Perennial South Georgia football power Thomas County Central will travel to Thomaston Friday night for a date with the Upson-Lee Knights. The No. 5-ranked Yellow Jackets (1-1) will look to gain their first Region 1-AAAA win of 2008 over a struggling Knights program.
Upson-Lee (0-3) is coming off a loss to Westside-Macon, while TCC had the week off, and both programs feature coaches in their first season at their respective schools. Head coach Bill Shaver takes over at Central after holding the offensive coordinator role for the previous 14 seasons. Most importantly, he looks to get off to a good start in region play.
“It’s the first region game and if [we] plan on continuing the tradition where we always want to win the region, [we] have to win the first one.”
Senior running back Shawn Bryant, linebacker Phillip Williams and defensive end Caleb Heard lead the Yellow Jackets, who advanced to the state semifinals in 2007. Williams led the team in tackles last season, while Heard led the team in sacks.
The Knights, who run the split-back veer, feature senior running backs Dare Coker and Phillip Searcy. The pair is being recruited by Troy and Middle Tennessee State.
As for scouting the Knights, Upson-Lee head coach Tommy Watson said that the Yellow Jackets run a familiar offense.
“They run the split-back veer and so do we, so our defense has been seeing [that offense] for many moons now,” Watson explained.
Black can be reached at sblack@scoreatl.com.
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