Moultrie is a sports town.

See what we mean in this issue of DownHome magazine.

For decades, fans have trailed the Moultrie and Colquitt County Packers football teams to away games throughout the state. In recent years, their loyalty was rewarded with back-to-back state championships. The trophies in 2014 and 2015 each represented a perfect season — 15-0 — and combined for 30 straight wins under head coach Rush Propst.

But cheers go up for more than the boys on the gridiron. State titles have come to Colquitt County High in baseball, golf and gymnastics. The YMCA gymnastics team has brought home national honors, and the Moss Farms Diving Team has drawn attention from across the country.

Starting in April, the Colquitt County Arts Center will host a salute to local sports teams. It’s part of the Smithsonian Museum’s traveling exhibit, “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America.”

Read Wayne Grandy’s story in this issue of DownHome for a summary of the county’s sports successes, and contact the Arts Center if you have memorabilia you’d like to loan for use in the exhibit.

Speaking of sports, the county has seen a number of local athletes make it to the big leagues — both in football and baseball. They’re mentioned in the story too. But none could get there without the major league scouts who come to the hometown games and see the athletes on the field, hunting for the right combination of talent and grit that will help a player make it to the majors.

Moultrie’s Ed Creech has been scouting talent that way for 31 years. A former coach at Pineland School, Creech played minor league baseball with the Montreal Expos and got his start scouting with that organization. Four teams later, he helped the San Francisco Giants win three World Series.

Check out his story in this issue of DownHome, too.

This issue will also mark the start of a new feature. Kay and David Scott of Valdosta have begun writing a travel column, and we present one of their reports in this issue.

The Scotts are authors of “Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges” (Globe Pequot) and have been all over the country. In this issue, they tell what they saw in the small town of Lubbock, Texas, which continues to lift up its native son, rock-and-roll icon Buddy Holly, 58 years after his death in a plane crash.

And if you like what the Scotts write, check them out every week in our sister publication, The Mailbox Post!

Yours truly,

Dwain Walden

Publisher