As we steamroll into the final week of school, put a lid on the spring sports and send another graduating class on to bigger and better things, it's time to take a look at how each of our high school football teams performed during spring practice.

But instead of talking about how Lassiter is going to replace Georgia's 2009 Mr. Football in Hutson Mason, we have to concern ourselves with who is going to be coaching at Allatoona, Kennesaw Mountain, Lassiter and Wheeler in the fall.

Instead of analyzing how Pope and Kell will perform at the Class AAAA level, we are left to wonder who else is going to be a victim of the massive $127 million of budget cuts that are going to affect not only high school football in Cobb, but all the sports programs.

The one thing we do know is, by this time next year, nearly every, if not all of, the county's high schools will have new artificial-surface fields inside their stadiums. In the end, the turf will pay for itself many times over and allow each school to be more flexible in when the band or a particular team may practice on the field.

If memory serves me correctly, Osborne is the first on the list to have the new turf installed. Once it is there, it will eliminate the Cardinals from having to use its current sparse, pebble-laden practice field. In addition, the new field should revitalize the Cardinals' youth programs and make Cardinal Stadium a destination point, not only for the football team but also for the entire neighborhood.

And, as that involvement grows, Osborne will have an opportunity to match the best season it had in a decade with last year's 3-7 record, but also have the ability to challenge for a return to the postseason.

The postseason is where Hillgrove and Walton want to return after missing it in 2009. However, the Hawks will have to do it without quarterback Synjyn Days who will be off for his freshman season at Georgia Tech, while the Raiders will try to rebound from a second-half collapse that saw them lose their last four games.

As we remember the great games Mason, Days, Pope's Grant Ramsay and Marietta's Greg Franklin played, it's time to look forward to the senior performances of Kell's two-time all-state safety, Brian Randolph, Pope offensive lineman Thomas O'Reilly, Whitefield Academy tight end and defensive lineman Kennard Backman and Hillgrove tight end Ira McCune.

All four have already been nominated for the U.S. Army All-Star Game in December. Other key players will include Allatoona running back Miles Jones, Pope running back and receiver Garrett Brown, North Cobb linebacker Troy Gray, McEachern quarterbacks Trent Thompson and Dondre Purnell and Kennesaw Mountain running back Diamond Stewart.

And here is hoping that we never have to go through an experience like the McEachern community did with the tragic death of Rajaan Bennett.

Vanderbilt sure doesn't know what it's missing.

While the 2009 season may have been great on the field, the offseason has been decimating. Here's hoping a look ahead to the 2010 football season will help put us back on the right track, where the games and the players make news for what happens on the field, not what happens off it.

sportseditor@mdjonline.com