Marquil Middleton is the head coach of the Calhoun County Cougars down in Edison in southwest Georgia. In the last census, the county population was registered at just under 5,600 people (down almost 17 percent from the 2010 census). It’s single-A territory, no question, and Middleton is part of a four-person staff.

He teaches middle school social studies. Joey James is the assistant principal at the high school while Bobby Pugh and Verge Williams fill out the staff. Middleton is a Calhoun County alum and took over the program in time for last season.

The situation was different last year, and had been since the COVID years, since Calhoun County had dropped to 8-man football for a few seasons- -- not playing traditional 11-on-11 high school football. Middleton was in charge for that 2023 year.

“It was a 6-8 game season playing 8-man,” Calhoun Athletic Director Marcus Shaw says. “We had to play independent and smaller schools, and we really had to search for games.”

“It felt like we were being left out, honestly,” Middleton tells me. “We had challenges and a lot of uphill battles while everyone around us was playing 11-man football. It was hard to get people to come and watch it outside of, maybe, the Homecoming game.”

But, at the end of the last school year, the decision was made to go back to playing 11-man football. The GHSA put Calhoun County in Region 1 in Class A-D2 as one of five teams not playing a region schedule in this cycle.

“We started shifting attitudes here,” Middleton says. “We wanted to get back to playing the way we did when I was here at school.” But the summer was a little rocky with attendance and gathering a full roster as folks tried to readjust to life as it had before 2020.

“It’s still a challenge. Don’t get me wrong. But we’re all trying to find all the different pieces, find out which pieces work best, and do the best you can. It’s still a battle. In July, though, the pace picked up as some of our players were finishing their other extracurricular activities. We could see we had a good team here. We were getting a lot of work done in the weight room after the slow start.”

Middleton also realized just how much of a total team effort it is. He had to add “bus driver” to his summer resume taking students to cities like Arlington and Leary from the campus in Edison. He’s grateful for the school year drivers and all they do.

The regular season opener for the 32 Cougars was in Greenville two weeks ago- 128 miles from one school to the other.

“I was relieved to be back,” Middleton says, “but I did tell them that one play or three or four minutes could cause the game to get away from you. And I took responsibility for that after the game.”

The game ended up as a 40-0 win for Greenville, but Middleton and the staff realized some other things as well -- like the timetable you may need to be comfortable in your arrival to a venue to get your team prepared for every aspect of a game day.

Lesson learned, for sure...

Then came the home game against Terrell County last Friday night. Coach Middleton tells me that there were a handful of folks talking smack on social media. He would file all that stuff away during the week.

“It felt amazing for a small community,” he says. “I just had the biggest smile on my face after we put the first 20 points on Terrell County. It reminded me of all the hard work we’ve put in and reinforced to me that we are a team that’s capable of doing good things.”

At halftime, Calhoun County had a 20-14 lead and Middleton told his team that they had to dig deeper than they had so far to pull away and they did exactly that. He also got the chance to feel confident in a future where they could play at a higher caliber as a team on Fridays as they would go on to win 40-14. It was the first 11v11 win for Calhoun County since October of 2019.

Oh, there were Facebook posts talking about Calhoun’s win on Saturday morning from Cougar fans as well.

I asked Coach Middleton about why he took the head coaching job when the program was only playing 8-man at the time.

“It made sense for me to be at home. This is home for me, and I love home.”

Case closed ... and he and the staff are getting ready for Central Talbotton in Edison this Friday night. “We’re just trying to keep people real after the win. We’re watching film, putting guys in their right place, filling our open spots as best we can, and sticking to the basics. We want to help kids get to the next level as best we can.”

Part of Coach Shaw’s mandate as an administrator is to help encourage those student-athletes that are playing in Edison during football season. The successful high school hoops coach says he tries to just give support to Coach Middleton and the staff.

“I let them run the program as they see it. I’m here to help everyone continue build up their confidence every day.”

And it continues to grow in Calhoun County a win at a time...

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