Submitted PhotoLongtime Valdosta State radio broadcaster Mike Chason interviews former assistant coach Nick Gast at halftime of a game against Point University on Nov. 10, 2012 at The Complex.

PART II

VALDOSTA – Not only has Mike Chason offered up gems on the radio, but he also stakes claim to the name of one of South Georgia’s biggest games – the Winnersville Classic.

In 1977, while sports editor at The Valdosta Daily Times, Chason remembers the sports scene in Atlanta drawing national attention. The Falcons went 7-7 that year, missing the postseason. The Braves went 61-101 that year, posting a .377 winning percentage.

Meanwhile, down in Valdosta, Valdosta State men’s and women’s basketball was flying high. Charles Cooper had the Lowndes Vikettes winning. Nick Hyder had just gotten the Wildcats to the state championship and Tommy Thomas, a Hall of Fame coach at VSU, was winning on the baseball diamond.

“We were winning everywhere you looked,” Chason said, “In Atlanta, somebody called Atlanta ‘Losersville’ in the national media. Well, I knew in Valdosta, we were not Losersville, we were Winnersville. John B. Lastinger was head of the chamber of commerce and he did a great job promoting Valdosta and he really embraced the idea of Valdosta being Winnersville and it just took off from there.”

Winnersville has become the most highly anticipated high school football game in the state outside of the Corky Kell Classic. The Valdosta-Lowndes rivalry has become storied, but Chason recalls when it wasn’t such a big deal.

The two teams began playing one another in 1968. Wright Bazemore coached the ‘Cats to their first four wins against the Vikings from 1968-71. After Bazemore, Charile Greene won back-to-back in 1972 and 1973 before giving way to the legendary Nick Hyder.

Hyder won his first two games against Lowndes in 1975 and 1976.

By that point, Valdosta had won each of the first nine meetings by a total of 278-26 with four shutouts. However, in 1977, Chason was at Martin Stadium for the very first Lowndes win over the mighty Wildcats.

“Well, that’s easy,” Chason said when asked about his earliest Valdosta-Lowndes memory. “Lowndes had never beaten Valdosta until the 7-2 game (in 1977) and that was at Martin Stadium. A great football game and that was Lowndes’ first win ever over Valdosta. It was very exciting and the stadium was packed. Joe Wilson had left the Valdosta staff and he was a Valdosta High graduate and he did a great job with the Lowndes program and turned them into winners with the Vikings and of course, they’re still winning and the ‘Cats are still winning.”

Chason played high school basketball at Lanier County, graduating in 1970. From there, he went to Valdosta State College, where he graduated with a B.A. in history in 1974.

Long before he went to college at VSC, Chason was introduced to Valdosta State basketball as a 10-year-old around 1962. Before they were Blazers, they were the Rebels coached by Georgia Sports Hall of Famer Gary Colson.

Chason recalls his father, Willie Berg Chason, loading him into the car and making the 18-mile drive from Lakeland to Valdosta to watch the Rebels play. His father and mother, Geraldine, are still alive. Willie Berg is 88 and Geraldine is 87. Both still live in Lakeland.

In those days, the Rebels were led by players such as Bobby Ritch, Ray McCully and Gwendell McSwain. According to Chason, this was when he fell in love with the game of basketball.

“My dad brought me over to my first Valdosta State game and I’m forever indebted to him for that and a lot of other things, too,” Chason said. “He established a great work ethic in my life, he and my mom. He brought me over and we just loved to see them dunk because there weren’t too many people dunking in high school at that time, but we loved to see Gary Colson’s Rebels at that time and to see people like Ray McCully, who’s one of my favorite players of all-time and now a good friend. Bobby Ritch, maybe the greatest shooter in Valdosta State basketball history. To see those guys play together and Gwendell McSwain, he was a great post player back in the 1960s. To see those guys play together with such synchronicity was just incredible. I can tell – I loved basketball, but this was a higher level of basketball than I’d ever seen.”

On March 7, after calling the Blazers’ win over West Alabama in the Gulf South Conference semifinals, Chason completed his interviews and packed up his equipment. The last of his things, he tucked away into a Nike backpack with the V State logo on it and his name embroidered above it.

From the Pete Hanna Center, Chason headed back to the hotel with a to-go plate carrying his post-game dinner – a chicken quesadilla too large for him to finish.

He went into his bag and pulled out his game notes and covered the table once more.

Besides consistency, preparation is one of Chason’s strong suits. The Blazers would face the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers the next day for the conference championship and a win in that game would be the Blazers’ very first GSC Tournament title.

As he read over his notes and tabulated stats, occasionally he jotted down something on the back of a nearby game program –– a few stats he prepared to unleash during the championship game.

When asked about the relationship he’s built with VSU head coaches during his 30 years, Chason has the unique distinction of knowing every VSU men’s basketball coach except the very first one, Walter Cottingham, who coached the Blazers from 1954-55 until 1957-58.

“I love it when you can pull out a stat that you hadn’t heard anybody else say or come up with,” Chason said. “Like Mike Helfer, he’s had more 20-win seasons than any Valdosta State coach in history and we’ve had great coaches and I’ve known all of them. I’ve known Gary Golson and Jim Melvin and then James Dominey and of course, Jim Yarborough and then Mike Helfer. The only one I didn’t know was the very first one – he started in 1955. He’s the only one I never knew.

“Seeing all these guys and seeing how much effort they put into it and then, on the women’s side, seeing the Kiley Hills, the Charles Coopers, the Jane Williamses, the Lyndal Worths – I’ve know every single women’s coach we’ve ever had. Being a student from ‘70-’74 and seeing the women’s program start up, seeing the effort the coaches put into what they do and then seeing the players put into what they do out on the court.

“I like to pick out things – not just numbers, not just somebody’s averaging 18 points a game, but how many 3-pointers he has, how many assists he has. You can find a place in the broadcast to put that in there.”

The morning of the GSC Championship – Sunday, March 8 – Chason took in another complimentary breakfast of a waffle, eggs and one cup of coffee. As he prepared to leave the hotel for the arena that afternoon, he couldn’t contain his excitement at the potential of a Blazer victory.

“Let’s go win us a championship,” he said with a grin.