It’s Thanksgiving week and across the state eight teams in each classification are doing something that all teams dream of when preseason practice began. You see, if your team is still practicing this week it means that you are among the best in the state. This morning, most teams will have a final practice before Friday’s quarterfinal contest, then go enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with their families.

The Elbert County Blue Devils are thankful for the opportunity to play this week. The season got off to a 1-3 start, with losses to Hart County, Stephens County and Lincoln County. Head Coach Shannon Jarvis confesses, the challenging schedule was his idea.

“I wish I could blame somebody else, but it was me,” says Jarvis. “The reality is, it was hard getting games. We’d come off last year successful year and we moved to Class A and I was calling all over the state trying to get games. When I put it together, I told our coaches it would get us better for the opportunity that we'd have in the playoffs.”

When I caught up with Jarvis for this conversation, he had just finished team meetings, in preparation for this week’s quarterfinal game. Friday’s 26-24 win over Heard County raised the Blue Devils’ record to 7-5, but there was little time to enjoy it. Jarvis will tell you; it was all a part of the plan.

Elbert

“The win Friday night I attribute to the teams that we have played throughout the year, especially our non-region schedule,” recalls Jarvis. “I've always admired Coach (Maurice) Freeman when he was at Brooks County. I can't tell you the times they played for state championships with three, four or five losses. I believe that's the way you have to do it.

“If you feel good about your kids and your program you've got to schedule games that will get them that experience. When you get a couple of early losses it can be frustrating. You’ve got to get the kids to keep in perspective of what we're working on. A lot of it has to do with kids just playing their hearts out right now and I'm just so proud of where we're at. Weve got a huge challenge Friday night with Toombs County, but I'm still very proud of the way the kids have been playing these last five weeks.”

Resilient is the word that come to find when you talk about a team that had more than it’s share of injuries to start the season. The team’s biggest test would come before the sixth game of the season. Elbert County was scheduled to host Commerce when Hurricane Helene changed everything. Some people say that adversity builds character, while others say that adversity reveals character. I prefer to believe the latter.

“We were supposed to host them on a Friday when the hurricane came through,” remembers Jarvis. “We were one of the counties on the eastside of Georgia that got hit. We had power out for two days. It was a mess here and we lost the home game. We ended up scheduling that Saturday morning to go and play there, but that was before the GHSA moved the schedule back. If I had known that, we would have never played that game. It just wasn’t a good situation. A lot of kids and coaches, including me, didn't have power at home.

“Even when we handed out the uniforms in the fieldhouse, we had flashlights and lanterns. We didn't have any power in the fieldhouse. I bring this up because at halftime, it was at least a three touchdown lead for Commerce. We got in there with our kids and just loved on them and there was something that clicked. There was a spirit about them in that second half against Commerce. We battled back with some long plays, our defense got stops and they just turned it loose. So, even in that loss, we really have not looked back since then.”

So, it was the adversity in the loss to Commerce that lit the fire for the Blue Devils. It proved to an elixir, of sorts, that produced a remedy for early season troubles.

Elbert County

Elbert County players celebrate their second-round win over Heard County.

Credit: Elbert County Facebook

“We had some kids step forward,” says Jarvis. “They just played their guts out and had great fun doing it. It really inspired the coaches and everybody. The whole demeanor, the spirit of our team, and it has been so positive since then. Those kids took a very bad situation, and they turned our season around. We got a huge win at Rabun County at the end of the year that helped us with seeding in the bracket a little bit. The two playoff wins and the two teams we beat have been very good teams. I'll say this too. We were turning the ball over a lot. I think it was seven turnovers in the first two games. We've shored that up. So, that's one tangible evidence, but still, it goes back to focusing your mentality and everything like that. “

Jarvis feels a closer connection with this year’s team. There are more than 20 seniors, who have been a part of the Elbert County program since the coaches’ tenure began.

“We felt good about this team coming back,” recalls Jarvis. “We had a lot of experience coming back that really had been a part of the last two years success. Two years ago, we were 10 -2, and we got beat by Prince Avenue in the second round and then last year we got to beat by Swainsboro in the quarterfinals. A lot of those seniors have played major roles on those two teams, and to be honest, that went into the scheduling. I felt this group could weather the storm of that tough scheduling and be improved by it, and I think that they did. This is my fifth year, so they've been here for four years with me. I've grown with them and they're special young men. “

Finishing the regular season as the three seed from Region 8 A-Division 1, meant going on the road for the postseason. Last week’s bus ride to Franklin – a town south of Carrollton on the Alabama border -- was long, but the ride back was sweet.

“I thought our defense played very well Friday,” recalls Jarvis. “Heard County is very explosive. They had been scoring a lot of points, but Gilbert Fortson our defensive end and Lincoln Blackmon, one of our linebackers were big on defense. Offensively Brady Dickerson, our tight end/receiver, had 11 catches for like 135 yards and three touchdowns. So, he and Jayvyn Hickman, our quarterback, played very well.” Hickman completed 20 of 24 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns.

Elbert County

Elbert County captains await the coin toss.

Credit: Elbert County Facebook

That brings us to this week’s contest against a Toombs County team that grabbed our attention by beating Rome earlier in the season. It will be a difficult task for Elbert County, but adversity is nothing new for this crew. They are the team that weathered the storm … literally.

“I saw Toombs last year,” remembers Jarvis. “I knew how good they were going to be this year. I'm going to be honest. It's one of the best teams I've seen on film in a long time, and I'm including my years at Mill Creek in 7A. This is a very, very talented team. At every position, there's really no weakness, and you don't see this a lot in Class A football. So we've got to go in there and play even harder than we have. We've got to create some turnovers. There are some things that are going to have to go our way in this game for us to be able to beat them.”

Jarvis singled out Toombs County quarterback, T.J. Stanley, is committed to Georgia State.

“In all my years, I've always said Taylor Heinicke and Josh Dobbs, are two of the hardest I ever had to get ready to play against,” Jarvis said. “The other one was Aaron Philo from Prince Avenue, who is doing great at Georgia Tech, He's a phenomenal player. I put the quarterback from Toombs in that group. They've got a great receiver and defensive back in Loganza Hayward, who is going to Tennessee. At every position they have very good players. We can't turn the ball over. We have to play mistake-free to have a chance.”

This week Football Fridays in Georgia will feature Thomas County Central at Hughes. It all gets started at 7:30 p.m. on the Great GPB!