MOULTRIE – Reminder: The state football championship game was not called off. The winner Friday is state champion for 2017.

Maybe you will want to enjoy the comforts of home as this game will be shown on GPB television and gpb.org. But Packer head coach Rush Propst has a different idea for the Colquitt County High fan base, more like a plea:

“Come to the game.”

The coach already with two state championship victories in Moultrie to go with his numerous titles won in Alabama always looks for an edge. It won’t be home field advantage, but Propst would like to see the fans make it one anyway. Whatever it takes, he would like to see as many – if not more – people there backing the Packers as there are the home North Gwinnett Bulldogs.

“Our fans are the key to our survival,” said Propst on Wednesday in the middle of preparing for one more road trip, this one Friday at North Gwinnett High. “I don’t want our kids to run out on the field like we always do, look up and the stands not be jam packed. How would that psychologically affect our team? The more people there, the better.”

Whatever it takes, begging to get off work early, holding on to that $22 advanced ticket already purchased, braving the cold (daytime highs forecasted to be 48 degrees under mostly cloudy skies).

5,000. That’s the number Propst would like to see erupting when the Packers take the field.

It’s another road game, but it’s not any ordinary game.

It’s not in a massive new stadium with giant screens and multiple concession options. It’s instead outdoors, in the cold, just like in the old days, if you consider early 1990s old days.

It’s still the GHSA Class 7A championship football game for the 2017 season, a spot Colquitt County High’s Packers earned to be in after four straight road playoff wins. Weather circumstances beyond anyone’s control forced the GHSA to call off six such title games last weekend when everyone from Rome and Rabun County to Lee and Coffee counties were going to settle into the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium and cheer their favorite team to victory.

So it’s a flashback to really not that far away, 2008, the last season that state championships in GHSA football were decided at separate home sites. From the mid-1990s to 2008, the semifinal round was held inside Atlanta’s Georgia Dome. In 2009, that changed to the championship games. This year, the Georgia Dome was brought down as Mercedes-Benz now takes over as home for the Atlanta Falcons, the SEC Championship game, the Peach Bowl and anything else the capitol city can secure.

What’s relevant to fans of the Colquitt County High Packers is, no, this team won’t be playing inside this new facility with its turf field. But the game itself was not called off. Like it or not, the reality is that North Gwinnett, as a region champion, gets to host the 7A final Friday with a 7:38 p.m. kickoff on its home grass field in Suwanee. In some cases, like Warner Robins vs. Rome in Class 5A, both teams involved were region champions, so a coin toss decided the host school (Warner Robins for 5A).

Going back to the 1990s, two times a state championship game took place at Mack Tharpe Stadium. LaGrange kicked a field goal with 13 seconds left to defeat Colquitt County 17-16 in 1991. But in 1994, the Packers raced through the season 15-0 to claim the school’s first state title. The championship was again at Mack Tharpe Stadium and was against a region rival, Valdosta High. The Packers beat the Wildcats twice, both times at home. The state final score was 23-10.

Colquitt County High football didn’t reach another state final until 2010 in a season that ended 5-5. By 2010, everything had moved indoors in Atlanta.

This year’s bunch went 7-3, losing two Region 1-7A games in a row to fall to the No. 3 seed. Look where they are now.

RECOLLECTIONS

As for this writer, Friday’s game will be the seventh GHSA state final covered, the first for Colquitt County High. It was supposed to be the third one of the seven to take place in Atlanta.

I can remember when the news was flowing about moving state semifinal games to the Georgia Dome. It was not met with great enthusiasm in South Georgia. My own editor at the time in Jesup was against it and had me editorialize with that viewpoint. The sticking point of it all: taking away such a big game from a local school and community. It gave people a reason to visit your town, and local commerce and tourism is always a big small town issue.

Now, in those days Wayne County High was not getting that far in football, so you could say what anyone there thought about it hardly mattered.

Moving on to Americus, that’s where I got the first taste of championship level football with the powerful Panthers. They already had one semifinal run before I arrived, and nobody seemed concerned at all about what the home town was losing by going to Atlanta for the semifinals. There, it was all about the big honor of playing in the Dome, the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience for the young players.

But getting to the actual championship game, now you are back on your home field if you are fortunate enough to face a lower region seed or win the coin toss. Americus High hosted two such games in a row for each of those reasons.

Let me pause at this point and say, if all eight games last weekend went on as scheduled, this would be a recap of the 2017 Packer season and nobody would have any complaints. That’s not what happened, so instead you have cries of “joke” and “tragedy” out there.

In 2000, it was not a great day for football on the scheduled day for Americus to host Washington-Wilkes. A tornado touched down in the city during the day, lightening struck during halftime delaying the second half, but the game went on in a lot of goop.

Covering one particular school in Houston County meant covering three state championship games in a row (2005-2007). Statesboro High won the right to host the 2005 Class 4A finals, this coming off hosting the year before. From what I remember, there was quite a bit of problems with seating at their home field. So what do you know, but we are playing at Paulson Stadium at Georgia Southern University in 2005.

In 2006, the game was at McConnell-Talbert Stadium. In 2007, it was at Ware County’s renovated Memorial Stadium with a 12,000 seating capacity. No problems with seating in either case.

Then in 2009 and 2014, I cover championship games in the Dome. Can see why the GHSA and even GPB would want this central location, because that means everyone’s in the same location. Everyone gets televised with the crews and cameras not having to budge, and the officials are able to have all the trophies together as opposed to being spread out.

Moving forward, we may never see an early December weekend like that in Atlanta ever again. For two decades, any high school games slated at the Dome went off without a hitch, so no one had a cause to say anything bad about the setup. This just might turn out to be an unfortunate aberration.

But back to Propst’s main point: “Come to the game.”