Woodland Football’s Hot Start

So far, during this 2020 football season, Woodland High School, located in Stockbridge Georgia, has had the best start to a football season that they have had in years. Woodland competes within the 5A division, which includes the likes of schools such as Eagle's Landing, Locust Grove, and many others. Upon reading the names of the other schools within 5A football, it isn't hard to tell that Woodland's work is cut out for them each season. Despite this, the program has found itself to be 3-0 to start the 2020 football season. To put this into perspective to show how difficult and impressive this is, the records in their previous seasons included a record of 2-8 in 2019, and 3-7 in both the 2018 and 2017 season. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for Woodland's hot start is the fact that the program promoted it's Offensive Coordinator, Bryan Bailey, to become the team's new Head Coach. Not only did Bailey take the reigns at one of the most difficult times to become a head coach, but he managed to do so with authority, even despite this being his first time ever as a head coach. Even then, this resulted in the hot start that we are witnessing today. On the offensive side of the football, players such as QB, Evan Jackson, and WR, Ali Abdul- Burr have already started to leave their mark during their senior season, with the hottest start of their high school football career. Their performances, along with other offensive players have led to wins over Luella, Forest Park, and McDonough High School. In these wins, Woodland's defense managed to perform well too. In two of the three games so far this season, the defense did not give up more than 14 points. Players such as Greg Young, and Kevin Ellis have had a large reason in being able to do so. As the competition within 5A football will only continue throughout this 2020 season, the defense will hope to be able to perform up to this same standard. While we are impressed with Woodland's start to the 2020 season, we also cannot wait to see how they will be able to play out the rest of their schedule. Week 4 will prove to be another test, as they will be facing off against Eagle's Landing. After this game, we will see how much Woodland has truly developed since last season.