Pre season HOCO football rankings 2024

These are very premature, but I think it’s time to get the conversation started.  

1. Oakland Mills-  Big tackler Kaiden Lee as well as several other all county performers return, and the Scorps ripped off 5 straight wins last year before bowing out to a loaded Oakdale squad.  They will need to figure things out a little earlier this year as they play Resi and Long Reach in weeks 1 and 3, but they open the season at # 1.  
2. Atholton. Coaches I’ve talked to say the Raiders may have the best QB in HOCO.  Week 1 vs the Hawks will tell us a lot about how their season will go.  
3. Reservoir-  The Gators finished 8-3 last year and won their first county ship.  Bringing back the reigning DPOY after a flirtation with St. Frances should help out a little bit.  I’m excited to see the new look/old school wing-T offense.  
4. Howard-D Moore rushed for over a grand last year, and I expect the defense to improve this season as well.  This new athletic director has also spent a lot of time around football excellence.  
5. Glenelg-  Haven’t heard a lot from Burntwoods road this year now that their coach is no longer a teacher at RH, but I expect the Glads to be solid this year.  
6. River Hill-  Hawks are coming off a 5-5 campaign.  A solid of corps of linebackers should pace the Hawks defensively.  Shrek will be tasked with getting the offense in gear.  Questions abound about the OL, but if you’re able to give Contreras a crease, he has some wheels.  We all know the portal giveth and the portal taketh away, so it should be interesting to see if the Hawks come out net positive in this equation.  
7. Wilde Lake-The Lake show had a nice little playoff run before falling to the best Decatur team in school history.  Historically the D has always been a strong point, but last year they had a RB who was fun to watch run over people.  Fortunately for the rest of the county he has graduated.  
8. Long Reach-  The Lightning are always a squad that could jump up quickly into the upper echelons of the county.  I don’t know much about them this year, but they open the season with 4 of the better teams in the county-if they perform well there, watch out.  
9. Mount Hebron- Last years co-county champs team was years in the making.  The loss of OPOY Hallums and his 1423 rushing yards will be tough to replace.   Have we built a program on Route 99?   We shall see.  
10. Guilford Park-  I went to see these guys play a JV game last year.  That team would have won 3-4 varsity games.  It will be interesting to see what Montag and company can do in their first year of varsity competition.  They could possibly start the season 4-0 before tangling with the Gators week 5.  
11. Marriotts Ridge-  The Mustangs finished 4-6 last year.  They will try to build off the bright spot of last year which was knocking off the Howard Lions.  
12. /13 Hammond/Centennial.  November 1 Hammond @ Centennial-somebody’s gotta win! Thank you schedulers for letting this one happen!