Season-Opening Showcase Now Honors Georgia Coaching Legend Dave Hunter Along with Kell
Score Atlanta president I.J. Rosenberg joined me for this week’s Next Take Georgia podcast, and the conversation centered around the newly renamed Corky Kell Classic, with former Brookwood head football coach Dave Hunter being honored by having his name now attached to the season-opening showcase, which will kick off its 32nd season in 2023.
The Georgia High School Hall of Fame, which Rosenberg helped start, was also one of the topics discussed. Instant replay, which will become reality as part of the GHSA state finals in 2023, was discussed as well. The new replay system will undergo a trial run during the games held at Mercedes Benz Stadium during the Corky Kell Classic.
Corky Kell Classic
The Corky Kell Classic has been renamed to the Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic. It was coaches Hunter and Kell who co-founded the event in 1992, along with fellow Georgia high school football coaches Ralph Wilson and Jimmy Dorsey. The first two teams to play in the event were Dorsey’s McEachern Indians and Hunter’s Brookwood Broncos, who met at the Georgia Dome.
Unfortunately, two years after the start of the event, Kell was diagnosed with cancer and fell ill. Bedridden, Kell asked Hunter to make sure the “games kept going,” and Hunter assured his dying friend that he would gladly honor the request. Since that first game with just two teams, the Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic has grown into a premier showcase event that officially kicks off each GHSA high school football season. The renamed event will include 22 teams playing at four different venues over four days in 2023.
The 2023 Georgia high school football season will begin with the Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic’s first game, to be held at the school named after Kell. Johns Creek will play North Atlanta at Kell High School on Wednesday, August 16 at 4:30 p.m. It will be followed by Parkview vs. Kell at 8 p.m.
The newly renamed Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic moves to West Forsyth High School on Thursday, August 17, with two games: Archer vs. North Forsyth and Cherokee vs. West Forsyth. Rome’s Barron Stadium will host day three of the event with the following matchups on Friday, August 18: Mt. Pisgah vs. Fellowship Christian, Cass vs. Kennesaw Mountain, and Creekside vs. Rome at approximately 8:30 p.m.
The finale will consist of four games on Saturday, August 19 at Mercedes Benz Stadium, starting with a 10 a.m. matchup between Norcross and Marietta. Brookwood – where Hunter made his mark en route to being honored via the renamed Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic – and McEachern will play at 1 p.m., then defending 7A state champion Mill Creek will meet North Gwinnett at 4 p.m. The Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic winds up with Grayson and Walton in the nightcap. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Instant Replay
Along with its new name, a portion of this this year’s Corky Kell Dave Hunter Classic will include another first: instant replay. The replay system, approved this offseason by the GHSA to be used for game officials’ review during the 2023 GHSA state finals, will undergo a test run of sorts at the four season-opening Saturday games at Mercedes Benz Stadium. These contests will mark the first time instant replay has been used in any Georgia high school football game, and the hope is that its early-season will help sort out any potential “bugs” before the implementation during the state finals.
Rosenberg said he doesn’t think it will be a major issue. “It’s really not that complicated,” he noted during the podcast. “The technology has already been in use with the Falcons and the NFL instant replay system, so the equipment is already set and ready to go.”
GHSA Football Hall of Fame
Rosenberg is the executive director of the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame, and he was instrumental in making the concept a reality. He talked about how he had wanted to do something to honor the legacy of some of the state’s greatest high school football players, and during a lunch meeting with GHSA executive director Dr. Robin Hines and associate director Kevin Giddens, he laid out his dream of what he wanted to do with the Hall of Fame.
“I told Robin and Kevin Giddens that I had this idea for a while and asked for their help in making it happen,” Rosenberg said.
That would involve an intense information-gathering process that included looking back to the earliest days of high school football in Georgia, and seeking out any and all possible candidates. It would be a major vetting exercise. Rosenberg talked about how the Hall of Fame Board members, along with Atlanta Journal-Constitution high school sports writer and Georgia High School Football Historians Association founder Todd Holcolmb, undertook the massive responsibility of researching possible candidates for the inaugural class.
An initial list of nominees dated to 1909. The final list of nominees to be voted on eventually was narrowed down to 100. From there came the first 45 members of inductees into the Georgia High School Hall of Fame.
This Hall of Fame is for players only, Rosenberg explained, as there is already a Georgia High School Coaches Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is currently virtual only, with no physical structure, but Rosenberg said that a search is underway for property that will hopefully one day serve as a permanent home where fans can visit and pay honor to the inductees.
Holcomb told me that the next class of inductees has not been decided on.
“It’s not settled yet,” he said. “We may know something in the next [few] days.”
Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL)
NIL was discussed briefly, but Rosenberg was not shy about his thoughts on the latest proposal in front of the GHSA that would allow member schools’ student-athletes to benefit from the use of their name, image or likeness.
“I don’t really like it at all,” Rosenberg said.
NIL is scheduled to be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the GHSA executive committee, and while a timeline is still uncertain, the feeling is that, like it or not, NIL deals will become reality in Georgia among the state’s high school student-athletes.
