Two downtown stadiums take on high school football this week. The Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic opens Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Lanier and South Gwinnett start the day at 5 p.m. and Grayson faces North Gwinnett in the marquee game at 8 p.m. The event runs Aug. 12-21 and functions as the unofficial start of the Georgia high school season, drawing crowds and traffic downtown on weeknights outside the usual Falcons and Atlanta United calendar.
Downtown carries two of the four venues on the schedule. Games are split between Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Georgia State's Center Parc Stadium, with the remaining dates at Kell High School in Marietta and Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell. Tickets for all of the local games are sold through GoFan.
The Wednesday headliner has weight behind it. Grayson, the 2024 state champion, was the No. 1 team in the High School Football America poll two weeks ago and has held the spot since. The Rams have a new head coach in Greg Carswell, hired after a lopsided 6A quarterfinal loss to Carrollton last season, and a defense built around two prospects committed to Nebraska plus Waylon Wooten, a 300-pound defensive lineman headed to Georgia.
Four metro Atlanta teams sit in the MaxPreps preseason Top 25. Buford is highest at No. 7 after going 15-0 and winning 6A, the state's largest classification, under coach Bryant Appling; the program has 14 state titles this century and plays this year in a new stadium. Carrollton is ranked 20th nationally, is 65-7 over five seasons under Joey King, has reached three of the last four title games without winning one, and starts sophomore quarterback Christian "CJ" Cypher, already committed to Miami. Creekside High of Fairburn is No. 22, the only team from the lower classifications to make the list, after a 15-0 season and a 42-39 win over Benedictine for the 4A title, outscoring opponents 845-125 along the way. Creekside coach Maurice Dixon has players committed to Alabama, Auburn and Clemson, along with edge rusher Tavarre Terrell, who is staying downtown for Georgia State.
Buford's schedule includes teams from North Carolina and Florida and a September trip to Grayson, which MaxPreps has at No. 13 in preseason. Nationally, California leads the Top 25 with five schools, including preseason No. 1 St. John Bosco of Bellflower, along with Santa Margarita, Centennial, Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon. Florida has four: St. Thomas Aquinas, IMG Academy, Carol City and American Heritage.
Original reporting: Atlanta Magazine (2026-08-09)
