(l-r) South Carolina’s DJ Wonnum (Stephenson) and Army’s Kell Walker (Lakeside) are two DeKalb standouts on football rosters in 2019. (Photos courtesy of South Carolina and Army Athletics)
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported 4,488 former Georgia high school football players on college rosters in the fall of 2019, including 254 from DeKalb County Schools.
The information compiled by Todd Holcomb of Georgia High School Football Daily was pulled from the annual work of Steve Slay, a researcher for the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
All 19 DeKalb County School District high school programs had at least one player on a college football roster this past fall led by Tucker which had 39 to lead the county. Tucker (Class 6A) tied with Colquitt County (Class 7A, Gwinnett Co.) for 9th in the state with the number of players on college rosters.
Six of the Top 10 led by Grayson (64, Gwinnett Co.) are Class 7A schools with McEachern (53, Cobb) in second. Mill Creek (Gwinnett Co.) and Norcross (Gwinnett Co.) were tied for fifth with 45 with Westlake (43) in seventh and Peachtree Ridge (38, Gwinnett) in 11th.
The only non-Class 7A schools in the Top 10 include Class 5A Buford (49) in third and Stockbridge (46) in fourth and Class 6A Lee County (40) in eighth.
(l-r) Kansas State’s Elijah Sullivan (Tucker) and Western Kentucky’s Deangelo Malone (Cedar Grove) made an impact for their teams in 2019. (Photos courtesy of Kansas State and Western Kentucky Athletics)
Stephenson was next in line for DeKalb with 37 players on rosters to take the 12th spot in the state. Cedar Grove (Class 3A state champions in 2016, 2018, 2019) was third in the county with 32 players currently on roster and tied for 17th overall in the state with Central Gwinnett and Class 2A Hapeville Charter.
Class 5A Arabia Mountain, the newest football program in the county, is fourth in the county and 28th in the state with 26 players to give DeKalb four teams in the Top 30.
The numbers for the other 15 DeKalb teams in order are Martin Luther King Jr. (18), Lakeside (15), Columbia (13), Dunwoody (11), Lithonia (11), Miller Grove (11), Southwest DeKalb (11), Chamblee (8), Towers (6), Stone Mountain (5), Druid Hills (4), McNair (3), Redan (2), Clarkston (1) and Cross Keys (1).
Sixty-eight of the DeKalb footballers are at Football Bowl Series (formerly D1) and 33 are at Football Championship Series (formerly D1-A).
Stephenson leads the way with 15 FBS players followed by Tucker with 14 and Cedar Grove with 12 while Arabia Mountain has five. Cedar Grove has seven players at FCS schools while Arabia Mountain six and Lithonia five.
See link below for list by school of DeKalb players on college rosters in 2019: