MOULTRIE – Zach Grage is becoming the latest Rush Propst acolyte to have some serious football coaching success.

Grage, a Colquitt County assistant from 2009 through the 2014 state championship season, will bring his Thomasville High team to Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium today for an 8 p.m. non-region game for both 2-0 clubs.

Since taking over the Thomasville program in 2016, tonight’s game will mark Grage’s first official visit to the park where, on the home sidelines, he was a part of 37 Packer victories.

Tonight, he will be looking across at home stands, filled with many fans who appreciated what he did for Colquitt County football while preparing to step out on his own.

Last year, in his second season in Thomasville, he guided the Bulldogs to a 12-1 record, posting the school’s most victories since the Mike Hodges-coached 1988 team went 15-0 and won the last of the program’s five state championships.

The Bulldogs also have won their first two games this season, knocking off local rivals Cairo 15-14 and Thomas County Central 39-7, to earn their No. 3 position in Class AA.

Winning 14 of 15 games is positively Propstian.

Grage fully embraces the effect that his former boss has had on his budding career.

“I have great respect for Rush and all he has done to help my career,” Grage said this week while preparing his Bulldogs to take on a team some rank as the top team in Class 7A. “I’ve got great respect for his program, which we do our best to model.”

After unabashedly calling himself a “Propst disciple,” Grage professed wonder that any young coach would not want to emulate what Propst has done over a career that has produced 283 wins and seven state championships over the last 29-plus seasons.

“If you’re not using that model or researching what’s going on in Colquitt County, you’re …” Grage said, unable to come up with the word to finish the thought.

There are a number of successful high school coaches on the Propst high school tree, including recent former Colquitt assistants Shelton Felton and Sean Calhoun.

Felton left the Packers staff to become the head coach at Crisp County, his alma mater. The Cougars were 3-7 his first season, then went 13-1 in 2016, posting the most wins in school history.

Calhoun, who spent some time in the Colquitt County offensive war room with Grage in 2014, went to Carrollton, where he has gone 22-5 in two-plus seasons.

“And that’s outside all the college coaches (that were previous Propst assistants),” Grage said, still incredulous at Propst influence at both the high school and collegiate level. “I mean, it’s just ridiculous.”

Grage said that when he left Colquitt County to take the head coach job at Gilmer County in 2015, Propst told him he would need three things to become successful: good players, an administration that would allow the hiring of top-tier assistants and community support.

Grage said he has been fortunate to have had some “hard-nosed South Georgia football players,” especially last season when defensive back Charlie Thomas, quarterback J.T. Rice and kicker Carl Blackmore, all seniors, helped lead the team.

“And I’ve had great administrative support,” he says. “We have been able to get the coaches we need. We’ve been able to bring in the best group of guys and let them go to work.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, a couple of members of his current staff have ties to Colquitt County.

Defensive coordinator Sherard Reynolds is a former all-state Packer and All-American Valdosta State Blazer. He returned to Moultrie briefly as an assistant coach before lighting out on his own.

Phillip Brown, another ex-Packers assistant, also is working for Grage.

The community support goes beyond just seeing more fans in the seats at Veterans Stadium. Parents and fans have bought into the Grage formula that produced 12 victories in just his second season.

“There’s no secret to it,” he says. “I think Thomasville was a sleeping giant. People were willing to do anything we asked them.”

Grage had seen first-hand in Moultrie how important it is to ensure players receive the nourishment they need to undergo the strenuous weight training and conditioning necessary to play today’s brand of high school football.

“People told us we’d never be able to get the churches to help feed our kids,” he said. “Now, we’ve got churches helping and we’re getting restaurants’ support.

“People are beating down the doors to help us. And, luckily, it’s happened fairly quickly.”

The community also was able to get behind putting artificial turf on the field at Veterans Stadium.

And as the former strength and conditioning coach for the Colquitt County program that was known for teams strong enough and in shape enough to wear down opponents the fourth quarter, Grage has instituted his own weight regimen in Thomasville.

Another sign of the influence of the Colquitt County program in Thomasville is the fact that 11 of the 20 seniors on the 2017 Bulldogs football team received college scholarships. There could be as many as 12 members of this season’s 21-player senior class to get some scholarship help in continuing their athletic and academic careers.

Grage also is tapping into some of Thomasville High’s outstanding football history to help spur support for the program.

He has brought back the gold pants that were part of the uniforms worn by the successful football teams in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

He also has enlisted former successful Thomasville coaches – including Hodges, Jim Hughes, George Bobo, Jack Johnson and Terry Powell – to talk to his team.

Hughes, who went on to win a state championship at Colquitt County and is still the Packers coach with the most career victories, went 107-34-3 from 1970-1982 in Thomasville.

Grage can rattle off some Bulldog history that he uses to help motivate his players, staff and fans.

He knows that Thomasville has played Moultrie/Colquitt County High 63 times, winning 32 of the games.

In fact, Thomasville went 15-0-2 against the Packers from 1973-1989.

The two schools played each year from 1970-1995 before Thomasville’s enrollment led to its being dropped to lower classifications. The two schools met in 2002 and 2003 splitting the two games.

Propst led the Packers to a 10-7 win over the Bulldogs in Moultrie in 2008, his first year with the Packers.

The next year, Colquitt trailed 19-6 early in the fourth quarter at Veterans Stadium before getting three touchdown runs from Tevin King and another from Quin Roberson in the final 9:16 for a 34-19 victory.

King rushed for 110 yards on 16 carries and quarterback Tyler Brown completed 11-of-15 passes for 139 yards. Tyler Dismuke kicked field goals of 42 and 33 yards.

The two schools have not met since.

If Grage believes the odds are long against his team beating the Packers, he does not let on. Again, taking a page from the Propst’s tome on successful coaching, Grage believes in playing strong programs.

“I remember when Rush went out and scheduled Hoover and Plant,” he says.

And even though his team is starting a freshman quarterback (Chad Mascoe) against one of the nation’s top-ranked programs, he is not selling his Bulldogs short.

“I think we’ve got a chance to play with them,” he says. “And I’ll be disappointed if we don’t play hard.

“I’ll tell you one thing: our kids won’t back down.”