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With the Valdosta State University Blazers returning to the field Saturday, the region’s football season is in full swing.
The traditions continue.
Yes, for our part of South Georgia, winning is an overwhelming part of that tradition. Valdosta High School’s record-breaking number of wins. Lowndes High School’s number of state championships in the past decade. VSU Blazers’ national championship seasons. In Valdosta-Lowndes County, we carry our winning traditions even into the names we call ourselves.
Winnersville. Titletown.
Last week, Valdosta High brought the Cat Walk back to Death Valley. The team entered the field like thunder. The Cat Walk is a tradition worth reviving. It’s good to see again.
See, football is more than just a game here. It is tradition. It is community. It is family.
In some Valdosta families, generations share their tales of taking South Georgia fields. Football is a source of individual pride but it is also a source of shared experience, whether on the field as a player, on the field as a band member at halftime, on the sidelines as a cheerleader, in the stands as a fan.
Football is tales of high school Friday nights and university Saturday afternoons. As thousands of fans fill local stadiums this weekend and in the weekends to come, they will create new chapters in the local lore of the game.
Games past, both played and observed, will be recalled. Each crunch of helmets and pads will echo similar clashes from seasons past. Each fumble evokes memories of heartbreaking losses. Each touchdown recalls the elation of epic victories.
Football is winning here. But it is also tradition. A tie that binds South Georgia’s generations.
What We Think
Football traditions 2010
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Leaving NCLB behind
Georgia schools may be sighing in relief today, following the announcement that the U.S. Department of Education granted a waiver to the state, along with nine others, from the rigorous requirements of the No Child Left Behind act.
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Don’t jettison landmark
While we respect the request to relocate the F-86 aircraft from outside Mathis City Auditorium to the new Moody Air Force Base Airpark, we would hope the city and MAFB would reconsider moving it.
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Shame in Berrien County
Unfortunately for Sherrie Williams of the Berrien County school-based health clinic, she talked to The Times and praised the program that she oversees. This pride in her work led to the loss of her job.
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Grading policy: A second chance?
In clarifying the Lowndes County Schools’ controversial grading policy, Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith spoke of second chances.
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Be up to any weather challenge
Georgia’s Severe Weather Awareness Week starts today and runs through Friday. The idea behind the week is to prepare Georgians for weather emergencies and how to keep these situations from becoming tragedies.
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Parents and schools
There is a lot of talk lately about school systems and grading policies, and how all of a child's problems come back to a lack of parenting. But is it really that simple? Can it be a case where the school systems are so focused on the problem few that the majority of students are ignored?
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Thumbs up, thumbs down
THUMBS UP: To Brooks County High School engineering and technology teacher Don Morgan and his students. They recently received national attention for their work with biodiesel fuel. They collect used cooking oil from area fast-food restaurants then process this oil into biodiesel. Morgan hopes to next interest the Brooks County school buses into running on the fuel created in his class. This classroom not only prepares students for the future but may prepare all of us for an alternative energy source.
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Take me out to the ball park
The Valdosta State baseball season begins today. The Blazers host Lindenwood at 2:30 p.m. Nothing beats quality baseball played in warm weather with a great venue like Billy Grant Field.
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What We Think: Signing Day
Wednesday was National Signing Day, the day when high school athletes across the country make official announcements about what school they’ve chosen to sign with.
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School policy fails expectations
Lowndes County Schools recently implemented new grading guidelines for students. These guidelines have left many parents upset ...
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Leaving NCLB behind
