TIFTON — As the 2008 regular season comes to a close, some teams are preparing for the playoffs. Other teams are preparing for 2009.
Five teams in our area -- Tift County, Tiftarea, Fitzgerald, Cook and Turner County -- are in the playoffs, and two teams -- Berrien and Irwin -- will be gearing up for basketball after tonight's game.
For Worth County, Saturday night is a playoff game.
But the Rams could already know by kickoff Saturday whether they are in or out of the Class AAA playoffs.
Worth is currently 2-4 in Region 1-AAA, tied with Westover (who owns a head to head win over the Rams), one game behind the Dougherty Trojans.
Worth would need Westover to lose to Cairo -- and Dougherty would need to lose to Perry on Friday night for the Rams to even have a shot at the playoffs.
Then, the Rams would have to win their game Saturday night against Monroe in Albany to pull into a fourth place tie with Dougherty.
The Rams own the head-to-head tiebreaker, due to their 49-8 trouncing of the Trojans on Sept. 19 and thus would get the No. 4 seed.
Some teams, like Cook, Turner County and Tiftarea, already know their playoff seeding.
Cook will be the No. 4 team out of Region 1-AA, and will take on the No. 1 team from Region 2, which currently is McIntosh Co. Academy. The Buccaneers are 9-0 on the season.
MCA will play Charlton County tonight. A Charlton win, and an Appling County win could send that region into a three-way tie for the region title.
Tiftarea Academy, after winning GISA Region 3-AA with a 40-14 win over Valwood Friday, will enter the playoffs with homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Panthers will host Robert Toombs Christian tonight. Robert Toombs lost 40-39 to Valwood, a team Tiftarea defeated handily last week in Valdosta.
As long as the Panthers keep winning, Chula will be the site of all of Tiftarea's playoff games -- including the state championship game.
Turner County is locked into the second seed from Region 2-A, after a 21-20 loss at Wilcox County for the region title on Friday.
Turner will play in Hawkinsville tonight, and next week will host the third seed from 1-A.
Fitzgerald will play at Thomasville tonight for the second seed out of Region 1-AA. After an 0-4 start that included close losses to Thomas County Central (13-7), Colquitt County (10-7), Class AAA No. 1 Cairo (10-7), and Class AA No. 5 Brooks County (14-6), the Bulldogs have ripped off five straight wins in the region.
But Fitzgerald has been consistent all season long, only losing to Brooks County by nearly the same score as Thomasville (14-7).
Tift County will make the trek over to Douglas tonight, and will take on their rival -- the Coffee Trojans -- at Jardine Stadium. The game will decide the third seed in Region 1-AAAAA, and the Devils will hope to end a two-game losing streak to the Trojans.
Tift will have to shut down a Trojan offense that is averaging over 325 yards per game in region play. But the Blue Devils are giving up less than 230 yards per game on the defensive side of the ball, and will hope to contain Coffee running back Melvin Loving, who has rushed for over 600 yards and 13 touchdowns on the season.
The first-year Ryan Branch rebuilding project at Berrien has seen the Rebels go from a bottom-feeder to a respected program.
The Rebels will try and double their win total from 2007 to 2008 as Berrien will go over to Camilla to play the Mitchell County Panthers.
Cameron Jones and the other Rebel seniors will play their last game, but fans in Nashville could look to this class as the start of something good for Berrien.
Irwin County will finish their season in a tough way, as the Indians will travel to Rochelle to take on the Wilcox County Patriots.
Irwin has had some trouble this season, compiling a 2-7 record. But the Indians played a tough non-region schedule with the likes of Berrien, Fitzgerald, and Clinch County, and the Indians are building for the future.
Tonight’s picks: Tift over Coffee; Tiftarea over Robert Toombs; Fitzgerald over Thomasville; Wilcox over Irwin; Berrien over Mitchell Co.; Cook over Early County; Worth over Monroe; Turner over Hawkinsville.
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Busy night ahead
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