Colquitt County tight ends coach Kiel Pollard works with senior Jean Garcia in a recent practice.

MOULTRIE — Eight years ago, the Colquitt County football team headed into the 2014 season with a pair of state semifinal appearances behind them.

The Packers were ousted in both 2012 and 2013 at Norcross and finished those seasons 10-4 and 11-3.

The eight combined playoff victories those two seasons were gratifying for a program that had just one state championship to its credit, but they did not completely impress Kelvin Pollard, father of Colquitt County’s then-rising junior tight end Kiel Pollard.

The elder Pollard was a 230-pound junior defensive tackle on the 1994 Colquitt County team that went 15-0 and won the school’s first state football championship.

“He told me those playoff wins were nice,” said the younger Pollard, now the Packers first-year tight ends coach.

Kelvin Pollard implied that a win in a Game 15 would have been nicer.

His talented son and his teammates apparently got the message.

He went out and added two more state championship rings to the family collection when he helped the Packers duplicate 1994’s perfect record in both 2014 and 2015.

Kiel Pollard is now in a position to help lead the 2022 Packers chase another state championship.

Many believe this year’s Colquitt County team is talented enough to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Sean Calhoun, who as an offensive assistant coach in 2014 and 2015 helped lead the Packers to 30 consecutive wins, is back as Colquitt County’s head coach this year.

A number of outstanding performers from the 2021 team that went 8-3 are back, including quarterback Neko Fann, wide receiver Ny Carr, tight end Landon Thomas, running back Charlie Pace and safety-linebacker Kamal Bonner.

Thomas and Carr have committed to Georgia; Bonner to Georgia Tech; and Pace to Georgia State.

Jack Luttrell, a safety who transferred to Colquitt County this year when his father Stan Luttrell was added to Calhoun’s staff, has committed to Tennessee.

Pollard would like nothing better than for this year’s Packers to experience what he did in 2014 and 2015.

He believes this year’s team has the talent and speed offensively to make a state title a realistic goal.

Kelvin Pollard, who died in January 2021 from complications of COVID-19, would have been proud to see his son back on the Packers sideline.

He was a driving force for his son’s quest for excellence on the football field that also led to a injury-shortened career at the University of South Carolina.

“When I was playing 7-8 rec league football, he understood my passion for football,” Kiel said.

Kiel also was a fine basketball player and while he performed well for the Packers in that role, “I knew I couldn’t jump out of the gym like those other guys.

“That’s when I began to take football more seriously.”

That especially pleased his father.

“He was a football-first guy,” Kiel said. “He pushed me.”

Like the rest of Packer Nation, Kelvin Pollard watched his son become one of Colquitt County’s most popular and successful players.

He continues to hold the school record in career pass receptions with 197, receiving yards with 2,949 and career touchdown catches with 34.

He also ran for 13 touchdowns in the Packers’ “Wild Hawg” formation during the 2015 season, in which he also caught 76 passes for 1,163 yards and 18 touchdowns.

In his final game playing for Colquitt County, he caught six passes and rushed for two touchdowns in the Packers’ 30-13 state championship game win over Roswell.

In one of his other memorable performances, he scored four touchdowns – all in the second quarter – in the Packers’ 58-14 win over Lee County in 2014.

Three of those touchdowns came on passes from Chase Parrish. The other was the result of a 35-yard punt return.

Pollard credited a strong senior class for providing leadership in the 2014 state champion season, but is quick to point out that the junior backups on that team deserve plenty of credit.

“When a starter went down, we had someone who could come in and play just as hard,” he said.

Many of those juniors became key members of the 2015 state championship team.

After earning his second-straight state championship ring, Pollard signed with South Carolina and as a true freshman tight end in 2016, he played in 12 games and caught one pass from 18 yards.

He played in all 13 games as a sophomore, primarily on special teams.

In 2018, he played in all 13 games and made three starts.

Pollard finished with 15 pass receptions for 181 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown catch against Clemson.

Poised to take a more prominent role in 2019, Pollard suffered a small fracture in his neck making a block during a preseason drill.

The original prognosis was that he would miss four to six weeks.

But an MRI revealed a cyst on his spinal cord, which likely had been there since he was a child.

With the possibility of catastrophic injury related to the cyst, Pollard gave up football.

South Carolina allowed him to remain as a student-assistant coach for the remainder of the season and he was named a team captain for the game against North Carolina.

His career stats include 38 games, 17 receptions for 203 yards and two touchdowns.

In 2018 he received the special teams’ Leadership, Tenacity and Unselfish Teammate awards.

He also earned the Jim Carlen Special Teams Player of the Spring award in 2019.

And off the field, he was named to the 2016-2017 First-year SEC Honor Roll and the 2017 SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll.

Pollard graduated from South Carolina in December 2019.

He returned to work as a graduate assistant in 2020 and expected to go back to the Gamecocks in 2021.

But when his father passed away earlier that year, he decided to move back to Moultrie, where brother K’veon was a senior on the Colquitt County football team.

“With Daddy gone, I think my family needed me,” Pollard said.

K’veon played both offense and defense last season.

As a tight end, he caught two passes for 20 yards.

As a defensive end, he had 13 solo and 13 assisted tackles, including three for losses and 2.5 sacks.

K’veon signed with Georgia Military College and currently is in Milledgeville going through summer workouts with the Bulldogs.

“It’s a great opportunity for him,” Kiel said of his 6-foot-2, 210-pound little brother. “He just has to want it.”

While K’veon is developing as a player at Georgia Military, his older brother is helping develop the next generation of Packer tight ends.

And he inherits a potential All-State player in Thomas, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder who turned down a number of Division I offers to sign with the defending National Champion Bulldogs.

Thomas caught 31 passes for 516 yards and seven touchdowns last year. One of his scoring receptions covered 75 yards.

Pollard likes Thomas’s frame, his jumping ability and his blocking proficiency.

“If we need him to block a linebacker, he can do it,” Pollard said. “If we need him to block a defensive end, he can do it. If he he has to block a defensive back, he can do that too.

“That’s what makes him so special.”

And, Pollard adds, “He’s a humble guy.”

Senior Jean Garcia is expected to be Thomas’s backup and Cam Harden also is in the mix.

The Packers also have two rising freshmen that could be outstanding players in the future: Alexis Barge Jr. and Nyshon Osby.

Another of Pollard’s duties this season is running the weight room at Charlie A. Gray Junior High School with Packers receivers coach David Hill Jr.

Pollard is one of four new coaches on Calhoun’s staff who are former Colquitt County players, joining Bryce Giddens, Quin Roberson and Bull Barge.

Barge and Pollard were teammates on the 2014 state championship team.

Pollard said he is thrilled to be back at his high school alma mater and he hopes to be able to build solid relationships with the players he is charged with leading.

And perhaps help them earn a championship ring along the way.