VALDOSTA — As Lowndes celebrated a team that brought home its second consecutive football championship, the packed LHS cafetorium reflected on the past while looking toward the future.

Monday, Lowndes High hosted its annual football banquet where coaches, players, parents and boosters dined together, reflected on a season and distributed plaques and championship rings.

The evening started off with touchdown club president Steve Davis telling the players that Vikings’ fans past, present and future thanked them for what the 2005 squad did every Friday night and throughout the season.

After an hour of mingling and sampling of sandwiches and various snacks, LHS football coach Randy McPherson introduced former Vikings player and current San Diego Chargers linebacker Randall Godfrey as the guest speaker.

After thanking the community for supporting himself and his family through a tough year of family loss, Godfrey’s speech didn’t take the theme of the rest of the night, thanking the over 30 seniors who were departing Lowndes, but instead commenting on preparation.

Throughout his speech the phrase that Godfrey kept repeating was “The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.”

When Godfrey, a second round pick out of Georgia, first got to the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, he wanted to be prepared to win.

Godfrey moved into an apartment near the Cowboys’ training facility so he could get there at 6:30 a.m., a half hour before the 7 a.m. start time.

However, every morning when he arrived, Michael Irving, Troy Aikman, Darren Woodson and Emmit Smith were concluding their workouts.

“When I was with the Cowboys I saw guys preparing while their opponents were sleeping,” Godfrey said. “I knew what it was all about. Those guys were there to win.

“I knew why they won so many Super Bowls before I got there. They had the will to win.”

The 11 year NFL veteran shared a story of how the Chargers were predicted to fail his first year in San Diego, but himself along with the other veteran leadership instilled values of preparation among the players and they exceeded expectations.

The same situation applies at Lowndes where the departure of seniors has people thinking that the Vikings will not continue their success.

“They don’t think we can three-peat,” Godfrey said. “They don’t think we can win region. It’s up to you guys to continue to believe.

“You guys have got to continue to believe. Seniors have to lead and underclassmen have to step up and play. I encourage you to keep preparing. The will to win mean nothing without the will to prepare.”

After Godfrey looked to motivating the future of Vikings’ football, McPherson took the stage to recognize the past.

The 2005 AAAAA Champions were 15-1 while holding their outscoring their opponents 539-94.

Lowndes scored 35.9 points per game while its opponents tallied just 6.3. The Vikings rushed for 131 yards a game while their opponents managed 44.

McPherson and his staff then handed out plaques with the 2005 accolades and pictures printed on it as well as championship rings that McPherson said are “Super Bowl style.”

The ceremony ended with a poem written by Donnie Wisenbaker about the Vikings’ 2004 and 2005 seasons.