MOULTRIE — MOULTRIE — Ryan Kebler was not looking for a new job when he heard about an opening at Colquitt County High for an experienced athletic trainer.

But after an interview with Packers head coach Rush Propst, Kebler left St. Petersburg (Fla.) Catholic High School, where he had been athletic trainer for 10 years, to move to South Georgia.

Kebler, who will replace Kevin Sumner, is a certified athletic trainer. And he is exactly what Propst was looking for.

“Kevin Sumner did a great job for us last year and I appreciate what he did,” Propst said. “But it’s a big plus for our program to get a certified trainer. The rehab part of what a trainer does is so important, so crucial.

“It’s a full-time job just rehabbing players and Ryan knows all about that.”

And Kebler went right to work upon arriving in Moultrie, working to get Packers defensive back Dondray Copeland, who had knee surgery in August 2009, back on the playing field.

He also has been working on rehabilitating basketball and softball player Cheyenne Reynolds, who is on the mend from a serious knee injury.

And he faces helping get Preston Mobley back in harness after the Packers offensive tackle injured his foot on the first play of Saturday’s final camp scrimmage in Milledgeville.

Propst said he expects Mobley to miss at least three weeks.

Kebler, who is certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association, is taking a big step. St. Petersburg Catholic, which is in Kebler’s hometown, has about 500 students.

He is now working at a school in Georgia’s largest classification.

Which is fine, Kebler said.

“The biggest challenge is that everything is on a bigger scale,” Kebler said this week. “My impression is that (Propst) wants to run it like a college program.

“And that was part of the lure, the chance to do it right and develop a true sports medicine program.”

Kebler is no stranger to South Georgia, having earned his bachelor’s degree in sports medicine from Valdosta State.

One of his Valdosta State classmates was Philip Pieplow, the longtime athletic trainer at Lowndes High, who told Kebler that Colquitt County was seeking a certified trainer.

Not only is Kebler looking forward to working with the Packers coaching staff and athletes, he likes the idea of moving to a different community.

“I grew up in St. Pete, but it was time to move away,” he said. “My wife and I want to raise our kids in a small town.”

His two sons, ages 10 and 8, started school this week at Hamilton Elementary and his wife took a job at the high school with the CVAE program.

Propst said he would like to be able to get another trainer to work with the eighth- and ninth-grade program.

NOTES: Todd Holcomb of the Georgia High School Football Daily has ranked Colquitt County’s Aug. 28 game at home against defending Mississippi Class 6A champion South Panola as one of the state’s top 10 games of the season.

South Panola has won 103 of its last 105 games and is ranked No. 4 in Max Preps’ Xcellent 25 preseason rankings.

The Oct. 1 Warner Robins-Northside game and the Oct. 8 Lowndes at Valdosta game also are on the list.

The Monday edition Georgia High School Football Daily includes the Maxwell Ratings strength of schedule rankings and lists Colquitt County as having the toughest schedule in the state.

The only teams on the Packers 10-game schedule that did not make the playoffs last year were Warner Robins, Tift County and Coffee. Cook was 7-6; South Panola, 14-1; Thomas County Central, 11-2; Westlake, 7-4; Warner Robins, 6-4; Carver of Montgomery, Ala., 10-2; Tift County, 3-7; Lowndes, 10-2; Coffee, 3-7; and Valdosta 7-4.

The Maxwell Ratings, produced by Loren Maxwell, founder of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, and published Monday in the Georgia High School Football Daily, has Lowndes atop Region 1-AAAAA, followed by Colquitt County, Valdosta and Tift County.

The Maxwell Ratings also lists Camden County atop Class AAAAA, with Lowndes at No. 2. Colquitt County comes in at No. 7.

Maxwell’s prediction for Region 1-AAAAA has Lowndes at 9-1; Colquitt County at 7-3,; Valdosta 6-4; Tift County 5-5; and Coffee 4-6.

In Region 1-AAAA, Maxwell’s predictions have Northside-Warner Robins No. 1, followed by Thomas County Central, Warner Robins and Bainbridge.

Scrimmages of note on Friday include Cairo at Tift County, Coffee at Vidalia, Cook at Lanier, Valdosta at Ware County and Thomas County Central at Lowndes.

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