VALDOSTA — Valdosta and Camden County will find out today when they’re going to play this week.

Valdosta wants to play Saturday night. Camden wants to play Friday night. Coaches Rick Darlington of Valdosta and Jeff Herron of Camden haven’t been able to agree on when the game will be, so the matter will be decided by the Georgia High School Association today.

Valdosta has requested to play Saturday due in part to travel concerns. It takes several buses to transport the team, the band and the cheerleaders to an away game. The football team has had problems securing buses from the school system before. Playing Saturday would also allow the players to attend all of their classes on Friday.

Either way, the game will be played at 7:30 p.m. at Camden’s Gilman Stadium.



Seven teams from the Valdosta area made the Georgia state playoffs, and five remain after the first round.

Valdosta, Lowndes, Clinch County, Brooks County and Cook all prevailed in their first-round contests.

The only local teams to falter in round 1 were Valwood, which fell 30-16 to Pinewood Christian Academy, and Lanier County, which lost 42-0 to No. 5 Randolph-Clay.

Local teams survived the upset bug that bit a lot of the state’s ranked teams. In the first round of the GHSA playoffs, a surprising 12 ranked teams lost. Chief among them were Class AAA No. 1 Carrollton (22-14 to M.L. King) and No. 3 Jefferson County (12-7 to Mary Persons), Class A No. 2 McIntosh County Academy (32-13 to Twiggs County), Class AAAA No. 3 Tucker (17-2 to Southwest DeKalb) and defending AAAA champion Warner Robins (24-20 to Douglas County).

Lowndes, the defending Class AAAAA champion, routed Atlanta Douglass last Friday, 42-18. The Vikings take on Union Grove at 8 p.m. Friday at Martin Stadium. Union Grove defeated Glynn Academy 24-6 last week.

The good news for the Vikings last Friday wasn’t confined to Martin Stadium. Walton’s 27-26 overtime upset of Harrison means that Lowndes will be home for every round of the playoffs except for the semifinals (which are always played in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta). The way the state bracket is set up, a Lowndes-Harrison game would have been played at Harrison, but that was the only team that Lowndes would have to travel to play.

The brackets have not been kind to either Valdosta or Cook. Both must travel to play the No. 1 team in the state. Valdosta goes east to Camden County, while Cook travels north to Dublin.

Valdosta, meanwhile, survived a scare from Riverdale, winning 30-28 on Trey Miley’s field goal with 1:24 to play. That earned them the trip to Camden, which routed Newnan 50-0 last Friday.

Cook opened the playoffs with a 40-7 win over former region rival Bacon County last Friday. Cook must now travel to play a dominant Dublin team that has outscored its first 11 opponents 540-10 this season. That game will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Dublin.

Brooks County opened the playoffs with a 26-21 victory over Appling County. The Trojans host Macon County, an 28-7 upset winner over Vidalia, this Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Clinch County began the defense of its Class A state championship with a 28-13 victory over Brookstone last Friday. The Panthers caught a break when state No. 2 McIntosh County Academy was upset by Twiggs County 32-13. So now instead of traveling to McIntosh this week, Clinch will be hosting Twiggs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Donald Tison Stadium.