Derrick Davis | The Valdosta Daily TimesClinch County’s Charles McClelland (10) celebrates with Trezmen Marshall after a touchdown against Mount Zion in a Class A-Public semifinal game at Donald Tison Field in Homerville on Friday.

VALDOSTA — Neither coaching staff competing in Saturday’s Class A-Public state championship game needs to worry about the moment overwhelming their team.

In fact, there may not be two teams in the state more comfortable playing on a big stage than No. 8 Clinch County and No. 4 Irwin County.

In the past four years, the Panthers and Indians have combined to make six semifinal appearances and five trips to the title game.

“We’ve certainly been very fortunate; this isn’t our first rodeo,” said Clinch head coach Jim Dickerson.

Saturday marks a rematch of the 2015 Class A-Public championship game when Clinch exacted revenge for a regular-season loss against Irwin, to hoist the trophy in the Georgia Dome.

One year prior, Irwin County fell against Hawkinsville in the title game.

Both teams stumbled in the postseason last season, but both swiftly recovered to return to the championship game again a year later.

For Clinch, both stars Trezmen Marshall and Charles McClelland played large roles in its previous state championship game with the then-freshman Marshall scoring a touchdown and a sophomore McClelland rushing for a game-high 173 yards and another score in the 24-7 victory against Irwin County.

The state championship capped off a season in which McClelland rushed for 1,010 yards and eight touchdowns and Marshall overcame various injuries to add another 819 yards and nine scores, and the duo has continued to thrive in the years since.

One small difference is, instead of the more than 20-year-old Georgia Dome, McClelland and Marshall will be looking to do their damage on the turf of the brand new $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“We haven’t been to the Mercedes, so I don’t know,” Dickerson said. “We’ve been to the Georgia Dome, but we’ve been there before and it’s fun. These kids that we have give us a chance.”

Irwin County doesn’t have quite the same impact players returning from its 2015 team, led at the time by seniors D.J. Pollard and Zach Tolar and junior Ziaire Andrews, but head coach Buddy Nobles may have enough big-game experience for the entire team.

Aside from the two previous state championship games he’s coached at Irwin County, Nobles has been a part of six Florida state championship teams as an assistant coach under Robby Pruitt and he finished state runner-up as the head coach at Union County in 2003.

Dickerson has also had his fair share of title game experience — a student-teacher and volunteer assistant on Donald Tison’s 1988 staff that won the first state championship in Clinch County history.

Dickerson was also a full-time staff member on the Panthers’ 1991 championship team and the defensive coordinator for Cecil Barber’s 2002 title team before taking over the program in 2004 and promptly winning the program’s fourth championship.

With title victories in 2010 and 2015, Dickerson has had a hand in all six of the state championships in Clinch football history.

Even if the title games are nothing new for Dickerson at this point in his career, now he gets the most pleasure from watching some of the players and coaches soak up the experience, even if its not the first time.

“It’s a lot of fun, and my big deal is, I just enjoy living life vicariously through the eyes of the younger coaches and players, and seeing them have a good time,” Dickerson said. “But they have been there before.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.