Named a  Georgia School of Excellence in 1989, only two years after its founding, Pope High School is like most of its East Cobb rivals in  blending high standards of accomplishment in academics, athletics and extracurricular activities. 

The school is named after Alan C. Pope, who embodied that sense of well-roundedness. He was a former star athlete at Sprayberry High School and a teacher at Walton High School who was killed in a car accident in 1975. 

More than 60 percent of the Class of 2010 qualified for Hope scholarship aid, and the school last year produced 145 AP scholars, five of them who were named national AP scholars. 

The average SAT score from last year was 1,113, surpassing the national average. Pope's ACT score of 24.4 also is above the national average.

Around 90 percent of Pope graduates in 2010 were bound for four-year colleges. 

A slightly declining enrollment meant Pope was reclassified in athletics, dropping from Class AAAAA to Class AAAA under Georgia High School Association guidelines. But the Greyhounds have thrived in their new classification, reaching the state football playoffs for the first time in a decade in 2010 and winning the state team wrestling championship. 

Pope has won multiple state championships in girls soccer, slow-pitch softball and volleyball.