The GHSA high school football state championship games are underway at Mercedes Benz Stadium this week and one South Georgia school has already claimed a championship. A second will play tonight in a highly anticipated contest to close out championship week.
It was a foregone conclusion that a team south of Macon would win at least one title – the Class A Division I title game had a pair of South Georgia teams squaring off for the championship. It was just a matter of which one would win. The Worth County Rams, led by head coach Jeff Hammond, a former Coffee assistant, defeated the Toombs County Bulldogs 17-13 after trailing by 10 points in the first quarter.
Toombs was the defending state champion and held an early advantage. Worth, however, never panicked and made the most of its opportunities. The go-ahead score came late in the third quarter. The Bulldogs threatened late in the fourth quarter but a big interception halted Toombs’ momentum.
The championship was the first for Worth since 1987 and the first for Coach Hammond as a head coach. Coach Hammond was head coach at Spalding County for one year, 2019. After that, he served as an assistant on Coffee’s staff until he left to take the head coach job at Worth.
Tonight, the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets play the Gainesville Red Elephants for the 5A state championship. The Yellow Jackets have been at the pointy end of the 5A rankings all season long. The Red Elephants have also been one of 5A’s best teams and found themselves in the state spotlight after the third-quarter brawl that prematurely ended their second-round game against Brunswick. After the dust finally settled in the altercation’s aftermath, Gainesville upset #1-ranked Hughes in the quarterfinals then defeated Rome in the semifinals to set up a shot at the title against Thomas County Central.
The Jackets are 14-0 while the Red Elephants are 12-2. Thomas County Central is seeking its second state title in three years while Gainesville is looking for its first since 2012 (and second in school history). The Georgia High School Football Daily has TCC as a six-point favorite with a projected score of 27-21. The game will be broadcast live at 7:30 on GPTV.
