The Cedartown Bulldogs will be facing different teams this fall when football season starts. That’s because the local high school will be in a new region this year and that’s Region 7-AAA.

Last fall, during the Georgia High School Association’s (GHSA) region realignment the Bulldogs were placed in Region 6-AAA for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years with teams like Columbus, Shaw, Troup, LaGrange, Carrollton, Central-Carroll, Haralson County and New Manchester in Douglas County.

However, because that would have forced Cedartown to travel 260 miles round trip to Columbus, 254 miles round trip to Shaw and 160 miles round trip to Troup, Cedartown High Principal Hal David, along with Cedartown High assistant principal Barry Williams, went before the Reclassification Committee to appeal for the Bulldogs to move into Region 7-AAA.

In late December, the GHSA Reclassification Committee approved the appeal and allowed the Bulldogs to move into a region where they will face different teams.

This season, the Bulldogs will tangle with schools such as Gilmer, Pickens, Allatoona and Murray County.

Cedartown’s season and the new Scott Hendrix era (Hendrix became the Bulldogs new taskmaster last winter) will start with a scrimmage in three weeks and one day when Cedartown hosts Pepperell in a pre-season contest on Aug. 13.

The annual practice game will be held at Cedartown Memorial Stadium on Doc Ayers Field and will start at 7:30 p.m.

The season-opener will come on Friday, Aug. 27 when Cedartown travels east across Polk County to face their long-time rivals the Rockmart Yellow Jackets. While the contest is always important, it will be a non-region game.

Cedartown’s first regular season home game comes on Friday, Sept. 3 when they face Lithia Springs in a non-region skirmish.

The Bulldogs, who are in Region 7-AAA, sub-region ‘B’, will have their first of two region crossover games on Sept. 10. On that day, the powerful and talented Ridgeland Panthers will invade Polk County.

The very next week, Sept. 17, Cedartown travels north to face Southeast Whitfield in another crossover contest.

After taking the week of Sept. 24 off, Hendrix’s squad returns to the gridiron on Oct. 1 to open sub-region play. For the first time ever, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association website, the Bulldogs will play Gilmer at Gilmer on that first Friday of October.

On Oct. 8, Cedartown will square off with Pickens at home. It will be the first time these two teams have gotten together since 2001.

The Bulldogs are 2-0 all-time against Pickens.

On Oct. 15 the Bulldogs will play Allatoona for the first time. It will be Cedartown’s Homecoming game.

The next week, Oct. 22, Cedartown travels to Cartersville for a smashmouth contest against the Purple Hurricanes.

Murray County comes calling on Oct. 29 for Cedartown’s Senior Night game. It will be the first time these two schools have met in football since 1995. The Bulldogs own the all-time lead in the series, 11-5.

A region play-in game will be held on Nov. 5 to determine the four teams that will represent Region 7-AAA at state.