While most folks may have thought of football when the Georgia High School Association came up with the private/public school split for Class A, the first sport came to my mind, tennis, may shock you.

Being from Ocilla, I know that tennis a big sport, believe it or not.

That was the reason I was excited about the private/public school split, because for over a decade the best public school state tennis was played at Irwin County High. During that span the last public school team in the state tournament every year was either the Indians or Lady Indians, or in most cases, both.

I will not go in to stuff like recruiting and all here, because a simple argument can be made for the unfairness of private and public Class A schools competing against each other by coverage areas.

An Atlanta or Savannah-area private school can get students from all over Atlanta and Savannah. Irwin County High can only get students from well, Irwin County. It may come as a shock to some of you but there are a few more people in Atlanta and Savannah than there is in Irwin County.

A private school tennis player also has nothing to worry but that one sport. There were several times during that stretch of Irwin County’s success that some of the Indians would play in state Final Four tennis in Macon that morning and come back that evening to Ocilla to play in the state baseball tournament.

One of those guys that did well in both sports is current Irwin County coach Luke Roberts.

So it was with a great deal of pride when I found out he had helped lead both the Indians and the Lady Indians to the state championships Saturday at Clayton County. I have known Luke since he was a young(er) man and I am close to his family, so I am not going to lie, between it being Luke and with Irwin County being my alma mater, I am really pulling for them to do well this weekend.

The Irwin County Lady Indians won the state softball title in 1998 and 2000, but this weekend is the first time since 1997 that an Irwin County Indian team will be facing a match or game with a state title on the line.

Things go back even farther for Irwin County tennis as the last state tennis champions for my alma mater were in 1984 when Luke’s cousins Phillip and Leigh Roberts won the boys and girls state singles titles that year.

Back then there was  a points system for team state titles as tournaments involved individual competition in each of the flights. That points system led to Irwin finishing second as teams in boys and girls in 1983.

In 1982, Jo Norton (now Windom) defeated Irwin teammate Deana Davis for the state girls singles championship.

I know journalists are supposed to be neutral – but like I can’t help it. I am pulling for the Indians and Lady Indians this weekend.