Ahead of the 2026 football season, AJC Varsity is announcing our preseason all-state teams. Today, we announce the Georgia Independent Athletic Association team.
Georgia High School Association classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, A and Private have been published.
Best player: Asa Wall, a tight end and linebacker, put up arcade numbers as a sophomore on John Milledge Academy’s 2025 championship team. Wall had 47 receptions for 941 yards and 10 touchdowns, 52 pancake blocks, 70 carries for 656 yards and 15 touchdowns, 96 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, five sacks and a blocked field goal.
Most highly recruited: Wall is a consensus Top 150 national recruit and the highest-rated prospect this century from the Georgia Independent School Association, which created the GIAA to run GISA athletics in 2021. He committed to Georgia in November. His father, John Milledge coach J.T. Wall, is a former Georgia and NFL fullback.
Best position: Wide receiver. Billy Crider of Bulloch Academy and Win Hoots of Westfield are committed to Georgia Southern. Crider is a big target at nearly 6-foot-4, and Hoots is a speedster, a state champion in the 100 meters (10.84 seconds) and 200 meters (22.24).
That’s interesting: Tied with Hoots for best name is Success Nwabude, a Top 400 national recruit from Athens Christian who committed to Georgia Tech in June. He’s the top senior recruit in the GIAA. Other GIAA players here with offers include two from Brentwood: Tristan Robinson from North Carolina, Georgia Southern and Central Florida, and Baylor Cobb from Richmond. Braylon Cone is committed to Kennesaw State.
Snubbed: Briarwood’s Cutler Fleming is coming off a season of 2,019 passing yards, 1,350 rushing yards and 39 total touchdowns on a 9-3 team. The quarterbacks chosen here, Brookstone’s Broughton Branch and Valwood’s Stanton Beverly, played in higher classes. Beverly transferred this offseason from Frederica Academy to Valwood, the team Frederica beat in GIAA quarterfinals last season.
What else is news? Colt Williams, a three-sport athlete who rushed for 1,527 yards last season for Southwest Georgia Academy, committed to Harvard in June.
Offense
- QB — Broughton Branch, Brookstone
- QB — Stanton Beverly, Valwood
- RB — Thomas Holland, Savannah Country Day
- RB — Colt Williams, Southwest Georgia Academy
- WR — Billy Crider, Bulloch Academy
- WR — Win Hoots, Westfield
- TE — Asa Wall, John Milledge Academy
- OL — Kellen Eady, John Milledge Academy
- OL — Grant Goodman, Bethlehem Christian
- OL — Thomas Gregory, Stratford Academy
- OL — Sammy McGehee, Westfield
- OL — Jacob Rodgers, First Presbyterian
- Ath — Tristan Robinson, Brentwood
- PK — Brayden Tyson, Brentwood
Defense
- DL — Braylon Cone, Bulloch Academy
- DL — Colby Jacobs, John Milledge Academy
- Edge — Colin Grooms, Bulloch Academy
- Edge — Success Nwabude, Athens Christian
- LB — Uriah Mazyck, St. Anne-Pacelli
- LB — Brody Hamman, George Walton Academy
- LB — Mangham Pippin, Deerfield-Windsor
- LB — Sam Wasson, Pinewood Christian
- LB — Aaron Jefferson, Stratford Academy
- DB — Baylor Cobb, Brentwood
- DB — Sam Hickman, Edmund Burke Academy
- DB — Jett Johnston, Stratford Academy
- P — George Dunn, Stratford Academy
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