Hurricane Michael made his presence known this past weekend in Southwest and Middle Georgia, and the 2018 prep football schedule has been altered for a few schools, Region 1-7A in its entirety. 

The powerful region was to kick off its schedule this past Friday, but the games slated had to be moved to this coming weekend. Colquitt County is waiting to have power restored to their school and athletic facilities, so they can return to some form of football normalcy.

“I don’t think moving the schedule will hurt any of our team’s chances,” said Rush Propst, head coach of the Colquitt County Packers. “We’ve just moved the entire schedule one week …. and now there will no break between the end of the regular season and the state championships if we make it. We’ll have to play eight straight weeks to win it all.”

The Packers open region play at home when they host Camden County (6-1) in the Hog Pen. “Camden County is greatly improved. Coach (Bob) Spires has done a good job turning the fortunes around down there. They seem to be getting better each week as they play his system. The extra week of rest has helped all of the teams in the region, and the additional time has helped to get us all a little healthier as well, “Propst said.

Region 1-7A’s other top game this week has Tift County traveling to Valdosta to meet the Lowndes Vikings.

The Early County Bobcats of Coach Joel Harvin (5-1) is another Southwest Georgia team who’s having to adjust. The Bobcats were scheduled to play Brooks County (5-2) at home this past Friday night but Hurricane Michael had other ideas. At this writing, there is still limited power in Early County, so the obvious choice is to move the game to Quitman. The two teams will meet Monday night in a key Region 1-2A showdown.

The bad news for the ‘Cats is that they have another game slated for this week. They travel meet 6-2 Fitzgerald Friday night. The Hurricanes downed Thomasville who’s now 4-4, 36-21 Saturday night to move into sole possession of first place in one of the toughest 2A regions in the state. 

Key games dot the landscape in every corner of the state this coming weekend, and all games are important at this point in the season.

The Football Fridays in Georgia game on GPB-TV, has the Roswell Hornets (6-1) traveling to Raider Valley to meet highly-ranked Walton (7-0).

Other games of note find Southeast Bulloch (7-0) at Benedictine Military at Savannah State Stadium. Swainsboro (5-2) heads into Vidalia (7-0) for a Region 2-2A matchup while Washington County (7-0) plays at Dodge County (6-1) in another key Class 2A game.

In Class 7A, Parkview (7-0)  travels to Brookwood (6-1) for their annual battle, Valdosta (4-3) plays at Lee County (7-0)  in a Region 1-6A showdown, and in Class 5A, its Bainbridge (3-4) at Warner Robins (7-1).

I’ll see you this Friday night on the All Access Pass for “Tommy’s Take.” It’s Roswell at Walton on GPB-TV this week!