Eight Valiants earn all-region honors

Published 7:12 am Friday, December 2, 2011

This season, the Valwood Valiants enjoyed a lot of success on the football field.

Success that brought head coach Brannon Tidwell and his Valiant football team 10 wins and an appearence in the GISA Class AA semifinals.

Earlier this week, Valwood saw eight players from this year’s team be named to the All-Region team, the most of any of team in region 2-AA, as a sign of that success.

“That just comes with you winning the region, you get the most (on the team),” Tidwell said. “We all voted on it, and those are the kids that were selected by myself and the other coaches from the region.”

Among those named to the All-Region squad was junior running back sensation Khary Paige, who finished the season just shy of 2,000 yards rushing. Junior wide receiver Rashad Mathis joined Paige on the team, along with fellow juniors Aulden Bynum and Griffin Clyatt.

Seniors John Akins, Jake Reeves, Troy Woodward and Alex Waldon were also named to the team.

With four juniors being named to the all-region team, it is clear the Valiants will be once again be a force in 2012, although Tidwell noted the loss of this seasons’ senior class will be tough.

“When you lose eight (seniors), and I think four of them started on both sides of the ball, we are going to miss them,” Tidwell said. “The senior class coming up next year is a very talented class. It is a lot to look forward to and there is a lot of talent coming up. We should be pretty good, but the schedule will be a little different. We couldn’t find anyone to play, so we are going to play a lot of really big schools.”

Along with being named to the all-region team, Paige, Woodward and Waldon were each named to the Class AA All-State team.

Piedmont Academy led the way with six all-state selections, followed by Edmund Burke’s five. Piedmont’s Rhett Farmer was named Coach of the Year.

On Saturday, Waldron will participate in the GISA All-Star football game, a game which features seniors from all classifications of the GISA.

His team will be coached by Tidwell. The game will be played in Macon.