Marty Kirkland: Season honors come from one man’s opinion

Three months ago, Dalton High’s football team stood on Harmon Field on a Friday afternoon under a blazing August sun. Fans who turned out for the Catamounts’ annual preseason picture day ducked into a tunnel on the visitors side for a bit of merciful shade, though there was no shaking the humidity.

Despite the swelter, the Cats were all smiles. Though aware of the challenges any season brings, the team’s veterans were full of optimism, talking of their hopes for region and state titles. They had just returned from a week of camp in Bell Buckle, Tenn., and were still three weeks away from the opening kickoff at Calhoun.

In August, who doesn’t deserve to think anything is possible?

Fast forward to this past Friday night, by no means frigid but certainly chillier than in August. Their season ended less than an hour earlier by a 35-13 loss to Tucker in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs, the Cats lingered outside the fieldhouse at Bill Chappell Stadium. They accepted hugs and compliments for their effort from family — both “real” and Big Red — and tried to soak in that it was all over.

The seniors, who understandably have the toughest task in stomaching such a loss, drifted back onto Harmon Field, where the lights were still on but somehow less bright than a few hours earlier. They got a last look and posed for photos, but the overall picture was certainly dimmer than on that August afternoon. I’d seen the scene before, in high school stadiums around Florida and Georgia, but the contrast of football’s start and finish, the weather and conditions so often mirroring the emotions, never fails in its poignancy.

“That’s a tough one to lose,” one fan said to me.

Unless you win a state title, the last one always is.

Some 100 miles south in Decatur, Northwest Whitfield lost in the first round of the same bracket. A day later, Christian Heritage endured a heartbreaking end to its quest to repeat as champion in its own league.

For us, football season is over. And I’m almost always amazed at how quickly it all comes to an end. A few weeks from now, The Daily Citizen will present its annual all-area football selections. That will offer a complete look at the best among individuals our area had to offer this season.

But before we get there, here are some of my personal choices for things worth remembering. There are no plaques, trophies, cups or goodie bags with these awards, which have a very rigorous voting process behind them — OK, actually it’s more like one guy’s opinion who had the chance to see a few area games this year. So if I didn’t see it, it’s probably not on the list.

One guy’s opinion, for what it’s worth:

• To be more exact, I actually had the chance to cover 14 games this year, doubling up for two contests in two days twice as Dalton and Southeast played Thursday night games in consecutive weeks. Naturally, more than a dozen games shuffled out to a mix of blowouts — which for fans are snoozers or calls for celebration, depending on which side of the stadium they’re sitting — close ones and downright classics.

The nominees for Game of the Year are: Dalton 27, Sprayberry 21 (Sept. 4); Sonoraville 26, Southeast Whitfield 21 (Sept. 11); Dalton 35, Rome 21 (Oct. 22); Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe 17, Southeast 14 (Oct. 29); and Northwest 43, Paulding County 33 (Nov. 6).

And the winner is ... LFO 17, Southeast 14. This one gets the honor because of its final-minute drama and what was at stake. The Raiders snatched up an opportunity to win when they seemed to be out of chances, but couldn’t take advantage of the situation. Still, for both programs, this night and the chance to play for something important this late in the season represented a building-block moment.

I almost gave a special award to the Paulding-Northwest game for ink used by a sports writer — it seemed like they just swapped scoring drives all night — but realized on second thought they didn’t come close to my personal record for total points, which rests with Murray County’s 64-36 win at Southeast to end the 2005 regular season. Better luck next time.

• Some football players are blessed with physical gifts — I think it’s fairly safe to throw Dalton junior Watts Dantzler, a 6-foot-8-inch, 300-pound offensive tackle, into that category — and are tasked with learning how to manage that asset. Others lack it and must learn how to make up for it. Yeah, it’s a cliche, but sometimes it really is the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight.

The nominees for Fight in the Dog are: Tre Beck, So., RB (Dalton); Luke Mealer, Sr., ATH (Murray); Chito Chibuye, Sr., LB (Northwest); and Trey Parris, Sr., ATH (Southeast).

And the winner is ... Parris. At 5-6, 140, he wouldn’t qualify as a big guy on most middle school teams, but that didn’t stop him from being a major difference-maker for the Raiders this year on offense, defense and special teams. Interestingly, he almost didn’t return to football after missing his junior season because of an injury, but there was no stopping Parris once he was on the field, where he was a good enough tackler that coordinator Chad Brewer felt safe making him the last man to beat on the Raiders defense.

• A tackle is a tackle is a tackle — except when it isn’t. The bottom line for a defender is stopping the guy from reaching the end zone, but making sure he remembers your number can affect how the ball carrier plays the rest of the night. A big hit fires up the crowd and makes the offense think twice about sending plays your way. If you’re on defense, that’s a good thing.

The nominees for Captain Crunch are: Jake White, Jr., LB (Murray); Luke Woodason, Jr., DB (Northwest); Floyd Coffey, Jr., DE (Dalton); and Tanner Phipps, Sr., LB (Southeast).

And the winner is ... Hold on a second — I’ve been handed a last-minute nominee. Truth is, I was all but ready to name this award “The Woodason” in honor of the line of hard hitters by that last name who have come through Tunnel Hill, but then another Bruin stepped into the running — and, believe it or not, he’s a kicker.

Oscar Solarzano, a senior who’s no twig despite his position, got the chance to lay a big lick on Paulding County’s Johnny Sheffield after the Bruins kicked off following their final touchdown of the game. Sheffield had gone all the way from the 10 to the 48, where Solarzano was waiting — you could almost see him savoring what was coming — and turned his shoulders toward the sidelines before taking Sheffield to the ground.

Boom! An award-winning and perhaps touchdown-saving tackle.

• Taking it one week at a time has its merits in keeping a team focused, but the truth is one week bleeds into the next over the course of a season, as what happens on one field on one Friday night can influence what happens somewhere else on another.

In other words, sometimes one win can make a big difference in producing another — and sometimes, so can a loss.

The nominees for Turning Point are: Northwest’s 21-7 win against Woodland-Bartow on Sept. 18 to start a five-game winning streak that propelled the Bruins to the top of the sub-region standings; Southeast’s 23-point second-half comeback in a 23-21 win against Model on Sept. 4; Murray County’s scare of Northwest in an 18-14 loss to the Bruins on Sept. 25; and Dalton’s 38-16 loss to Sequoyah on Oct. 2.

And the winner is ... Dalton. The Cats are known for victories more than losses — 50 consecutive winning seasons is pretty good evidence of that — but they didn’t let this defeat go to waste. Motivated to be better, Dalton went back to work after being dominated by the Chiefs, didn’t worry about what anyone else was doing, and still managed to find its way to the region championship game at the end of the regular season.

• If I covered 14 games this year, that means I saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 plays. Somehow, a few stick out.

The nominees for Play of the Year are: Northwest senior wideout Tyler Painter’s leaping 32-yard touchdown catch from Chad Keeter in a 32-20 win against Southeast on Aug. 28; Dalton sophomore running back Tre Beck’s ankle-breaking 95-yard touchdown run in a 35-21 win against Rome on Oct. 22; Murray County kicker Rey Hernandez’s 45-yard field goal in a 34-10 loss to Cass on Oct. 23; and Southeast freshman defensive tackle Melvin Azaria’s 41-yard interception return in a 27-19 win against Haralson County on Sept. 25.

And the winner is ... Azaria. He was the only one of the nominees who didn’t score points, but you’ve got to give it to the big (though young) guy, because the freshman has shown a knack for making big plays consistently. It was also Azaria who came up with the fumble recovery that gave the Raiders the chance to win against LFO, and he’s just one of the young standouts that have Southeast looking optimistically to next season.

One season ends, the hunger for another begins.

That’s football.

Marty Kirkland is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com.