It's Time for Our Weekly High School Football Predictions

I’ll never forget the exchange of conversations I had with a Gwinnett County football coach several years ago when I worked for a pictures-and-words outfit out of Atlanta (I think they’re in Dunwoody now).

“Scott,” the coach said of the weekly high school football prediction column I wrote. “Don’t pick us this week. You jinxed us last time.”

Sure enough, that happened, although I wouldn’t call it a jinx. I picked his team to win the week before against an inferior team, and the coach’s team played spectacularly awful and lost. His team’s inability to hold onto the ball had more to do with it than what I wrote.

OK, I said to the coach. Why not? It was an important game and I could be the bad guy and pick against his team. Result? His team won. He called to say thanks.

I then picked his team to win the next several games.

Later in the season, before another important game that could determine the region championship, I picked against his team again — this time, I meant it.

I talked to him the day the column ran.

“Scott, you picked against us? C’mon,” he joked, adding that his team was on a roll and could’ve used the extra boost of confidence for the big game. The conversation was light-hearted, but I could tell he would have preferred a pick for his team.

“Hey, just tell them to prove me wrong,” I joked back.

Result? A resounding victory.

So, here we go again for another week of football predictions.  Last week, I was 21-3 in picking games for 12 Patch sites in four counties.

Will I jinx your team, or bring it good luck? You pick.

Elbert County at : The Wolves return to their friendly confines in Peachtree Corners after a long trip to win last week’s long battle at Seminole County. Both teams are coming off late victories. The Wolves needed Rodney Morris’ 65-yard TD reception to beat  Seminole 43-40; Elbert’s Tyshon Dye had more than 200 yards and scored a late two-point conversion in a 29-28 win over Stephens. Expect Wesleyan’s passing game and Elbert’s running attack to make this an interesting, and high-scoring, game. Wesleyan 38, Elbert County 35.

Norcross at Parkview: Formerly in the same region for years, these two successful programs get to bang heads from across region lines. Norcross, which should challenge for the Region 7-AAAAA championship, is 1-0 after a decisive win over Dacula two weeks ago. Parkview, a longtime 8-AAAAA member and former four-time state champ, is 0-1, but showed it can play with the best in a 14-3 loss to Stephenson last week in a game that was decided by two big plays. Norcross won 14-0 last year and will have its hands full again, especially on Parkview’s home turf. This could easily be an upset for the Panthers. Norcross 14, Parkview 13.

Scott Bernarde is the Associate Regional Editor for 12 Patch sites in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Forsyth counties.