The Georgia Athletic Directors Association ranks schools’ athletic performances based on postseason performance. Those rankings for the 2025-26 year have been released and once again Richmond Hill and Bryan County showed their athletes and coaches are doing a lot of things right.

Richmond Hill, with 27 boys’ and girls’ teams which could earn points, finished ninth overall in Class 6A with 1,085 total points. Points are awarded based on a team’s performance in state playoff play. Qualifying for the state playoffs is worth a base of 25 points and additional points are earned as a team progresses. Should a team win a state championship that would earn the school 100 points.

Bryan County, coming off an impressive sixth-place finish last year, had a dip to 11th in Class A-DII but the Redskins still had some excellent finishes by its teams and athletes. The Redskins had 528 points. Lake Oconee Academy was first with 1,013.

Thanks to having 16 of its boys and girls teams finish in the Elite 8 or better Buford won the all-sports cup for Class 6A with 1,297 points to edge Walton by 31 points. The Wolves’ football, fast pitch softball, girls track and field and boys lacrosse team won state championships.

GADA has been recognizing the state’s high school programs in all GHSA classifications annually since 2000. Three cups are awarded: to boys and girls teams and an overall award.

In order to be eligible a school’s athletic director must be a member of GADA. In the history of the program two Savannah area schools have been recognized as best in state: St. Vincent’s Academy girls’ in Class 3A in 2018, and Benedictine won the Class 2A boys’ title in 2017 and 2018.

Girls’ teams led the way for both Richmond Hill and Bryan County with Wildcats accounting for 631 points to rank fifth statewide. The Redskins had 290.

The Wildcats girls’ golf team was state runner-up which was good for 90 points. Competition cheerleading and slow pitch softball had 85 points each and flag football 84. Fastpitch softball accounted for 75 points, track and field 72, volleyball 70, soccer 70, game day cheer 66, dance 63, swim and dive 63, cross country 60, tennis 53, lacrosse 25.

The Bryan County girls were paced by its track and field team which had an outstanding season in finishing second in the state for 90 points and the golf team’s ninth-place finish which added 69. Basketball and softball advanced to the ‘Sweet 16’ to earn 53 points each. Volleyball went out in the first round but it still picked up 25 points.

On the boys’ side the cross-country team finished sixth in the state meet last fall for 72 points and many of those same athletes helped the track and field team to a 10th-place showing for 60 points. Baseball and tennis advanced to the Sweet 16 for 53 points each.

Coach Levi Sybert’s Running Wildcats had another big year to give the Richmond Hill boys’ program a major boost. The track and field team picked up 90 points for its runner-up finish and cross-country had 72 points after placing sixth in the state meet.

Swim and dive also had a sixth-place showing for 72 points while golf was ninth for 65 points and lacrosse added 53. Earning 25 points for qualifying for the state playoffs were football, basketball, soccer, tennis and baseball.

Richmond Hill easily showed it has the top overall athletic program in Region 1-6A as it outranked second-place Lowndes which had 826 points. Due to reclassification GHSA will have seven classes this year and the Wildcats will be in Class 7A.

Bryan County, which will now be competing in Class 2A, was third in Region 3A-DII behind Metter (924) and Screven County (784) which were fifth and sixth, respectively in the state.