Our friends over at the GHSF Daily have been running the numbers on this for me... 

There are times where the “No. 2-3-4 state in the country for high school talent heading to the next level” must schedule out-of-state to fill out a schedule. In the past, Lincoln County and McCormick (S.C.) has been a staple on the calendar. Teams in Columbus would play Central-Phenix City from Alabama and Ringgold would play Ooltewah when Robert Akins was head coach and moved from the latter to the former. 

Nowadays, Georgia teams are having to find opponents because of the level of success. Maurice Dixon and Creekside are traveling across the planet for games -- having played Mater Dei in California last year and Westside (S.C.) and DeSoto (Tex.) this season. And, in the state of Georgia, in-state schools were 9-8 against schools in Florida and the Carolinas (in addition to the DeSoto-Creekside game). That’s almost 10 percent of the entire schedule last week all by itself.  

I left one game out on purpose... 

I caught up with New Westminster, B.C.  -- (Yes ... that B.C. -- British Columbia, Canada) -- Offensive Coordinator Darnell Sikorski as his school goes out of their comfort zone every couple of years to play an abnormal opponent. 

Enter Mary Persons High in middle Georgia. 

New Westminster

The New Westminster team traveled all the way from British Columbia to play football and experience Southern culture.

Credit: New Westminster Facebook

Last week, New Westminster came to the south, experienced Atlanta, played the Bulldogs in Forsyth, went to the Auburn-Alabama A&M game, and returned home in time for the start of school. Got all that? 

You can find out more in this week’s Football Fridays in Georgia Podcast, where we catch up with Mary Persons Coach Brian Nelson and Sikorski about some of this, so here’s more of this... 

“Brian is a class act,” Sikorski tells me. “He really is. We watched their first game of the season. I talked to the other coaches on our staff and said, ‘this might be the best team we’ve ever faced.’ We played teams in Texas and California in the past and, after playing Mary Persons, they are the best team we’ve ever played.” 

Sikorski admits they all learned a lot -- on the field and off. He learned about players and their motivation in the off-season. He learned about who gets excited in times like these and who might be challenged outside their comfort zones. Traditionally, New Westminster plays teams in the Pacific Northwest but when this game was put together, the learning curve was steep. 

“You hear about Georgia athletes and how talented they are. You’re not blind to it,” Sikorski says. “You know how hard kids work there in the summer.” And his staff has the Wing-T offense as their base. If you mention Camden County or Dublin, they know who Roger Holmes is. They even met Holmes, the Dublin coach, at a clinic in Seattle. So, the game here isn’t completely foreign. But the timetable is ... a little. New Westminster had to accelerate their game plan activation. They pushed the envelope for the install, and you wonder how they will handle the heat, how they will handle all the off-the-field stuff and keep the focus of practice in a game week. 

New Westminster

One of the stops for the New Westminster team was the College Football Hall of Fame.

Credit: New Westminster Facebook

It was fun and memorable -- even before getting to Forsyth on Thursday and Friday. There were the trips to the Civil Rights Museum and the College Football Hall of Fame. There were practices on a Sandy Springs soccer field five minutes from the hotel. And it was the first time most of the team got to travel without a parent. 

The Hyacks (more on that in the FFIG Podcast), left Tuesday morning local time, got into the hotel around dinner time, got some granola bars in their system, put their pads on and went to their first practice. They would be gone by dinner time Sunday, heading back for the beginning of the school year. 

The Mary Persons Touchdown Club put together a gameday tailgate for the 25-30 parents that made the trip along with the 43 players and seven coaches. Coach Nelson and his staff made sure that the visitors had enough food along the way in addition to an invite for a Thursday “Gold Out” pep rally. The rally would get rained out, but it gave an early opportunity for the two teams to get to know one another. 

You get to see that coaches are coaches- regardless of address -- and 15 to 18-year-olds are, in fact, 15 to 18-year-olds regardless of address.    

“They really welcomed us in Forsyth. I’m pretty sure it was so unique for them, too. It was, kind of, a sad goodbye and a fun goodbye. It would have been awkward for just a handshake and a goodbye. But I’m also sure both teams swapped their Instagram and Snapchat ID’s. You don’t want to say ‘goodbye’ so fast after a week like this.” 

New Westminster

The final score was 43-6 for Mary Persons in this first for the state of Georgia and high school football -- a Canadian opponent. A restaurant purchased the video stream back home and had the audio play-by-play available as well. So, both sides got to see history on the field. 

From there, it was a trip to Auburn and get treated first-class by the football program to get the “recruit” experience for the Alabama A&M game -- lunch, facilities tour, Tiger Walk, tickets, pregame field access ... all that. 

“You could see our players’ jaws drop when they got to see how SEC players look,” Sikorski admits. “And they got to see what Buc-ees is all about. They were all asking each other, ‘What did you get? What did you get?’ Safe to say, I think 75-percent of the players either got the pulled pork or the brisket. 

“And I wouldn’t have traded any of this for anything,” Sikorski says. “The game against Mary Persons was a lot faster than any other team we’ve faced. We’re 20-30 pounds lighter by a man and they were faster off the ball than we are. But to be able to interact with them the way we all got to, on the field and off, was so special and unique.”   

Now that school has started, provincial play awaits in the form of GW Graham -- a champ with a pedigree. But they did lose their first game of the season ... and New Westminster has the experience of a lifetime to help them from this year going forward... 

And folks will be watching from Forsyth to B.C. ... 

As will we... 

Play it safe, everyone... I’ll talk to you soon...