It’s the last week of the regular season…

Didn’t we just start this thing?

We’re in an interesting place. Some teams are locked into their postseason futures. Some teams are in a multi-team dance where math is involved -- or even mini-games. And some teams just, flat out, don’t know what’s up.

There are 39 teams that are region champs out of the 64 available -- 25 have match-ups that determine futures of a title or something else. Of the ones already in the barn: five are in 7A (two repeats), five are in 6A (four repeats), six are in 5A (no repeats yet), six are in 4A (four repeats), four in 3A (two repeats so far), five in 2A (two repeats), and eight are in both sections in Class A (three repeats across both).

I thought someone said there wasn’t gonna be any math here…

Outside of the 15 repeat region champs, we have four first-timers: Schley County (Region 6-A2), St. Francis (Region 6-A1), plus two in 5A (Cambridge in Region 6) and our first visitor in Region 3 -- Northside-Columbus.

Northside

The fans at Northside-Columbus have turned out in force to support the school's region championship team.

“It feels good to be a region champ,” head coach Andrew Oropeza tells me. “The kids worked so hard this season. We had a long way to go as a program when we got here. But I’m not going to hide from being a region champ. It is really important to the community here.”

The program started in 2004 and had a run of four straight playoff appearances that ended in 2017 -- the last of those first-round games. Oropeza and his staff had back-to-back 4-5 seasons before this year’s success. And they had to do it in a region with only four region games -- so you had to schedule six non-regions. The Patriots did that with Columbus, LaGrange (the only loss this season), Hardaway, Shaw, Sumter County and Westover. The team hasn’t been shy about scoring this year -- averaging a little more than 36 per game, giving up 14.

A lot of that has been drawn to lead rusher Malachi Hosley -- 1,834 yards and 25 TDs for his stat sheet this year. But Oropeza is quick to spread the credit around, recognizing the talent in the backfield.

“The offensive line has been great and we have a quarterback that has been making good throws this year. With all the talent we have here in the state of Georgia, it helps to have the environment we have here in this part of the state, too. But Malachi has some of the better vision of anyone I have seen at running back.

“Winning a region might have been in the back of my head if you had asked me about it at the beginning of the season. We had a good group coming back with eight seniors returning as starters with four others who have been integral since their sophomore years. They stuck together all this time and have been a really good football team. We have some juniors mixed in with sophomores now as well.

“So, I thought we had a chance.”

Alright, so let’s ask… If I told you if you would be where you are and you would have accomplished all you have so far in August, what would you have said then?

“Let me know where to sign on the dotted line, maybe,” Oropeza says. “It certainly is an accomplishment for everyone here. It’s hard, sometimes, to win a game. It’s hard, sometimes, to get a first down. It’s hard, sometimes, to just get a yard on a play. But, from where we’ve all taken it, we still have things to do to improve what we’ve done.”

With the week off, they’re fine-tuning things at practice. And Oropeza and his staff might check out a game this weekend -- maybe something in DeKalb County as they wait for the No. 4 seed in Region 4-5A.

Then, there’s a team that is so close to a first-ever accomplishment. Spencer is the top seed in Region 2-2A as they have a winner-take-all match waiting for them against ACE Charter and their offense this Friday night.

Kegler

Joe Kegler, formerly at Jordan, has taken Spencer to the brink of a region championship.

Credit: WTVM

Head coach Joe Kegler has the Greenwave Owls close to their first GHSA region trophy to add to the four championship titles in the GIA before integration. They’re 6-0 in region, 7-2 overall, and the veteran of the Columbus coaching scene could not be more pleased.

“The kids came together really well,” Kegler says. “They went through the grind every day and tried to get better each day.”

In his first year, the team went 3-7 and have turned it around with this group that ran the table after losing their non-region games with Carver and Westover.

“The community has been extremely supportive here. We have a great alumni association and a great alumni base. They have a huge sense of pride. There are former players -- not just in football, but other sports -- that are helping our young men be better young men.”

Kegler has coached at Carver, Jordan, and now Spencer in his time in the last decade. So, he has seen what Columbus-area high school football has done and what it means to everyone it touches. It even now includes the new Odis Spencer Stadium as a part of its indelible fabric -- named for the legendary coach the Greenwave Owls have woven into its day-to-day. As a pillar of the community, Spencer now has a shiny, new permanence about it.

Spencer stadium

The Greenwave Owls are playing in the new Odis Spencer Stadium this season.

“I think Columbus football is fairly unknown outside of the area,” Kegler says. “It’s good football here and we put a good product on the field here in town and in western Georgia.”

The game with the electric offense of ACE Charter will be a challenge. Kegler knows this.

“They’re well-coached,” he admits. “They play hard but we expect to win. We’re going to play our brand of game- play hard, play fast, and play physically. We’ll be as balanced as possible on offense and tough on defense against them.”

Fourty-eight minutes for a first…

And if you add Troup getting their first region title since 1987 and Callaway getting another one in Region 5-AA and west Georgia may have something to say come Season Three…

Play it safe, everyone…

I’ll see you with all of your brackets…