Big years for local girls’ sports lead to higher Directors’ Cup rankings

The Georgia Athletic Directors Association’s Board of Directors recently announced that due to cancellation of high school sports for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year due to COVID-19, they will not award the Regions Bank Directors Cup for the first time in its history. The Cup had been awarded every year since its inception during the 1999-2000 school year.

Although there will be no awards this year, a look at the updated standings after the end of the winter sports seasons shows some excellent performances by local schools, particularly on the girls’ side.

In Class 1A, which combines public and private schools in its standings, Gordon Lee finished the abbreviated school year in sixth place overall with 475 points, 349 of those awarded to the Lady Trojans, who earned 100 points each for state titles in softball and cheerleading, 83 for volleyball and 66 in cross country. The Trojans had earned 126 points, 63 each for wrestling and cross country.

Gordon Lee was the second-highest public school in the Class 1A standings and one of only five public schools in the Top 20 overall Class 1A standings with Commerce (fourth place), GMC (ninth), Trion (16th) and Wilcox County (17th).

Overall, Wesleyan led all of Class 1A with 742 points, followed by Holy Innocents’ (704) and Mt. Paran Christian (694).

Ringgold ended up 11th overall in Class 3A with 378 points. The Lady Tigers amassed 298 points and was in sixth place on the strength of 100 for a softball state championship, 75 for cheerleading, 70 for basketball and 53 for volleyball. The Tigers finished with 80 points between wrestling (48) and cross country (32).

Meanwhile, LFO was 49th overall in Class 3A with 82 points. That included 57 points by the Warriors in wrestling (32) and basketball (25), along with 25 points for the Lady Warriors in volleyball.

Overall, Jefferson led the classification with 777 points, followed by Greater Atlanta Christian (665) and Pace Academy (639).

In Class 4A, Heritage and Lafayette were 1-2 among girls’ athletics for schools in Region 6-AAAA.

The Lady Generals used 100 points for a state softball title, 70 in volleyball, 66 in cheerleading, 36 in cross country and 22 in swimming to post 294 points, good for fifth overall in the classification on the girls’ side. After adding 140 points from the Generals for wrestling (60), cross country (30), football (25) and basketball (25), the school cracked the Top 10 overall in Class 4A with 434 points, ninth-best.

Lafayette was 23rd overall with 260 points. The Lady Ramblers’ 178 points included 83 for volleyball, 70 for softball and 25 for their first-ever appearance in the state basketball tournament. The Ramblers tacked on 82 points, 70 for basketball and 12 for wrestling, to give the school its final number.

Ridgeland was 49th in the classification with 122 total points. The Panthers had 97 points through wrestling (72) and football (25), while the Lady Panthers’ 25 points came in volleyball.

The top four in Class 4A in the overall standings were all private schools. St. Pius X led the way with 742 points, followed by Blessed Trinity (697) and Marist (689).