I expect the short drive down 319 tonight to the Thomas County Central gymnasium for Colquitt County first varsity competitions of 2006 will be uneventful one.

One turn off the highway, cross 19 and take a left to school. Perhaps the trip back will be uneventful as well as pleasant for the die-hard Packers basketball fans willing to put 50 miles on the vehicle.

The Packers, 6-3 under new coach Kirven Davis, and Lady Packers, 7-4 under veteran Joe Parker, are likely to be entertaining over the next three months. Man of the rest of the school’s athletic teams should follow suit over the next five.

The turnover caused by the resignations of such longtime coaches as Mike Singletary, Keith Hall, Jeff Morris and Scott Chafin is being sorted out and the results will become clearer as the year goes on.

Early returns are promising.

Tim Cokely took the football team to the second level of the playoffs, Colquitt County’s first such venture since Jim Hughes’ final season in 1999. Still, the Packers failed to reach the seven-win plateau again and Cokely will have to do some heavy renovations to his staff after losing four assistants.

Carman Phillips was the girls softball team’s fourth coach in as many years and while she was unable to get the team above the .500 mark, she did get her young team to the postseason, where the Lady Packers proved they may be a team to contend with over the next few years.

The wrestling team has already won more matches than it did all of last year and may have found a permanent home at the old Pineland School gymnasium. Randall Balch is an accomplished coach, familiar with the sport on the Olympic level and appears to have his charges believing and enjoying.

The middle school program also appears on the rise under Travis Torbert, who is getting some invaluable assistance from the irrepressible Kevin Giddens.

Balch also will try his hand with the boys soccer team, which suffered through a tough season last year. Jimbo Jarvis will be back and hoping to improve the Lady Packers record.

Another program that bears watching this year, although it is rare that anyone does, is the air rifle team. Its top four shooters have already won one of the top matches in the country and could contend for a state championship.

Vickie Dampier, Jessica Corona, Yohann Brinson and Shontae Robinson may not be household athletic names in Colquitt County, but under the unsung and expert tutelage of “the Gunny” Emmett Bryant, they could form the best team in the school’s 10-year air rifle history.

Golf coach Donald Dale will have a veteran group of boys back and may be able to cobble together an excellent girls team as well.

The boys baseball team will have its work cut out for it and will have to face what many believe will be a state title contender in Tift County.

Grant Hammack will return after a year’s absence and will be in charge of the boys tennis team. Linda Berl is getting her strength back and would like nothing better than a second straight trip to the final four for her girls team.

And can the Colquitt County boys track team top what it accomplished last year? The Packers shocked state track aficionados by winning the Region 1-AAAAA meet, perhaps for the first time ever. With Jamal Hayes, who is receiving recruiting calls from some of the top programs in the county, leading the way, the Packers could pull off a repeat.

Colquitt County divers Ryan Helms and Hannah Moore – or any one of several others trained at Moss Farms – could bring home state championships. And while Colquitt County has a swimming team capable of providing points at the state meet, it might be a while before it is a factor at that level.

Which brings us back to this afternoon’s trip to Thomasville.

Both the Packers and Lady Packers are off to fine starts and will be the among first Colquitt County teams with a chance for a 2006 region championship.

Colquitt’s girls are a veteran unit with returning All-Region players in Ashley Stafford and Jessica Lemus. The supporting cast of Tiffany Troupe, Nikki Hudson, Dorothy Strong, Nicole Thomas, Taquella Coates, Laquita Smith and others may be as good as Parker has had.

As Lemus continues to get confidence in a knee that was surgically repaired in May, the Lady Packers should improve. Key games against Houston County and state-ranked Tift County are in offing. A region title is not out of the realm of possibility.

Davis has his team playing with enthusiasm. The Packers appear to enjoy running and firing up jumpers, especially leading scorer Antwan Tuff, who when he finds his rhythm, is a potent scorer.

Orion Ponder, who was the focus of the offense in football, is content to be the ball distributor now that basketball has begun. He keeps divving the ball out to the likes of Tuff and Jeremy DeBruce, another senior who can fill it up.

The Packers also are getting some fine work from a first-year starting center in James Trimble, who is responding to Davis’s admonitions and is gobbling up rebounds.

If Andrew Wallace can come back strong from a knee injury suffered against Rockdale County, the Packers could make some pleasant noise in next month’s region tournament.