When the Westside boys basketball team celebrated its back-to-back state championship, and it also put Westside athletics in a rarified spot min Richmond County sports history.
The Patriots’ second straight Class AA state title wasn’t the first back-to-back triumph in school history. During Saturday’s ring ceremony, Westside also honored the Patriots’ 1987 and 1988 baseball teams that won consecutive state crowns under the direction of legendary coach Gerald Barnes who led the Patriots to over 900 wins during his tenure.
Barnes, along with four members of those state championship baseball teams were present last Saturday to be honored with their own banner replacement recognition. Former baseball players Mark Koppelmann, Terry Childers, Bryan Dukes and Kenny Jackson stood with Barnes to receive the recognition. Hunter said it was a fitting time to honor the first set of two-time champs in school history.
“We wanted to honor them,” Hunter said. “Between their championships and ours, I think we might be the only school in Richmond County to have won back-to-back titles in two different sports.”
Hunter was almost right. In fact, the only other Richmond County school to achieve such a feat is Richmond Academy. But you’ll have to go back to the 1950s in order to find those teams.
Richmond Academy’s baseball teams enjoyed a stretch of consecutive state championships from 1951 through 1956. The school’s golf team also won four straight golf championships between 1951 and 1954.
In all, only three Richmond County schools have won back-to-back championships in any sport since the Georgia High School Association began keeping records. Aside from Richmond Academy and Westside, only Laney and Cross Creek have seen sports teams when consecutive championships.
The Laney girls basketball team did so when it won Class AA state titles in 2017 and 2018. Cross Creek nabbed the Class AA boys championships in basketball in 2021 and 2022. Richmond Academy is the only school in Richmond County history to win more than two straight state championships in any sport.
