace, Lovett, Cedar Grove and Westminster. Only two regions have three ranked teams: Region 7-5A (Kell, Rome and Carrollton) and Region 5-1A (Eagle’s Landing Christian, Wesleyan and Landmark Christian)

Houston County and Northside are 6-0, while Lee County is 5-0 and Valdosta is 5-1, with its lone loss coming to Colquitt County. And the fifth team in the region, Coffee, is 4-2 with losses to Tift County and Ware County.

Colquitt County is ninth in Class 7A, while Tift County received votes in that class this week, and Ware County is 10th in Class 5A. So yep, these teams in Region 1-6A are really good.

“I don’t they did anybody any favors by putting us all in the same region,” Northside head coach Kevin Kinsler said last week. “That’s just the way it worked out, and that’s the way we’ll play it. There’s some really good teams. I don’t think there’s a single team in the region that probably doesn’t deserve to go to the state playoffs right now, just based on what they’ve done to this point.”

Before the season, Houston County head coach Von Lassiter called it “unfortunate” that the five teams were placed in the same region but said his team was looking forward to the challenge. The beneficiaries could be the Bears and Eagles’ former region-mates from Augusta — Grovetown, Greenbrier, Evans and Lakeside-Evans. Those teams didn’t offer much competition in recent seasons for Northside, Houston County, Jones County and Warner Robins, but now all four of those Augusta teams could get into the playoffs in a region that also includes Alcovy and Heritage.

Granted, there’s no real easy way to align Middle Georgia’s two Class 6A programs. Nothing really makes sense, but the current setup makes it impossible for all five teams in Region 1-6A to get into the playoffs.

And they all belong in the postseason.

“It’s just like murderer’s row,” Kinsler said. “The thing that is almost an injustice is one slip-up can cost somebody. And that’s unfortunate that it’s like that. You have a bad game or a couple of guys get injured for a week or so, and it could be so detrimental to have everything come down to four games. And really just one game could cost you.

“It will definitely pick up the intensity level each and every week,” Kinsler said.

Just like college football’s toughest division.

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Now the tough work begins for Houston County, Northside."