Derrick Davis | The Valdosta Daily TimesValdosta quarterback Hunter Holt carries the ball against Dalton last Friday in a Class 6A semifinal game at Harmon Field. 

VALDOSTA — Arete.

In the most basic sense of the term, arete means excellence of any kind.

Arete stands for the act of living up to one’s fullest potential, and that’s why, nearly nine months ago, the Valdosta football program adopted the five-letter word with Greek origins as their team motto.

Today, the Wildcats will have the opportunity to achieve the ultimate arete in the Class 6A state championship game against the Tucker Tigers.

A little more than a month after Alan Rodemaker was hired as the head coach of the Valdosta Wildcats, and still six months before the season-opening Winnersville Classic, the program decided the term would be one to live by, promoting, not only excellence, but moral virtue as well.

Fourteen games later, and in the midst of preparing for their first appearance in a state title game since 2003, the Wildcats still prioritize the definition of arete.

“It’s our theme, the way we go about each and every day,” Rodemaker said Tuesday. “Like yesterday for instance, I think our kids every Monday when they come in, I usually have something I do with our kids to motivate them and tell them about the week ahead.

“So when they get down here for sixth period, yesterday I had a devotion. My lesson yesterday was really, faith, family, football. Even in this week, don’t get those priorities mixed up…”

Valdosta has come a long way from the optimistic group that hoped to continue to build on the momentum generated by former head coach Rance Gillespie over the past six seasons with Rodemaker as his defensive coordinator.

When he was hired, Rodemaker said he looked forward to “leading this program to a new spectrum,” by continuing his tradition of strong defenses while looking to become “a little more athletic, a little more physical,” on the offensive side of the ball.

Through 14 games, Rodemaker and his coaching staff has done just that.

Even with Rodemaker taking on the additional duties that come with the position of head coach, the defense hasn’t skipped a beat. If anything, under the guidance of defensive coordinator Adam Carter and assistants DeMario Jones, Stacey Duckworth, Ryan Branch and Kendall Lacey, the Wildcats defense is playing as well as it ever has in the Rodemaker era.

Valdosta’s held opponents to 15 points and 257 yards of total offense per game. The Wildcats are equally as stingy through the air and on the ground, allowing just 128 yards per contest in both phases of the game, and they’ve forced 31 turnovers in 14 games.

The Wildcats’ offense has undergone the transformation Rodemaker had for it as well. Although the passing yardage, and thus the total yards of offense, is less than the 266 and 381 yards Valdosta averaged per game a season ago, led by offensive coordinator Tucker Pruitt and assistants Jason King, Matt Winslette, Thomas Reese and Israel Troupe, the offense is scoring more points per game (34.64 compared to 30.25) than last year thanks in part to a reinvigorated running game that’s averaging 40 more yards and nearly a yard more per rush than the 2015 team.

The 2016 ‘Cats aren’t slouches through the air either. Quarterbacks Josh Belton and Hunter Holt have completed a combined 65 percent of their passes for 2,277 yards and 26 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. Don’t forget the 78 yards and three touchdown passes thrown by the trio of receivers/offensive weapon J.R. Ingram, Wesley Veal and Jayce Rogers.

The team has certainly come together under Rodemaker’s vision, but he credits the players that have made the journey and their commitment to arete for the 13-1 record and state championship berth they’ve attained.

“I think the reason we’ve had so much success this year, we ask a lot of our kids, and all of the kids we started with were willing to put forth the effort,” Rodemaker said. “We’ve had a lot of kids go back to not playing. A lot of kids, ‘go back to the hallway,’ is what I call it, and that’s really molded our team. Whenever you lose one bad apple, it affects 10 others that stay with you in a positive way.”

The process isn’t done though.

There’s still one game left to be played, and it stands to be Valdosta’s toughest test of the season against a Tucker team that has overcome its own set of trials and tribulations to meet the Wildcats today in the Georgia Dome.

Jones, also the team’s director of football operations, won a national championship with the Valdosta State Blazers, and that’s why he’s continued to push the players to finish and squeeze every last drop of the lemon that is the Wildcats’ season.

“Kids are the same, the lemon is the same, you’ve just got to keep squeezing,” Jones said. “That’s probably corny for some people, but we understand it as a staff.”

Derrick Davis is a sports reporter at the Valdosta Daily Times.