The Georgia High School Association had their organizational meeting for the title games earlier this week at Mercedes-Benz Stadium as a part of the process to prep for the last games of the year. 

It was a two-and-a-half hour tour of the building, locker rooms, entries, exits, guidelines, and anything else that could be questioned and/or asked to try and gather an understanding of what you’ll be facing as a program for the twelve championships. But it wasn’t just those 16 football teams. You had to add semifinalists in flag football because it’s also their only chance to get things squared away. 

Some folks had been there before. For others, it was their first time. The administration of the building was talking you through (with the GHSA), your decals, parking passes, cans and can’ts, who can go where, who can’t, what you need to wear, who gets a credential, who gets a parking place, and answers for 21st century high school championships.  

All the things. 

So, what I wanted to do this week is ask some of the newer folks what all this sensory overload meant... 

Northeast

Nick Woodford has helped lead Northeast into its first championship game.

Credit: Jason Vorhees / The Melody

Jeremy Wiggins is an alum of Northeast in Macon. He’s been a coach at the school save one year when he moved to Warner Robins High. He has led the program to its first ever semifinal and now, their first-ever final. 

“Ohhh, yeah, it's real now,” he says with a sense of wonder and awe. “It's real now. Once you get up there and, you know, get a chance to meet and they do your passes and everything against the requests, it's official now. You’re in there.”  

These meetings and tours of where you’re supposed to be reminded him of another time. “It’s like the first day of school and getting back to school. You’re getting all this paperwork and all these meetings and presentations and stuff. But for this one it's a good, it's a good presentation. You get a chance to play the last game of the Georgia high school football season and we're just glad to be here. 

“Everybody is excited,” Wiggins continues. “The whole city is excited. The players are excited -- coaches, parents, everybody excited. So, it's just a good feeling right now to be a Raider.”  

Understandably, his phone has blown up since Friday night. “Sometimes I can't even answer all of them. So, I'm still going through just thanking everybody and telling them how much we appreciate their support and stuff. There have been a whole bunch of phone calls, text messages, and shout outs on social media. I’m just trying to make the rounds to make sure I tell everybody, ‘Thank you. thank you.’”  

I think he just did as they prep for Toombs County.

Speaking of ... 

Toombsd

Lagaonza Hayward (2) has 50 receptions for Toombs County.

Credit: Toombs County Facebook

Buddy Martin was AD and defensive coordinator at Toombs -- and had been a coach there since the 2016 season.  It’s the first-ever title game for the program in school history (38 years in the making) as they come through after beating Dublin in Dublin last week. In his two seasons as a head coach, he’s 23-3. 

“It's pretty eye opening, you know, just all the things here you learn about the game,” he tells me. “It’s been all right. You just can't get overwhelmed with all the extra stuff. There's a ball game to play. I caught up with a lot of friends that have that have been here and had a lot of good advice. ‘Your focus is your reality.’ That's what one of the coaches that was here last year told me. So, I was trying to make sure we're locking in and having fun.” 

I went ahead and asked him a pop quiz on what exactly was in the box he got from the GHSA.  “There's a lot of, there's sideline pass, a lot of credential information, timeline information, security information, a lot of information. We're going to a debriefing meeting after we go through all of it and disseminate what needs to be out to our people and all that kind of stuff.” 

Coach Martin was laughing with me as he went through the inventory in his head. But, and I’m not kidding as I tell you this, it’s a lot to take in after a drive to the stadium like the Toombs staff had from Lyons (as an example). It’s a lot to prepare for as you’re preparing for everything else over the next seven days or so.  

“I have received a lot of encouragement from people since Friday,” Martin says. “I'm just so I'm so thankful for this opportunity for our awesome community, awesome administration, a special, special group of kids, and a great coaching staff that have sacrificed and worked their tail off for this opportunity for Toombs County.” 

And, like that, he was off to another meeting ... 

Tyler Aurandt and his staff have built North Oconee over the last eight years into perennial power -- semi, semi, quarters, final. That’s the last four years. Five of the last six years have been double-digit win seasons. And this is a staff that inherited an 0-10 team, went 1-9 their first year and haven’t looked back. They get Marist in the 4A final. 

“It’s pretty official now,” Aurandt said after getting his packet and sitting through his first set of meetings. “It's starting to set in more. You actually get in here, or you're driving up to the stadium and we're going to have an opportunity to play in this thing. But it's special. Our kids are excited. The coaches are excited. The community is excited as well.” 

So, I went ahead and asked if he remembered what was in his packet. “Let’s see... Sideline passes, all the information of arrival, all the information of this week, like, I mean, everything that you could possibly think of is in there. And I feel like I'm pretty detailed. And this is a whole ‘nother level of efficiency and detail.  

“I think when I got on my phone Friday night, I think there were 70-something text messages. And then it just continued to flow all the way through the weekend. It started to slow down now that we've gotten into the week and being at school kind of back on normal routine, but. Yeah, I mean, everybody wants to be a part of it, which is a blessing, but it is crazy and chaotic at the same time.  

“It means everything to our community- the support and everything that we've had or that we've received since we took the job. I mean it. It's been nothing short of amazing. Everybody wants to be a part of it and they've wanted to be a part of it for a long time. And, and we're just fortunate that we get to be, kind of, at the forefront of it pushing the charge, but there's a lot of people that over the last eight years along the way have done something to get us in this position, whether it be serving meal or, you know, financially provide resources or whatever it may be. It took a lot of people to get to this point.” 

And we’ll see everyone kicking off on Monday chasing after that win in the last game of the year... 

Play it safe, everyone... I’ll see you there!