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Coahulla Creek had never won back-to-back games until this season, when the Colts opened with two victories.
Credit: Matt Locklear
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Fortunes Are Rising At Coahulla Creek
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They didn't have a parade in the town of Varnell this week, but they could have. It's the hometown of the Coahulla Creek Colts, who earned a 38-7 victory over Southeast Whitfield last Friday night.
I know it's real early in the season, but the win was historic for the Colts in many ways. The team is 2-0 for the first time in school history, it's the first time the Colts have ever posted back-to-back wins, and those two victories ties the school record for most wins in a season.
They could have had a parade this week, but when I spoke with second-year head coach Danny Wilson, he didn't sound like he was ready to go for a ride in a convertible.
"When you’ve been in it as long as I have, you don't think about it that way at all," says Wilson. "Obviously the people who have been around the school feel like we’ve arrived, but that’s not the case. We played well the first couple games, I guess well enough to win but not as well at the ol’ coach wants you to play. The kids have bought into what we are doing. We have a few more athletes than we have had in the past and that is always going to help. When you get better players, you tend to compete a little bit better."
In last week's win the Colts rode a wave of confidence and took control of the game early. This is the tenth year of playing football at the Dalton-area school and it was something that the good folks at "The Creek" have rarely seen.
"We built a pretty good lead going into halftime," recalls Wilson. "I've tried to preach for as long as I've been here, that the first three minutes of the third quarter are very important. We didn’t take care of business and to Southeast's credit they responded, but our kids responded back. We went into the locker room several times in recent years down 24-0, but we’ve never been in the locker room up 24-0 before "
Yet another first for the Colts, but in order to really appreciate last week's win you have to go back to the season opener. Josh Robinson's Northwest Whitfield Bruins are a consistent state playoff team. Coahulla Creek's 31-25 win no doubt set off shock waves that were felt around Northwest Georgia.
"The thing with Northwest was we went onto triple overtime," remembers Wilson. "The field conditions were tough. It was extremely muddy and it took a lot out of us physically because we are only playing about 25 guys on Fridays right now. It was probably as tough physically as it was emotionally.
“When they got to school that Monday we wanted them to continue to enjoy that win. We knew their teachers are going to want to talk to them and their friends, but when the bell hits at 3:25, we have to switch gears, and they did a good job of that."
Before you ask, yes, it was the first time Coahulla Creek ever beat Northwest Whitfield. If this team were a professional wrestler, it would hold the County Belt! Truly these are the best of times at "The Creek," but if Danny Wilson sounds a little less than thrilled it's because he is accustomed to winning.
Wilson won multiple state championships as a head coach at several schools in Tennessee. At South Pittsburg, Wilson won a state football title, a state baseball title, coached girls basketball and for a time was the principal. He was looking for a chance of pace and landed at Coahulla Creek. The Colts were in the middle of a 27 game losing streak.
"I came here as defensive coordinator when I retired in Tennessee five years ago," recalls Wilson. "I was as happy as a lark doing that. We were about to the fourth or fifth game of the season, all of sudden we realized that we had the longest losing streak in the state. I had no clue. I had not been following Georgia football very much."
Wilson's introduction to football in the Peach State was anything but "Peachy." After going 0-10 in 2017, the Colts were 1-9 in 2018, then 2-8 in 2019. After that season Caleb Bagley resigned and Wilson was faced with the possibility of doing what he came to Georgia to avoid. There would be no escape.
“It was February 2020, when they finally talked me into it," says Wilson. “I was happy being an assistant. I knew what all comes with the head job and I didn’t know at this point and time in my career if I wanted to jump back into that. I accepted the job in February and COVID hit in March "
Wilson was familiar with the players, but no spring football and limited summer workouts made it hard to implement changes. The season starts and there was no way to prepare for what happened next.
"We played three games in eight days twice," recalls Wilson. "It was really tough. It was tough on our kids, it was tough on our staff and it was extremely tough on me. There were games on Friday, Tuesday and Saturday. We had a normal week, then we did Friday, Tuesday and Saturday again. Those two Saturday games were mentally and physically exhausting. But I do think that rollover helped us this past week with three overtimes."
The 2020 season ended with another 2-8 record, with a number of close loses. This season has been different at "The Creek." There was spring football this time and summer workouts. There are more seniors and juniors leading the way and there has been more time for developing talent and establishing depth. One of the players taking advantage of the chance to develop more is quarterback Kace Kinnamon.
"He’s one of those kids who leads by example," says Wilson. "He has put on about 15 pounds in the weight room this off-season. He works really hard in there. The rest of our guys see that, so they want to play hard for him. The great thing about him is that he competes. It doesn’t matter what we ask him to do."
The Colts lost several leaders from last year's defensive unit. This fall Robbie Wiggins is helping to lead the defense. The 6-foot-1 270-pound nose tackle is one of the team's best athletes and is a very capable tight end on offense.
So in a season of firsts, the Colts are enjoying this week off before taking aim at Region 6-3A and a historic third win. Looks like it's safe to say that "The Creek" is on the rise.
"It’s an extremely balanced region,” says Wilson. "The exception would be Rockmart (No. 9 in the GPB rankings), and unfortunately that’s who we get to open our region play against next week. With us winning these first two, it will give us some confidence that our kids didn’t have before. Now that we have won a couple in a row, the school and community are very excited. I’m proud of our kids because they worked really hard.”
Footfall Fridays in Georgia return Sept. 10 on The Great GPB!
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