Forty-Eight Minutes Away

Now, we’re here…

After 100 days of practice and beating each other up on the grass, finally taking advantage of it on Friday nights… we now have our survivors…

Fourteen teams, down from 450, play for the seven state championships…

There are teams that haven’t been there for a while, there are teams that haven’t been at the Dome since last year’s title games, and there are teams that haven’t played for title games…

Ever… in the history of ever…

And, now, it’s the time to chase a trophy…

48 minutes away from taking something home and remembering the experience for the rest of your life…

Something to hang your hat on and have generations hang on every story told over and over again as to how you won the game and brought home pride to your town…

Could be Buena Vista, Folkston, Savannah, Augusta, Norcross, Suwanee, Carrollton, Griffin, Atlanta, Barnesville, Buford, Sandersville, Fairburn, or Tucker… some of them will have stories to tell come the end of the weekend…

Let’s break it down one more time…

Griffin gets to a title game and tries to get their first title since 1978… they beat a very pesky Wayne County team in Griffin…

Frank and Ben take you through it…

((HT: 13WMAZ))

They get Carrollton, who survived another multi-overtime marathon with Marist…

Calvary Day makes the single-A private title game to take on Aquinas and Lamar County makes the double-A game to take on Lovett after victories over ELCA and Benedictine.

The Big Guy, Frank Sulkowski, has the highlights- with a bit of a twist on the work…

((HT: TheCoastalSource))

Marion County had already made history by getting to the school’s first-ever semi-final, but now they can add one more step to it by heading to the Dome after their win over Hawkinsville.

((HT: WRBL-TV))

Marion gets Charlton County in the single-A public final…

In 6A, someone once said: “To be the man, you have to beat the man…”

And for Mark Harmon to quote Ric Flair on GPB was truly a seminal moment for the “Football Fridays in Georgia” broadcast…

Here’s how North Gwinnett survived the monsoon on GPB to take on the man in 6A: Norcross…

And in 3A, Buford shows up once again. But this time, they’ll take on Washington County--who put an end to Ringgold’s Cinderella season with a victory in Sandersville…

Here’s Big Marvin with the Golden Hawks and Tigers from the “House of Pain…”

((HT: 13WMAZ))

So, that’s your seven match-ups…

To recap:

Friday on GPB, it’s the Single-A private, triple-A, and five-A games

Saturday has the Single-A public, double-A, quad-A, and 6A title games

Broadcast starts at 2:30 Friday and 11:30AM Saturday, so it’s lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a cast of hundreds from our friends at Turner and GPB Sports putting on the title games for you…

And we couldn’t do it without you…

Thanks for all of your support this year… and we’ll do it again one more time…

So join Trey, Kelin, Claire, Grace, moi, Tommy Palmer, Big Chuck Smith, Sam Barrs, and some more special guests along the way for the best ride of the year on GPB, GPB.org and the GPB Sports app…

Play it safe, everyone… we’ll see you at the Dome…