SLICES OF SPORTS: The coolest football tradition at every Heart of Georgia high school

Now that the week of the Fourth is behind us, it’s officially full speed ahead toward football season. 

Independence Day, and the midpoint of the summer, serve as a sort of second New Year on the calendar for those of us in the midstate sports world. 

This first week on the other side of it, as coaches and players return from last week’s mandatory vacation, always feels like the true start of a new season. 

For them, it’s the home stretch of the summer. Though they’ve already been at work preparing for months, this next handful of weeks is where the season finally comes in sight, the road to get there is mostly downhill and the feel of game nights – for many scrimmaging on August 1, already less than a month away – starts to get real. 

It’s a similar feeling for me, though this is a spot where the downhill-coasting workload of June gives way to a more uphill climb associated with putting together a new Heart of Georgia Football preview section… my biggest single project every year… which begins right now. 

The start of that process always brings some mixed feelings, as the relaxing summer pace finally transitions back to the fast-moving regular season routine that’ll be the norm again till next May. 

Catching up with 14 different head coaches, gathering information on their teams and getting it all into a 16-page print product makes for a pretty intense and intimidating month. 

But the end product always turns out to make the headache worthwhile. And even if it’s not, the reward of football season – and the return, that very same week, of the Friday night lights we look forward to all offseason – is what’s waiting on the other side of getting the work finished. 

This slow buildup to that point each July is always a great reminder of everything there is to love about high school football in middle Georgia. 

It’s more than the players, teams and competition. It’s the rivalries, tradition and the pageantry – unique customs, folklore and style from school to school – that make the sport what it is at the local level as much as it does in college. 

With that in mind, let’s acknowledge a little of that football culture – and also whet your appetite for experiencing it again about a month from now – with a look at what I consider the single coolest piece of football tradition at each of our area high schools…  

Bleckley County – Games at Shelly Hayes Field definitely have their own distinctive flavor, with much of the unique seasoning coming in the form of signature soundbytes over the P.A. mic: “Get up, get loud, it’s third down!”, “First and 10, Purple and Gold!” and mention of Dodge County – in all references – as the “visiting team.” 

But the Friday-night feature I’d point to as their neatest is the “Loyal Royals,” that six-man squad of painted flag-bearers you see down on the field next to cheerleaders at every game, home and road. 

They lead the team onto the field, spearhead the celebration after touchdowns and fire up the crowd over the course of games. 

And it’s not just a random set of students. It’s the same handful of guys – and apparently, it’s also required that at least one member in a given year ranks among the fastest cross country runners in the state –  who make the time and travel commitment every game of the season. 

That speaks to the fact that it’s more than a means of going through the motions of school spirit. The role is one that’s held up as an honor and a privilege that each of them carry out faithfully every week. 

Brentwood – I’ll be honest that I’ve never attended an Eagles home football game. But having spent a little time around their team, coaches and fan base covering them on the road, and in other sports, I believe it’s true what head coach Adam Lord said when I asked him what he considered to be Brentwood’s best tradition: It’s fan support. 

Sandersville’s got a great appreciation for elite football, and a pile of folks in the community who expect greatness on the part of both their teams, and hold them to some higher standards than most. 

That’s just as true for Brentwood as it is at WACO a few miles across town. 

But for me, the sign of a strong and healthy fan base is the number of folks you see regularly at games who have no kids or grandkids that they’re there to watch. They just come because they love the school, or the game. 

At Brentwood events I’ve been to, their hometown faithful usually has a dedicated section for retirees who fit into that category. Including my great uncle, who remains a fixture among the old-timers riding the officials on the stage at basketball games even though his grandkids have long since graduated. 

You don’t get that type of community just anywhere. And for schools who enjoy such widespread and consistent support and involvement from fans, it’s really something special. 

Dublin – For a program with over 100 years of history, there’s a lot to consider. But if I had to pick one aspect of Irish football that strikes me as most iconic, it’d have to be the Shamrock Bowl, and more specifically the hillside ringing the southeast end zone that is easily its most prominent feature. 

The embankment – with its circular shamrock crest at the center – has provided a signature backdrop to most of Dublin’s modern football history. You see it in the background of team photos in the game program, as well as action shots and highlight clips from Friday nights. 

My favorite image, a panoramic Joey Wilson photograph that’s now framed in the field house lobby, shows the overflow of spectators filling up every spare patch of grass on the slope at the 2006 state championship game. 

Before the construction of Dublin’s current fieldhouse up top, the hill was one continuous slope all the way around, allowing youngsters to make a postgame tradition of climbing to the top and rolling down to the bottom after games. 

The 2006 reconfiguration adding the sloping ramp – now a terraced stairway – helped create an even more vivid scene pregame as players descend to take the field. And I’ll never forget the chill bumps you could feel, and the electricity that filled the place as they did just that before going to war with Charlton County on that afternoon in ’06. 

Seeing that Irish green streaming down before kickoff – particularly of the big games when you know the guys likely had a fire lit underneath them by Coach Holmes in the locker room – always gets the home fans on their feet, and probably strikes a little unease in the opponent as well.

Dodge County – I didn’t appreciate this till standing on the sideline for a barnburning game last November that saw Dublin survive an early dogfight to complete its unbeaten season and clinch the region title, but the Indians’ Memorial Stadium – at its best – is very likely the most intimidating game atmosphere in our whole area. 

The vibe of the arena is a product of many factors, but its construction definitely has a lot to do with why teams don’t look forward to playing there. 

The stands, on both sides, come right up to the edges of the field, putting fans directly on top of the action, and amplifying the crowd noise. The end zone student section, a unique feature that not many other stadiums have, also does a lot to maximize that spectator impact. 

I also like the placement and prominence of monuments to the program’s modern patriarch, Coach John Peacock and his legacy, which do a lot to emphasize the sense of tradition and historic excellence that is made no secret to anyone making their way in on the visiting side. 

What brings it all together is the legendary P.A. announcer Quint Bush, who’s narrated games there for decades, and does so with some signature catch phrases that are a can’t-miss part of the experience. 

The long drawn out, “You are officially in Tomahawk Territoryyyy!!!” always sets that fiery tone right before kick. 

East Laurens – The Falcons have several unique aspects of their games you can visualize around Friday nights on the Eastside, one that comes to mind immediately being the highly recognizable first down sponsorship announcement by a certain local insurance agent that, I’d say, has been worth every penny of whatever it costs. 

My first choice when it comes to pieces of the traditional game night experience was going to be the train horn they used to park in the end zone to blow after touchdowns… which I’d always forget was there until it made me nearly jump out of my skin as I was milling about around the scoreboard at games. 

For whatever reason, they didn’t bring it over upon moving to the new stadium a few years ago… So I suppose I’ll have to go with the Falcon booster club’s concession stand. 

I always make a priority of stopping by at games because of their sausage dogs, which come off a big smoker they have going along with several fryers out back. 

There aren’t a lot of local stadiums who serve them. East Laurens has both smoked and regular. What can beat that? 

I make a point of getting one, if not two, along with a Coke to enjoy anytime I’m there with the opportunity. 

Montgomery County – The Eagles’ Brogdon Field, situated on an older section of campus behind their sparkling new high school building, seems to share a lot of the old-fashioned charm of many of their surrounding athletic venues, whose vintage look and feel – much like the buildings around them – is a snapshot of eras long-gone. 

The stadium’s feel, similar to the record books, has a lot to say about the history that’s soaked into those cinder block structures over the years. 

But having never attended a game there, those are the only unique details that I really know of that would in any way define their sense of tradition, except for a neat one that MoCo’s head coach Kaream Hess mentioned to me last year:  

The jersey number 55, throughout the team’s recent history, has carried a special sense of significance similar to Georgia Southern’s 0. The player who earns the opportunity to wear it, either for a game or the season, carries a certain sense of honor, as well as the pregame responsibility of leading the team onto the field. 

The custom, though nobody I’ve spoken to knows its true origins, is definitely one of those special rites of football that carry a lot of meaning. 

Johnson County – When it comes to tradition, Herschel Walker Field has so much of it, you really need multiple visits to take it all in. 

A lot of the program’s rich history is summed up in the name itself, and the legacy of the all-time great running back who began his career as a Trojan. But there are plenty added layers of excellence through the years that have done just as much to establish JoCo as a landmark on the Middle Georgia football map. What of that you can’t sense in the air itself is spelled out across the huge billboard in the endzone carrying markers of past championships and tributes to former greats.

You also have to admire the humble simplicity of Lovett Stadium, with its compact construction, modest facilities and original concrete bleachers, all with that distinctive royal blue paint scheme. The place is similar to downtown Wrightsville a few blocks west in the way it takes you back to an earlier and simpler place in time. 

Regrettably, this offseason’s renovation forced by damage from Hurricane Helene will be modernizing a few of those homespun features that have created a lot of the stadium’s rustic charm – a quality quickly disappearing from what historic venues remain around our state – but the updates should do very little to change its overall character. 

Die-hard fans, the colorful flashing lights and unmistakable voice of P.A. announcer Jerry Howell – with his priceless one-liners and commentary – do a lot make games there a unique experience… and I’d have to say the energy level inside during the state semifinals of 2022 has to be the closest thing at a high school game that I can compare to 2006 at the Shamrock Bowl. 

Picking any one feature to set above all that is tough, but if there’s one sight and sound I think of the most when Johnson County football comes to mind, it’s got to be the firetruck parked in the end zone whose siren and horn have become an intrinsic part of the Trojans’ field entrances, and touchdown and victory celebrations. 

I think it does the most to create the stadium’s hostile environment, by literally setting the home side of the stadium on fire at high points on a Friday night. And the number of other ambulances, emergency and public safety vehicles that will also turn out to add their bells, whistles and lights to the atmosphere of the biggest games should do just as much to make Johnson County residents sleep well at night, knowing the dedicated folks and equipment their community has standing on call. 

Treutlen – Besides Bleckley County, the Vikings are the only other team in our area whose stadium is not located on or adjacent to their main campus. 

Upon relocating to a new building and athletic complex closer to I-16 a number of years ago, Treutlen High School decided to maintain Bobby Driggers Stadium, back on the original grounds, as its football home. 

The historic field, back in the heart of Soperton, has a similar backstory to the Bowl, Falcon Field and other local stadia that were built well before the SPLOST era, when those types of large construction projects required massive amounts of community input, in the form of financial and sweat equity, to complete or even get started. 

Its existence, much like the others mentioned, owes a lot to local residents who got out their checkbooks, rolled up their sleeves, or both, when called upon to help provide a first-class facility for their players, through its initial construction, then upgrades and expansions through the years. 

Any visit gives you a sense of that special place – as not just a building, but a symbol of pride – that it continues to hold within the school and community. 

A great example that stood out to me on my only visit several years ago is its press box, which you can tell was far more than just an afterthought when it was built. 

The multi-level structure – as Soperton mayor and area radio personality John Koon once pointed out – was in fact designed in consultation with the local media and school personnel who’d be using it. 

Their input led to what I believe is the best such structure around… It not only affords ample space for everyone from coaches to broadcasters to have their own booth, but also features huge windows with no glass (rather individual roll-down doors to cover the opening when not in use) that give you the widest and clearest possible field of view. 

I’ve always appreciated the thought and effort that went into making it a top-quality venue for the media, as much as the fans. 

Trinity – I’ll admit that it was somewhat tough to come up with any one distinguishing tradition for the Crusaders, whose games – from my view – don’t really have one singular feature that sticks out as all their own. 

The only unique convention I’ve ever taken note of is the “Crusader Walk,” a  procession of players through the stadium’s seating area on their way to the field before the official entrance that’s intermittently included in the pregame schedule. 

Former team chaplain Thomas Wicker, as I entreated his suggestions on the subject, brought something else from years past to my attention: A routine under the late head coach Jimmy Fields in which players, when warmups were complete, would arrange themselves in the formation of a cross as members of the staff walked up and down the lines to offer a pat on the helmet and uplifting word to each player before they went into the locker room. 

“I don’t know how many other fans knew what was going on, but that was a special thing each Friday night for me,” he said.

While that routine has now given way to the pregame norms of new sets of coaches, the memory speaks a lot to the enduring legacy Coach Fields left at Trinity for the way he boldly carried out the Christian mission the school and its athletic program stands for.  

His heart and testimony embodied what it means to serve and honor Jesus. And as in-stadium features go, the memorial sign beneath the scoreboard at Cleve Warnock Field displaying his message of encouragement to “live this day in view of that day” offers a great reminder of what sports is really all about. 

Keeping that cause in mind, on Friday nights as much as any other day of the week, is as important a tradition as there is to uphold. 

Twiggs County – The Cobras may not have had a lot of football success in recent years, but Friday nights at The Pit are still as unique an experience as ever. 

On numerous past visits for games, I was impressed by the layout of the stadium – which, like the school itself, is fairly new and modern – and the scenic countryside around it. 

Though I never got a chance to partake, I’ve also heard equally great things about their concession stand, which has been known to feature fried fish and other home-cooked delicacies along with your average stadium fare. 

But what takes the prize in my book is the Cobras’ marching band. 

They’re one of the traditional high-step units with a lot of rhythm and that big sound… the kind that might out-blow a band three times their size. If not for the name on the uniforms, you might have figured they were one of the big-time HBCU groups whose music and beat you can hear a mile away. They left a similar impression. 

The version I laid eyes on about 10 years ago making its way into the stadium for a mere preseason scrimmage – in perfect step amid some 95-degree heat, mind you – made clear the Cobras take the fine details of their craft seriously, and have an important sense of pride in the music and rhythm they bring to their school’s Friday night experience. 

Washington County – Traditions run pretty deep here, both inside the House of Pain (where that graveyard with the names of beaten opponents always catches your eye) and out (the Dairylane being one of the most iconic pre- and postgame eateries there is in all of high school sports).

But for a truly irreplaceable mainstay of WACO football, I’ve got to go with the guy on the sidelines who wears the camouflage garb, holds up the tall flagpole stacked with wooden signs and shouts periodically through his bullhorn: “Let’s go WACO… Lets go Hawks!” 

If you know who I’m talking about, I’ll bet you can hear those words, just the way he says them, in your head right now. 

His name is Frank “Hawk Man” Simmons, and going back almost 30 years, I can’t remember a Washington County football game I don’t recall seeing him at. 

That’s dedication. And he represents one of those pieces of the Friday night football experience that you just don’t get anywhere else. 

West Laurens – The Raiders have a number of interesting traditions to call their own that have come and gone through the years, and generations… the most enduring their “Man on the Horse” chant that has a long-running history. 

Many of these are a credit to the brainstorming of past band directors, notably the legend Michael Dukes, who had a hand in pioneering such spectacles as helicopter fly-ins, skydiving demonstrations, Elvis impersonators and even a mounted student mascot riding a live horse in their efforts to make Raider Stadium, and later The SHU, one of the neatest fan experiences there was. 

So when you think of West Laurens football games, it’s hard to look past the Raider Brigade as one of its most visible trademarks. 

While their musicians and auxiliaries blow it away at halftime as well as anyone, I think they do their best work on the early side of kickoff. And let’s be honest: The Raider Brigade owns the pregame show. 

Where else do you go and hear a marching band that not only has the national anthem and fight song rehearsed, but also a pre-pregame and pre-pre-pregame setlist as part of its performance from the field, and various other places in the stadium? 

Most Friday nights, they make the countdown to kickoff a half hour-long experience complete with a selection of music from upbeat spirit tunes and popular hits to an awe-inspiring rendition of “Amazing Grace” or “How Great Thou Art” that’s stirring enough to necessitate an altar call. 

Their dedicated preparation, elite showmanship and distinct pride in the quality of the performance shines through every time. And it rightly brings out a crowd well before toe meets leather. 

Wheeler County – Some of college football’s most notable traditions involve players laying hands on some type of ritualistic object on their way onto the field: “Howard’s rock” at Clemson, the “WIN” bar at at LSU and Notre Dame’s “Play Like a Champion” sign are a handful that come to mind. 

Wheeler has its own pregame custom surrounding an inanimate bulldog named “Champ,” who resides in a doghouse near the end zone where they run from the locker room. He’s rolled out for each to touch on their way by, in a tradition they observe while taking the field before every home game. 

It’s a simple exercise, but one that’s plenty memorable and unique. 

Wilkinson County – For the dozen or however many state titles they’ve won on the hardwood, Wilco will never not be known as a basketball school. But its football program, which has had a lot of success through the years and looks to be back on the rise, deserves some equal props for building and maintaining its own worthy standard of excellence. 

And when the Warriors have things rolling, the local fans turn out in just as big of numbers to Bud Dupree Field. But it seems the football Friday nights that Wilkinson Countians hold the most special place for are homecoming games. 

And I’ve heard that the tailgating scene around those contests is something to behold. They, and rival Twiggs County, are known for doing it big from the festivities before and during the game itself to the pre-gaming, with fans filling the parking lot from early in the afternoon to enjoy great food and music in the hours before kickoff. 

Once a year, it’s their opportunity to turn Irwinton, Georgia into the SEC. And they don’t miss out.