Marist Stands in Way of Pope Sports Crown

After  was eliminated last weekend in the Class AAAA playoffs, the  athletic community now finds itself cheering on the team that dashed its state title aspirations. 

Whitewater High School of Fayetteville meets Marist in the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA baseball championship series this weekend. Should Marist capture the state title, the War Eagles also would vault over current leader Pope for the Georgia Athletic Director Association's Directors Cup title for boys sports in Class AAAA. 

The Directors Cup goes to schools with the best overall athletics programs, with titles awarded by classification, gender and in combined categories. 

Pope, which dropped from Class AAAAA before the school year began, totaled 572 points in boys sports, with Chattahoochee in second place with 539.5 points. Marist, a private school in Dunwoody that has long been an all-around athletic powerhouse, is third with 498.5 points and would leap over both schools by defeating Whitewater. 

That best-of-three baseball series, to be played at Marist, starts at  3 p.m. Saturday, with the second game at 2 p.m. on Monday. A rubber match, if necessary, would be played right after the second game. All games will be streamed live on the GHSA website. 

Marist has already wrapped up the Class AAAA overall Directors Cup title with 1075 points, while Pope is ensured of second place with 1066.5 points. The Pope girls sports program, which included a state title in volleyball, finished third with 494.5 points, trailing only Marist (576.5 points) and Starr's Mill (504). 

The Greyhounds claimed the , reached the state football playoffs for the first time in a decade, finished state runner-up in boys lacrosse and made an appearance in the boys state basketball tournament. 

In an interview with East Cobb Patch in February, Pope athletic director Steven Craft said , which is based on enrollment figures, has been a plus. 

"In Class AAAAA, we'd finish in the Top 20 [of the Directors Cup] every so often," he said. "But where we are now has a lot of people here really excited in so many sports."

's overall athletics program will finish second in the Class AAAAA Directors Cup with 1058.5 points, with Brookwood High of Gwinnett guaranteed the top overall spot. The Raiders once again reached the football and boys basketball tournaments and recently won state championships in boys lacrosse and boys soccer.

Walton's girls teams also will finish second with 587.5 points, with West Cobb's Harrison the champion with 596.0 points. The Lady Raiders won the Class AAAAA volleyball title and continued their dominance on the tennis courts, claiming an eighth consecutive Georgia title this month.

's boys programs will finish 20th in Class AAAA and the overall athletic program will come in 32nd place. The Lady Wildcats' girls teams finished 47th in the Directors Cup standings out of 58 competing statewide. 

In Class A sports, The Walker School of East Cobb came in 12th in the overall standings and fourth in boys sports, with the girls in 39th out of 74 teams.