Jess Patel is back for her fourth season as Colquitt County's volleyball coach. (Connie Southwell/The Moultrie Observer)

MOULTRIE – Six Colquitt County fall sports teams will officially begin preparations for their 2025 seasons on Monday, July 28, including a new game day cheerleading squad.
The football, competitive cheerleading, fast pitch softball, volleyball and cross county teams are staples of the Colquitt County athletics program.
Game day cheerleading is a coed state championship sport with titles determined last year in classifications 1-6A.
Teams can be comprised of any combination of current sideline and competition cheerleaders or other students attending the school and can include dancers, mascots and flag runners.
Teams include from seven to 24 participants and are judged in band chant, situational response, crowd leading and fight song categories.
The use of signs, poms, flags and megaphones is allowed.
The competitions are much like what fans would see on the sidelines on a typical Friday night football game, athletic director Cleve Edwards said.
State championships will be held Dec. 3-4. Last year’s championships were held at the Columbus Civic Center.
Colquitt County’s 2025 team will be led Stacie McDaniel, the school’s longtime spirit cheerleading coach.
The school will continue to field a competitive cheerleading squad, which will be coached again by Carissa McKinney.
The Colquitt County football team will host a pair of padded camps on July 14-15 and will have five days of GHSA-mandated “acclimation” practices starting July 21.
The Packers, who were 8-4 last year, will play their preseason scrimmage on Thursday, Aug. 7, at Bainbridge before opening the season at home on Friday, August 15, against the Benedictine Cadets, who will visit from Savannah.
The Colquitt County softball team will be out to build on its 19-12 season in which the Lady Packers won their fourth region title in six years.
Taylor Barber will be back for his second season as the Lady Packers coach.
His staff will remain the same except for the addition of Naomi Goodno.
She will replace Rhonda Manley, who will help with the cross country team this year.
Eric McCranie was named the Colquitt County cross country head coach just before the start of the 2024 season.
But with McCranie having a full summer to help prepare for the coming season, “I think we are going to see a big improvement in cross country this year,” Edwards said.
“The program is headed in the right direction.”
Edwards noted that “the kids started running in June and have been running every morning at 7 a.m. The off-season is critical for all our teams.”
McCranie had coached the middle school cross country team for several before taking over the varsity team last fall.
Jess Patel will return to coach Colquitt County’s volleyball team for the fourth season.
The team went 10-19 last year and two of its top players signed to play at the collegiate level: Ny’Asia Harper at LaGrange College and captain Jessie Eunice at Huntingdon College.
In addition to the loss of Harper, Eunice and several other seniors, the Lady Packers will be without rising junior standout Reese Webb, who has suffered a knee injury and will not play this season.
Webb was a first-team All-Region 1-6A selection as a sophomore last year.