More Than State Titles Are at Stake in Valdosta : Small Georgia Town Thrives on Success of Its High School Football Program

In the South, serious thinkers have determined, football is partly entertainment and mostly religion.

How else could Alabama faithful believe that the late Bear Bryant still calls an occasional fourth-and-goal for the Crimson Tide?

But if college football is church to Southern fans, then high school football is a spirited version of Sunday school. And the game is played with no more devout spirit than at Valdosta High School, where faith runs deep and so does winning.

Self-proclaimed as “the winningest football team in America,” Valdosta might get an argument from America’s other prep powerhouses. But no doubter can deny that autumn Friday nights are a wholly different ballgame in Valdosta, where, in sheer passion, the high school and city stand second to none.

The first thing anyone needs to know about Valdosta and football is that the Wildcats lose about as often as it snows in south Georgia.

Valdosta won its first six games this season to raise its record to 625-129-33 in the 72 years it has fielded teams. The Wildcats have won 32 regional championships, 19 state titles and the mythical national championship five times, including last season.

Valdosta has had only 11 head coaches, all of whom left with a winning record. Indeed, the Wildcats have had only four losing seasons since 1913 and have outscored opponents by a staggering 14,000 points over the years. Dozens of Wildcat players have won college scholarships.

“We’ve pretty much held our own against everybody except Valdosta,” said Joe Wilson, coach of nearby Lowndes County High School, the Wildcats’ chief rival.

Many football people, particularly Wilson, who played for Valdosta in the early 1950s, consider Lowndes-Valdosta the best state rivalry this side of Georgia-Georgia Tech. But it has been a one-sided rivalry, with Valdosta winning 19 of 24 games. However, Lowndes is in exclusive company. Only seven teams have beaten Valdosta more than five times in more than seven decades.

“Valdosta does football right,” Wilson said.

The highway leading into Valdosta--a city of fewer than 40,000 merely a screen pass from the Florida border and much closer to Alabama than Atlanta--is paved with giant white paw prints. This is Wildcat country, and the community never lets anyone forget it.

A billboard near Interstate 75 declares Valdosta as “Winnersville U.S.A.” Valdosta also is known as the “Azalea City,” but football, not flowers, is the main topic of conversation.

“It’s hard to carry on a regular conversation with anybody,” said Matt Butler, a Wildcat sophomore offensive lineman. “Everybody wants to talk football. But that’s OK. I like seeing the sparkle in their eyes.”

And with good reason. Coach Nick Hyder, in his 14th season and the second-winningest coach in the school’s history, figures his football program generates $250,000 in revenue each year from season tickets to its 13,000-seat stadium, game programs, Wildcat paraphernalia and other fund-raising projects.

That kind of money lets the Wildcats enjoy such extravagances as a traveling 200-piece marching band and a $100,000 weight room.

But money cannot buy high school players, even at Valdosta, so the Wildcats win with exceptional coaching, grass-roots player development from Pee Wee leagues on up, and tradition, an ingredient that has no price tag.

“You don’t buy tradition,” Hyder said. “It’s something you earn.”

Hyder feels fortunate still to be part of the Valdosta tradition. In 1974, he succeeded Charlie Greene, who was 17-3 in two seasons and then run off for “philosophical differences.” Greene had followed Wright Bazemore, who in 28 seasons won 268 games and 16 state titles.

Hyder came to Valdosta from West Rome High School in north Georgia to “rebuild” the Wildcats and their legendary reputation. His first season, Hyder dismissed a dozen players for disciplinary reasons and the Wildcats finished 3-7. The natives were restless.

“But you know, that might be my proudest year of coaching,” Hyder recalled, “because that team could easily have been 0-10.”

Valdosta rebounded the next season, winding up 10-2, and Hyder’s teams have lost only 13 games in the last 11 years. He recently became the first coach in Georgia history to win 200 games in only 20 seasons.

Besides money, fame and glory, football has brought something else to Valdosta. Harmony.

A traditional Deep South town, Valdosta was no stranger to the racial tensions of past decades. But Hyder says football, with blacks and whites blocking for each other under the banner of their town, helped smooth a rocky road.

“I think history will show that football has taught us how to live together,” Hyder said. “The Supreme Court told us we had to live together, but they didn’t tell us how. That’s what football has done for this community.”

Season tickets for seats on the home side of Cleveland Field are handed down from generation to generation. The Touchdown Club has more than 1,200 members, some of whom no longer live in the same time zone, and fans line up to hear Hyder narrate game films each week.

Dozens of townspeople routinely show up to watch Valdosta practice. Hyder does not believe in blocking sleds or tackling dummies, only contact. One recent afternoon, a man who said he was a building contractor taking a few hours off kept a close watch from the sideline.

“I could be over at my girlfriend’s house,” he said. “But there are nine months out of the year when there’s no football when I can be over there. This is the high point of my year.”