Column: Rivalries 'bigger' in South Ga.

By Larry Fleming

High school football in South Georgia is different from North Georgia. That’s not a slam on teams north of, say, Rome. That’s the reality of prep football in the Peach State.

The truth of the matter is that success in our area is measured differently than that in, say, Valdosta, where Lowndes and Valdosta have one of the state’s best, if not the best, rivalries going on.

Valdosta was once the king, but Lowndes has taken control of the series by winning four straight games and seven of the last nine. That success has helped put a small dent in Valdosta’s overall lead of 33-13 in the series.

In one stretch from 1986 to 1996, Valdosta defeated Lowndes 13 straight times and twice in the same season two times, which meant Valdosta was putting up a formidable roadblock for Lowndes in postseason play.

Lowndes, winner of three of the past four Class 5A state championships, is currently riding a school-record 20-game winning streak. The Vikings haven’t lost since a 14-9 defeat at the hands of Harrison starting the 2007 season. After that setback, Lowndes ran off 14 straight wins to win another state title.

On Friday, Lowndes turned back No. 3 ranked Northside-Warner Robins, 24-7, before a sellout crowd of 13,500 in a Region 1-5A matchup. The win snapped Northside’s 35-game winning streak. The game pitted 2007 state champions — Lowndes from 5A and Northside, which was in Class 4A before GHSA reclassification moved them up this season.

That sort of thing just doesn’t happen in North Georgia. Solid football teams here routinely have to travel south in the postseason. Success rates drop sharply.

More often than not, the best North Georgia has to offer usually is history by the second round of the playoffs. Dalton in 2001 and Calhoun in recent seasons are the exceptions.

Sellout crowds are pretty rare around here, as are state championships. Dalton won the Class 3A title in 1967, but state title trophies don’t hog much room in many trophy cases at high schools in this area.

For teams north of Rome, winning the ultimate high school gridiron prize has been infrequent at best.

Back in 1954, Rossville claimed a Class 2A title, and duplicated that feat in 1962. Trion won a Class 1A crown in 1974. West Rome won it all in Class 2A in 1965 and back-to-back titles in 1977-78. West Rome also won successive 2A championships from 1982-85. Pepperell was the Class 2A champ in 1990. (All these numbers are from ghsfha.org.)

When it comes to rivalries, there are some nice ones in our area, with a few even earning spots in the category of “heated.” Dalton-Northwest Whitfield comes to mind, and that’s because of the postseason implications in recent years.

Dalton’s Catamounts, who suffered their first loss of the season Friday night in a 38-14 setback at Sequoyah, have a 24-5 all-time edge over the Bruins and have won the past three games and seven of the last eight. The Cats have that type edge against most schools they consider rivals.

Friday was just the second time the Cats have played Sequoyah, but the homestanding Chiefs did something most teams haven’t against Dalton — score a bunch of points. Sequoyah registered the most points the Cats have allowed since Northwest put up 38 in a three-point win in 2004. One has to go back to the 2001 Class 4A state title game to find a team that scored more than 38. Statesboro got 51 on Dalton that night.

The Dalton-Rome series is a good rivalry, again because of the postseason ramifications and the intensity at which the teams go at each other. In 12 games between them, the Cats have won eight times.

However, they’re not like those in South Georgia. I’m not sure any rivalry game around here has drawn 13,000 to 14,000 like Lowndes and Northside Warner-Robins. Not in my 10 years in Dalton anyway.

Attendance numbers can always be exaggerated, but games involving Valdosta and Lowndes are almost always around 12,000 to 13,000. Crowds alone don’t make a rivalry, but they certainly add pizzazz to the games. Heated rivalry games played before 1,000 or so people do little to make stir the competitive juices of coaches, players or fans.

Games in front of sellout crowds lend to an atmosphere conducive to potential “instant classics.”

My point is that Dalton and Northwest Whitfield renew their rivalry for the 30th time on Oct. 31 at Harmon Field in the final regular-season game for both teams. The following week they play Region 7-4A playoff games that could determine the postseason seeding for both schools. It’s a good bet fans will come close to packing Bill Chappell Stadium. That will only add more intensity to the game.

And that’s what we’re talking about here — rivalries that make you want to get to the stadium early, stay late and enjoy everything in between.

Larry Fleming is sports editor of The Daily Citizen.