The Valdosta Daily Times
-- —
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.
