MOULTRIE — Even the most cockeyed of optimists would have had a difficult time predicting that the 2024 Colquitt County football team would win a region championship and advance to the second round of the state playoffs.
It was not just that the Packers lost 17 starters from the team that went 12-1 in 2023 (and 13-1 the year before that).
It was the quality of those who moved on.
Players such at Neko Fann, Ny Carr, Landen Thomas, Zay Williams, Tyshon Reed Jr., Turk Daniels and Nick Pace were pillars of the two previous extraordinary Colquitt County teams.
Many in Packer Nation privately expected a rebuilding season that might look like 5-5, maybe 6-4.
And after the Packers lost Games 3 and 4 to North Gwinnett and Lee County (although it was clear each would go deep in the playoffs), a title of any kind looked far-fetched for the Packers.
But when Georgia Kicker of the Year Brett Fitzgerald knocked through a field goal as time expired to beat Lowndes in the Region 1-6A opener, hope was renewed.
A 7-3 loss at Valdosta tempered the title aspirations a bit, but wins over Tift County, Camden County – both on the road – and Richmond Hill rekindled them.
Although Colquitt and Lowndes finished tied atop the region standings, Fitzgerald’s field goal gave the Packers the tiebreaker.
Ramsey Dennis returned the opening kickoff in the opening playoff game for a touchdown and the Packers got what many might have thought was a long-shot eighth victory.
But the tank came up empty in the second half of the second playoff game loss to Collins Hill and, although the 8-4 season was over, it was not as unsatisfactory as some expected.
The region title – the third in a row and fourth in the last five seasons – was both vindication and perhaps a preview, although the Packers again are losing a spate of fine players.
But the 2024 group was a resilient one that provided plenty of memories in a season in which nine games were played on Tom White Field in Mack Tharpe Stadium’s 70th season.
The Packers are now 317-112-3 while playing in the park named in 1954 for the former Moultrie High and Georgia Tech lineman and World War II hero who lost his life in 1945 in the Pacific.
The Packers also have won 40 of 49 playoff games played at home.
The season featured a Fitzgerald watch as Brett emerged from older brother Ryan’s shadow and set state records for career extra points converted (228) and career kicking points (369).
In addition to his consequentional 3-pointer to beat the Vikings, his career-high 52-yarder kept the Packers from being shut out against Valdosta.
He finished his career with 47 field goals.
The Packers usual passing fireworks were missing this season, but Fitzgerald (with help from snapper Chason Glenn and holder Logan Morris) and a methodical rushing attack helped keep the Packers afloat.
And Fitzgerald and Co. was not the only special teams contributor.
Sam Miller averaged 42.2 yards a punt and had eight downed inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.
And in addition to Dennis’s 71-yard touchdown return of the opening kickoff against Wheeler, Jah’Boris Fuller returned a kickoff and a punt for a score for the Packers.
Day’Shawn Brown quietly had one of the finest seasons ever by a Packer back, rushing for 1,301 yards.
He rushed for 100 or more yards in a game six times this season, including 189 against Camden County and 188 against Richmond Hill to keep the Packers in the region title hunt.
He scored 17 touchdowns and threw for two more this year.
In his career, he rushed for 2,575 yards and scored 35 touchdowns.
And a worthy heir-apparent emerged this season as well.
Junior Jae Lamar, playing his first season of varsity football, revealed his speed and strength while rushing for 885 yards (7.9 per carry) and 11 touchdowns scoring two other times on pass receptions.
His offers from top-flight football-playing universities piled up as the season went on.
The rushing lanes for Brown, Lamar and Dennis were provided by an offensive line that had three of its members – left tackle Khalil Collins, left guard Casey Scott and center Matthew Dillon – named to the All-Region first team.
Collins’ toil resulted in him signing a National Letter of Intent to play collegiately at the University of South Florida.
Two members of the Packers defensive front – Amari Wilson and Jartavius Flounoy – also took advantage of the early signing period.
Wilson, a three-year starter, will head to Statesboro to play for Georgia Southern.
Flounoy will head up I-75 to play at Georgia State.
All three were among the 19 Packers named to the All-Region 1-6A team.
Fitzgerald repeated as the Special Team Player of the Year. Brown, Lamar, Dillon, Collins, Scott, Miller, Wilson, Flounoy, Fuller and safety Alfonso McNeil were selected for the first team.
Calhoun was named the Region Coach of the Year for the third-straight season.
It marked the fifth time in his nine-year head coaching career that he has received the honor.
Packer fans also were able to celebrate the anniversaries of two of the program’s three state championship teams this year.
It was 30 years ago that the 1994 team went 15-0 under head coach Jim Hughes and won the Packers first state title.
Twenty years later, Rush Propst’s 2014 Colquitt County team also won all 15 of its games to claim the Packers second title.