West Forsyth head coach Frank Hepler met with his team on Monday to announce his resignation after leading the Wolverines' program since its inception in 2007. Hepler has

Photo by Baine Davis

21 years of experience as a head coach and prior to his tenure at West Forsyth he spent 14 years at the helm of Plantation High School in Florida.

The decision to resign was based on moving back to Florida for family and the difficulty of Hepler's decision is why it did not unfold until this late into the offseason according to members of the staff.

Both of Hepler's parents live in South Florida and his daughter is recently married in living in the area. His son Frankie is expected to join the football staff at Florida Atlanta University this year. The move to Florida will also give the veteran coach the opportunity to remain on the gridiron and serve as the defensive coordinator at Cypress Bay High School. Cypress Bay is located in Weston, Fla. and is just 38 miles south of FAU.

A recent trip down to south Florida on Forsyth County's spring break allowed Hepler to meet with old coaches and the ideal scenario to return presented itself.

West Forsyth was led to seven consecutive winning seasons and compiled a 51-18 record in Hepler's time at the school. The Wolverines have a brand new principal, Heather Gordy, and she will lead the search for a new head coach. The staff has remained almost completely in tact the past several years and keeping the hire in-house could be the next move.

Veteran coaches turning in their resignation has been a theme all across the state this offseason, but perhaps nowhere more than Region 6-AAAAAA. With Hepler's departure, all three top playoff seeds from the 2013 season out of Region 6 have resigned. Alpharetta replaced Jason Dukes, who took a job at Smiths Station in Alabama, with offensive coordinator Jacob Nichols. Lambert also promoted its offensive coordinator this past week by naming Louis Daniel head coach to replace Sid Maxwell. West Forsyth averaged 36.5 points per game the past two seasons under offensive coordinator Adam Clack and he will be one of the many candidates in the running for the job.

Spalding rocketed into the Class AAAA top five after beating LaGrange while West Laurens made its first appearance in the poll after putting together a solid 9-3 record and six straight wins.

Starr's Mill debuted in Class

Photo by Warren Bond

AAAAA after winning nine consecutive matches. Also in Class AAAAA, Pope dropped to No. 5 after losing to Woodward Academy while Gainesville rose to No. 2.

Collins Hill moved back into the Class AAAAAA rankings after its massive upset of Brookwood Saturday night. Despite its first defeat of the season, the Broncos stayed at No. 1 due to their impressive resume.

There was relatively little rankings action in Class AAA although Pike County debuted at No. 9 with a seven-game winning streak.

Class AA saw Spencer move to No. 5 after a quality win over Chattahoochee County and undefeated Westside-Augusta move up to No. 6. Jefferson entered the rankings at No. 10 and Lamar County debuted at No. 9 having won nine of 10 matches.

Paideia dropped out of the Class A poll after falling to Pace Academy, which entered the top 10. Pinecrest shot up to No. 3 after a convincing victory over Fellowship Christian.

SEE LEFT PANEL FOR RANKINGS

On a schedule dominated almost exclusively by multi-team tournaments, the Woodward Academy boys have only two dual matches this year and both will come against Wesleyan. The War Eagles hosted the first of two meetings last Tuesday and prevailed 151-164. Wesleyan will look for revenge on Tuesday at its home course, St. Ives

Photo by Melissa Derby

Country Club. Woodward's girls are competing in the St. Pius X Par 3 event on Wednesday at Peachtree Family Golf Center.              

The Westminster girls are also set to take part in the St. Pius X Par 3. They will get another shot at Wesleyan after losing to the Wolves 63-83 last Wednesday in a dual showdown at Legacy Golf Range. The Wildcats are heading back to Legacy today to face another region rival in the Lovett Lions.              

Pace Academy is readying itself for next week's region championship. Pace's boys fell to Mt. Pisgah Christian 153-166 last Wednesday at Rivermont Country Club. The Knights will take on Holy Innocents' this Thursday at Piedmont Driving Club. The Pace girls faced Mt. Pisgah Christian last Tuesday at North Fulton Golf Course and lost by the narrow margin of 75-80.               

Upson-Lee improved to 6-0 in dual matches this season by defeating Pike County 156-185 last Tuesday. The Knights were led by junior Zac Hendrix, who carded an even-par 36 for his nine-hole round. Upson-Lee will host the Region 4-AAAA tournament on Friday. It finished runner-up to Spalding last year and missed out on qualifying for sectionals by three strokes.              

"I feel like we have a chance to make a run," coach Bart Phillips told the Thomaston Times. "We will definitely have the home field advantage so to speak, and our guys are really striking the ball well right now. It will not be easy for anyone in the region to take down Spalding, but if we can play within ourselves, play the course, and have four clean rounds, we give ourselves a good chance." 

For the second time in nine days, Region 6-AA rivals Lovett and Westminster battled each other into a shootout. The Wildcats had prevailed at home following a 1-1 tie on April 3, but this time Lovett had home-field advantage last Friday. Neither team could score during regulation or the overtime periods before the Lions turned the tables in the shootout and avenged their recent loss.    

Lovett has another rematch on its hands on Thursday at Greater Atlanta Christian. The Lions won

Photo by Susan Jordan

their first meeting 1-0 on March 4, but the Spartans have since gone on a seven-game winning streak and are ranked No. 1 in Class AA. Westminster, meanwhile, preceded its setback against Lovett with a 3-2 victory at Woodward Academy last Tuesday. This Tuesday the Wildcats will host Wesleyan, a team they edged 3-2 on March 28.      

Wesleyan ended a stretch of five straight losses by notching a 3-1 home win last Friday over Dawson County, which is ranked seventh in Class AAA. The Wolves trailed 1-0 early in the second half but they stormed ahead with three goals in the final 40 minutes. Freshman T.J. Anderson scored twice and Ellie Hall also added a goal. Wesleyan got assists from Hope Morgan, Abbey Mitchell and Christina Moraitis.  

Woodward Academy endured a tough week that saw it lose twice by 3-2 margins. After falling to Westminster, the War Eagles lost by the same score at home to Pope last Friday. The difficult schedule continues as they pay a Thursday visit to St. Pius X, the No. 1 team in Class AAA.      

Pace Academy also fell on hard times last week. The Knights lost at Whitefield Academy 2-1 last Tuesday then lost at Paideia 3-1 last Friday. The match between Pace and Whitefield went into a shootout following a 1-1 deadlock. Pace finally solved WolfPack goalie Lauren Burke (13 saves) with 3:40 to go in regulation to force overtime, but Burke came up big in the shootout. Pace will look to bounce back at home against Wesleyan on Wednesday before going on the road one day later to face Atlanta International School.      

Marist maintained its stranglehold on the top ranking in Class AAAA with victories last week over Westminster and River Ridge. The War Eagles took care of Westminster, No. 2 in Class AA at the time (now No. 3), by a score of 2-0. They followed that up by defeating River Ridge, No. 8 in Class at the time (now No. 9), via a 4-1 decision. Marist wraps up its regular season with home matches against Washington and McIntosh on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Undefeated McIntosh is the top-ranked team in Class AAAAA.