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Glascock County Finally Reaches the Playoff Promised Land
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Glascock County head coach Chris Kelley remembers playing Aquinas as a freshman.
It was the last game of the year and the Panthers would end the season on a losing note. Unfortunately, for the program, that same note would be hit over and over again throughout the 1990s. The team from Gibson would set a national record for the longest losing streak in high school football at 82 games.
From Oct. 26, 1990, until Oct. 1, 1999, the school would be on the losing end of the ledger. There was even talk of dissolving the football program for the second time in school history -- repeating what the school had done after the 1979 season. In those first six years, the Panthers only won once -- going 1-23. The team went dormant until that 1990 season when the losses mounted up all over again.
Kelley credits John Bowen for sticking with the program as head coach back then. The wins would, eventually, come but not in the turning-losing-seasons-into-winning-seasons kind of a thing. You would have one, two, three, or four wins on the occasional non-region schedule. But that freshman that was there for loss No. 1 on a national scale would become the man in charge in 2002.
He’s been there ever since and gets to be on the sideline for a real moment of history this Friday...
That rival from when Kelley was in school is a playoff opponent...
A “first-time” ever for the Panthers and their enrollment of 170.
“We’re really excited,” Kelley tells me. “But there is a bit of shoulda-coulda-woulda. I think we could have done better than what we did and, maybe, have been a No. 2 or a No. 3 seed. Yes, the stars have to align to make the playoffs, but this time we don’t have to watch everyone else.”
Glascock (4-6) has known for a few weeks that they were probably getting into the postseason. After the 59-20 win over GMC Prep, Kelley had seen it could have been a three-way tie in Class A Division II Region 5. With the tie-breakers being winning percentage against Class-A opponents, followed by head-to-head, the math was there for them to play an 11th game.
“People thought they would never see the day we would get into the playoffs, but I always thought we had a chance,” he said. “In the old format, it was tough where we had to play seven region games or so. With the version we have right now where we’re playing five it means you have to find five opponents and you get to challenge yourself outside of region play.”
There have been, obviously, ups and downs with the program for Kelley and Glascock County. Frustrating? Yes. Very rewarding? Absolutely. And Kelley told me he had the chance to go other places, but he never left home -- figuratively and literally. It makes seasons like this one that much sweeter.
“I wanted to be here to make it better for those who will come in behind me. No one ever complained all this time -- we just wanted to do that.”
Buried somewhere in my office is a transcript that’s about two inches thick. It was my first book that is still available on Amazon (subtle plug - which you can still get here... ) and the story of Glascock and Chris Kelley a few years into his tenure is one of those 15 chapters.
To see this county, population 2,884 (with Gibson being about a quarter of that number), win awards from our friends at Georgia EMC, build a new school, grow into it, and still have the ties to the past -- the football stadium is still in the same place it was when I first saw Kelley coach there -- it's a unique place that finally stepped into the room it had been wanting to enter for a while...
“Maybe only a third of the kids might know about our past,” Kelley admits. “To see how far we’ve come, I’ll admit we still have a long way to go. It has been night and day, though.”
Aquinas has been a rival of Glascock’s dating back to those days Kelley was a player and they haven’t met since 2009. The coaches have known each other since James Leonard, the Irish head coach, was in high school. But, outside of the junior varsity playing each other twice this season, the two teams had no idea they would line up for the playoffs.
For Kelley, he is coaching the sons of folks he’s known in the past -- now Glascock moms and dads watching from the stands -- and the ties are all over the place. But that’s how this goes when you are home -- and have been -- because you knew this was where you were supposed to make your mark no matter the temptations and questions from outside county lines.
For the Panthers, the plan is to play Aquinas straight up and see what happens.
Taking the first-ever challenge of Season Three head on...
And we’ll be watching...
Play it safe, everyone... I’ll see you soon...
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