Faith in Football Runs Deep at This Georgia School

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

How else could Alabama faithful believe 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 autumn Friday nights are a wholly different ballgame in Valdosta, where, in sheer passion, the high school and city stand second to none.

“This community just loves its football,” said Bud Hatcher, a former Valdosta player (halfback-defensive end, class of ‘61) and current president of the Valdosta Touchdown Club. “I don’t really know how to explain it. People around here just live for Friday nights.”

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

“We try to be good losers,” Hatcher said. “But we haven’t had a lot of practice at it.”

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 known only 11 head coaches, all of whom left with a winning record. Indeed, the Wildcats have suffered 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 do it for the most part 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 to still 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. But, as Hyder still discovers, some legends are more entrenched than others.

“I was at a funeral the other day and these two nice little old ladies came up to me,” Hyder said. “They asked, ‘Are you Nick Hyder?’ I said I was. Then they said, just as serious as could be, ‘Oh, it’s so nice to meet the new coach.’ I guess to some people I’ll always be the new coach.”

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

A traditional Deep South town, Valdosta was no stranger to 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.”

On another level, Valdosta football seems to send the entire community off the deep end. 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.”

The man asked not to be identified.

Valdosta’s success starts with the coaching staff, typically a highly transient unit in high school. But not this group. Veterans all, the Valdosta assistant coaches have spurned numerous high school and college offers to stay. In the last 12 years, there has been only one coaching change.

Even more amazing is the feeder program. From the time boys are in grade school, they hear about the virtues of being a Wildcat. Hundreds of youngsters heed the call, learning the game in recreation leagues that use the Valdosta style and terminology.

Interest is so great at the junior high level that four complete teams are fielded. By the time players reach high school, they are thoroughly versed in the Valdosta system and there are enough quality players for two virtually equal teams, which means lots of rested Wildcats and lots of weary opponents.

“These kids grow up craving to be Wildcats,” Hyder said. “You can see it in their little eyes when they look up at you.”

Hyder believes the biggest key of all is the list of priorities he preaches to his players day in and day out.

“God, Family, Academics, Friends, Wildcats,” scribbled on a locker room chalkboard in that order, is Hyder’s philosophy in a nutshell.

At a team meeting before practice, Hyder gathers his 90 players to discuss the coming opponent. But he starts by mentioning a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting and a potential problem that has surfaced.

“Fellas, there are several young men on this team who are struggling with selfish egos,” Hyder said. The rest of his lecture is a combination sermon-pep talk and before it’s over he’s made the opponent sound like the Green Bay Packers under Vince Lombardi.

Sufficiently inspired, the Wildcats head for the practice field and an afternoon of head-banging.

At a school that would even consider dumping a 17-3 coach, the flame never goes out on the hot seat. But Hyder dismisses talk of any pressure. However, he acknowledges a little misgiving over the reputation that precedes Valdosta.

“My biggest problem is sportswriters who make people get mad at me if we don’t have 14 points on the board before we even kick off,” Hyder said.

But, Hyder conceded, with tradition comes an assumption of winning. He was asked what might happen if hard times hit and there were several 3-7 seasons in the future.

“Well,” Hyder mused, “I don’t think they’d let me hang around long enough to find out.”