TIFTON — The Tift County Blue Devils unveiled a “secret weapon” for their football game with the Valdosta Wildcats Friday night.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur came to town and spoke to Tift County High athletes during the school day. He was later on the sidelines for the Tift-Valdosta encounter.

The visit was arranged through Tift County assistant superintendent Scott Chestnutwood, who knows Francoeur’s father.

During his talk with the Tift County High athletes, Francoeur discussed life as a big leaguer, getting a chance to realize his dreams and told some stories of his one and a half years as a member of the Braves.

Besides starring in baseball, Francoeur was also an All-State football player during his career at Parkview High School in Atlanta. He seemed excited to be in Tifton on the night of the Valdosta game.

“I am excited to be down here, obviously for the football game (against) Valdosta tonight,” said Francoeur.

While he was happy to be able to take in the game, Francoeur quickly added, “even though I am excited about getting to watch some football, like I was telling someone earlier, I was kind of hoping not to be down here in October, because I was kind of hoping we would be in the playoffs. But that did not happen this year, so hopefully we are going to get on track next year.”

Francoeur then related to the Tift athletes that Brodie Field even has memories for him.

“This place has always been kind of special to me,” said Francoeur. “When I was a freshman in 1998 and we came down here and played Tift County, it was the third game or the fourth game of the season and it was my first varsity action. I was a nickel back and I got in eight plays. It was pretty cool to be out there, y’all got a great stadium so it should be a lot of fun tonight.”

The visitor then got a rousing response when he said with a grin, “I am coming to the game tonight. I am looking forward to watching some football and of course for y’all to beat Valdosta. I don’t like Valdosta.”

He then went on to talk about his time as his minor league experiences in the Braves’ system especially the story on how he found out he had been called up to the big leagues.

“We were in Montgomery, Ala., and we had gotten rained out,” said Francoeur. “We were at a little Japanese steak house right by the motel. My phone kept ringing and I didn’t recognize the number. I don’t pick up numbers I don’t recognize, so I kept clicking it off. Plus the little Japanese guy was doing the volcano with the fire flying out at the steak house, so we were watching all of that good stuff.

“Finally, it kept ringing and kept ringing until I looked down and (Atlanta catcher) Brian (McCann) had just called me. Brian was up in the big leagues and I guess that morning he had saw my jersey that the Braves had already got, because they knew I was getting called up the next day.

“So Brian called me and it was like ‘congratulations’ and I was like what do you mean and Brian was like ‘call me back later’ and hung up on me. Well I was like wait a minute, that was kind of weird, because I had never had a conversation with him like that. So I checked my messages and it was our AA manager and he was at the hotel right next to the Japanese steak house and he said ‘you should come on over’ and all three of our coaches were there and they told me, ‘Hey, pack your bags you are headed to Atlanta.’

“That was probably the coolest thing I have ever gotten to experience — that feeling was because you had worked so hard and the minor leagues are not easy, trust me. It makes you appreciate when you get up to the big leagues the effort you put in when you were in the minor leagues.”

After relating his feelings about his first year in the big leagues that saw him finish second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard and getting to face the Houston Astros’ Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt in the 2005 playoffs, Francoeur said it hurt not be able to play in the 2006 postseason.

“That’s the hardest thing for me now is to turn on the TV the past couple of days and watch the playoffs, because you know how much fun it is,” Francoeur said. “You should know about it, because of your football team, doing well, going to the playoffs and making a run. It’s the best time of your life.

“It’s something you work for and you deserve it.”

After his success last season, Francoeur talked about how he may have gotten an inflated ego and said it quickly came back down after starting the 2006 season in a 2-for-36 slump on the road in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Anyone in here can do that in the big leagues,” Francoeur said about his start.

That bad start was amplified when he returned home and the first ball hit his way in right field went between his legs and rolled all the way to the fence for an error.

“I got booed and it was the first time I had ever gotten booed at Turner Field,” Francoeur related.

In response, he said Braves’ team leaders like John Smoltz came up to him and told him to settle down.

“You have got to relax and play within yourself,” is what Francoeur said was told to him.

“That was probably the best advice I had ever gotten.”

After Francoeur went on to relate some more experiences to the Tift County High athletes, he took questions from the audience.

The questions ranged from, “Is Andruw Jones coming back?” to “Are you married?”

Jones is coming back, Francoeur said, and he announced to the chagrin of the female athletes at Tift County that he was recently engaged to a woman he had known since he was in the third grade.

After his talk to the crowd, Francoeur stayed and signed autographs for the students.