Craig Puckett, Crawford County

Craig Puckett graduated from Crawford County High School and now he's led the team back to the playoffs.

If you look at the numbers from our friends at the GHSF Daily newsletter, the retention rates for the teams that made both the 2020 and 2021 playoffs are in the neighborhood of 85 percent. It’s in that other 15-percent where you get to see who has worked their way back in to chase a championship.

Three of the 2021 stories are actually in the same region – Class A Public Region 7.

It has been a while since Crawford County has even been in the playoffs. The last time was back in 1998 at the end of the most successful decade in the Eagles history. Tony Byram had two tours in Roberta and the five-year stretch from 1994-1998 is what everyone remembers.

Craig Puckett’s team came in winners of three straight and are the fourth seed this year.

“It feels great,” Puckett says. “Roberta is a place that really loves football. Yes, we ended 3-6, but the three in a row at the end in region play is a big step for us."

“Our offensive line came together in those games and they enjoyed run blocking and being physical. Early in the year, we just couldn’t move the ball. But now, we throw when we want to and not because we have to throw.”

Jordan Andrews has run for more than 200 yards in those three wins and ran for right at 300 yards against Hancock Central.

Macon County and a trip to Montezuma is set for Saturday. And as everything loops back toward the 1990s, the school inducted the 1996 team into the Crawford County Hall of Fame during their last win. That team went 12-1 and lost to … you guessed it … Macon County in the Georgia Dome.

If you look up the history of Crawford County, there are only seven seasons of .500 or better in the 42 years of the school’s existence. There are three seasons outside the ‘90s heyday where wins outnumbered losses.

Craig Puckett is a legacy himself in all of this. He’s CCHS Class of 1997, coaching at Peach County for a few years, who came back to be defensive coordinator for Byram before moving over to baseball. But the call was too strong to come back to football. It also gives Puckett the chance to see a coach and mentor come out to see each win in home stretch as he fights Parkinson’s Disease himself.

“I volunteer-coached for a while,” Puckett says. “Then, I went over and coached at the middle school. I came back in 2006. My son is the starting quarterback now and I know we all want to try and have it be like it was when I was in high school. With this group, I have coached them for, basically, their entire lives -- rec league, middle school and now here.”

The game with Macon County has “a lot of dogs in the fight” as Puckett admits. His DC is also a Crawford alum but held the same job at Macon County. They all know it will be tough against the state’s No. 3-ranked team, but Puckett is looking forward to the competition.

ACE

ACE Charter rode its hot start into the state playoffs.

ACE Charter is in for the first time as the Gryphons are the No. 3 seed heading to Ellaville to take on Schley County in Round 1. Sam Zanders took over head coaching duties after Game One adding to his defensive coordinator duties. ACE got off to a hot start in region play- winning their first three.

“It feels great to be in the field of 32,” Zanders tells me. “It, probably, hit us after the third region win that we were heading to the playoffs. And we’re looking forward to being one of the top teams in the region as we grow.”

Zanders says that there’s a sense of culture at ACE to add to the building tradition, the standards being established, and the expectations that now follow.

“We now have that belief of being 1-0 every week as we’re learning how to win,” Zanders says. “Every Friday, we now show up to compete and win the game we’re playing. We’re in that transition where we’re turning the corner with this group.

“One of our seniors came up to me and told me he was tired of losing. We’re starting that idea of now knowing what it takes to win. We’re more business-like now and we’ll do whatever it takes to win. We’re finding our way.”

Zanders gives a lot of credit to the mental side of the game with his coaches and players at ACE. They game plan now where actions are “repetitive to the point they’re reflexive.” I asked about the idea of the extra day to prepare for the game with Schley County – since all the Class A playoff games are on Saturday this week -- and Zanders says ACE is still treating it like a normal work week. You just get the extra day of prep to do it.

“It’s a milestone for this program to make it to the playoffs,” he says. “It’s great getting there and it’s the first hurdle of many to get that kind of experience to grow.”

The region champs are having a  year of milestones. GMC Prep had their first 10-win season since 1934. The head coach that season was University of Georgia legend Wally Butts. It’s their first region title since 1960 when GMC went 7-1. Before Lee Coleman coached the Bulldogs to their current back-to-back playoff appearances, they hadn’t been in the playoffs since 2002. And that was a three-year stretch of first-round losses.

The other team that has never been in the postseason until 2021 is in Ludowici. The Blue Tide of Long County make their way in with a 5-5 record under head coach Mike Pfiester.

Long County

First-year coach Mike Pfiester has directed Long County to its first trip to the playoffs.

Credit: Coastal Courier

They come in as the three-seed in Region 1-5A and get a road game with Southeast Bulloch this Friday night.

“We were confident the entire game last Friday and were up 22-6 at one point,” Pfiester tells me. “I started here in February and, like every other place, there were hurdles and we had to figure out what to fix. It’s like the old quote of ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’ We had some attrition at the beginning. But now, we have done everything this season to get to this point.”

When I caught up with him, Pfiester was in one of his weight training classes and he told me that today would be no different -- squats, deadlift, agility drills and everything else on the agenda.

He actually applied for the Long County job when it came open five years ago. He knew he wanted to be a head coach and he knew he wanted to do things his way. It would be hard to do the job at less than 100 percent for a program that had nowhere to go but up in his mind.

“For a program that was, what … 1-39 and 2-45-2 with eight 0-10 seasons in their history? The administration here has been really supportive of what we’re trying to do and what we’re building. I can’t thank them enough. We have got a good staff here and we’re looking forward to the future.”

And that includes the game at SEB as the Blue Tide play Game 11 for the first time ever.

Let the playoffs begin!

Play it safe, everyone… I’ll see you soon…