Individual Story Ideas

– Georgia high school football coaching contracts

A look across the landscape in Georgia high school football quickly reveals the value schools put in their programs being elite. Take Colquitt County, for example, who pays head coach Rush Propst over $122,000 each year to be the head coach of the Packers. While the rise in salaries could be high schools’ responses to top high school coaches leaving to work up the college football coaching ladder, that doesn’t excuse the imbalance between coaches contracts and teachers at the very same school. What are the repercussions of a school committing so much money to one coach who may not even teach a class, and are high contracts completely necessary to build consistent winners?

– Division II tennis

Generally speaking in college athletics, the difference between being competitive and being an afterthought shrinks as you move from the NCAA’s Division III up to Division I-A. That, however, is not exactly the case in Division II men’s tennis due to international players. Programs such as Division II Armstrong Atlantic in Augusta field rosters of nearly all foreign players, with many of the athletes having tried their hand at professional playing careers before giving it the old college try. The result is damaging to the American tennis scene, as many would-be college athletes understand playing at a level lower than Division I tennis still often means competition against Division I-esque talent each match. I want to look at the costs for certain schools in Georgia to recruit and bring in so many international players as well as if there has been blowback from young local players who are not good enough to play professionally or at Division I but don’t want to waste their time against much superior talent.
– Southwest DeKalb football

Southwest DeKalb High School suffered a tremendous tragedy under a month before its first football game when head coach and former Florida State player Michael Tanks suddenly had a stroke and died at the age of 48. Despite Tanks’ unexpected death, the team has gotten off to a 2-0 record under interim head coach Fletcher Salter, who had not been a head coach in the state since he was at McNair High School in 1996. I want to examine how the program has carried on after such a horrible loss with so little time before the season and how Salter has gotten the team to its best start to a season in nine years.
– FBS football scheduling

Appalachian State shocks No. 5 Michigan in the Big House. Georgia Southern embarrasses Florida in the Swamp. James Madison tops a Virginia Tech team that went on to win the ACC. The list of FCS teams losing to FBS squads goes on and on, but if some people in the sport had their way, the games would no longer happen. For some FCS teams, the money they make from these seemingly imbalanced matchups help the entire athletic department stay afloat. How damaging could taking these games away be for programs such as Savannah State, which lost to Florida State and Oklahoma State 139-0 for a cool $860,000 four years ago, and Division II teams, which often get run-off from playing games against FCS opponents?
– Georgia State football

One team’s trash can be another team’s treasure. Just ask Georgia State. The Atlanta Braves’ decision to leave Turner Field for brand-new SunTrust Park has largely overshadowed the future of Turner Field, which will be used by Georgia State football. For a program still trying to become consistent in the Sun Belt Conference, the team’s move from the Georgia Dome to its own stadium could be a step in the right direction. I want to dive into the school’s decision to pursue the purchase and how valuable it can be both in football as far as recruiting and proximity as well as for the school, which wants to essentially make it a southern extension to the school’s campus.