Blue Devils score honors at football banquet

Published 9:00 am Sunday, December 17, 2017

TIFTON — The 2017 Tift County football team gathered Wednesday night at the Performing Arts Center in celebration of the season.

Players, coaches, family and fans were on hand to watch highlights of the year and cheer on the Blue Devils as they picked up awards.

Ninth grade and varsity teams were honored, the ninth grade only losing a single game in 2017 and the varsity celebrating its 11-2 campaign, which saw the squad advanced to the state Class AAAAAAA quarterfinals. Along the way, the Devils were ranked as high as fourth in the state and defeated Coffee and Colquitt County, both finalists for state championships.

After an invocation given by Jason Womack, Anders began the awards ceremony by thanking the boosters “who helped promote Tift County athletics.” He went through a long list of all the game day sponsors that fed the team. “You played a lot of games when you eat that many,” he said.

Anders thanked coaches, support staff, parents and families, then turned the ceremony to cheerleading head coach Jessica Rentz.

“She and her squad worked numerous, numerous hours,” Anders said.

Rentz said that practice for cheer begins the same week as summer vacation, with only the week of July 4 off.

The junior varsity cheer academic award went to Sydney Pridgon, with recognition going to Sharriyah Jackson and Chalee Hill for their voices and leadership.

Switching to varsity, Rentz said “We have an amazing cheerleader group.” Special honors went to mascot El Diablo, real name David Yancey, for his “all of his work.”

The squad’s sophomore academic award went to Caelan Collins and the congeniality award to Lainee Conley. The junior academic award went to Riley Roberts, who had the highest grade-point average for the squad. Junior congeniality honors went to Ree Daniell. Yancey received a special award, with the senior academic honors going to Emily Robertson.

The Blue Devil Award went to Hollie Bennett.

“She kept the squad running,” said Rentz.

Anders returned to the podium to introduce the football coaching staff.

“I can’t say enough about our staff,” he said. “They know these players are high school students for four years … they’re going to be a person for life.”

Assistant Chris Bragg, filling in for an ill Ivey Vickers, introduced the football managers.

“They have a thankless job,” said Bragg. “The things they do, nobody sees and nobody probably appreciates enough.”

After the managers were introduced and given a trophy on stage, Anders said, “What they do for us is unbelievable.”

WTIF’s Kyle Dean was next to give a run-through of the season.

Talking about the 20-10 victory over Valdosta, the Blue Devils’ first at Cleveland Field since 1993, Dean said “it won’t take another 24 years to win in Valdosta.”

Dean’s words were followed by a highlight video from Plant Broadcasting, with players giving big reactions to plays such as Griffin Collier’s long touchdown run and a juke move from Cam Cobb.

“You guys sure did make it fun,” said Anders.

Coach Russell Coker introduced the ninth grade team, which finished 6-1, or 5-1-1, depending, he said, on interpretation on how a game with Turner County ended.

Coker thanked Anders for allowing him the opportunity to lead the team. He also thanked his staff.

“These guys are very knowledgeable about coaching,” he said. To show his appreciation, Coker presented them each with a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings.

Coker also showed appreciation to 2017’s team, describing them as “gritty guys who never wanted to lose.”

Honors for the varsity team were broken up into grade levels, with names called out by different assistant coaches: Josh Allen for the sophomores, Tommy Flowers for the juniors and Gregg Segraves for the seniors.

Segraves said it was his honor to call out the latter group, that it seemed “just like yesterday” they were freshmen.

Various honors and postseason all-star games were mentioned with each player’s name.

Anders returned to describe his eldest players as “a very special, special senior class.”

“They’ll be special later on in life,” he said.

Tift County High Principal Kim Seigler came forward to honor the top academic players.

Top honors for the sophomores went to Bryce Stewart, whose GPA was 98.625. For the juniors, Tyler Ajiero led with an average of 93.176 and for the seniors, it was Giovani Jimenez with a GPA of 93.176.

Next were the team captain awards, presented to Collier, Cobb, Andrew Self, Rashod Bateman and Julian Faulk.

Assistant Travis Ellington then gave out the scholarships in honor of Bert Jones. Ellington had been a teammate of Jones, a Blue Devils wide receiver who died in a car accident in 1992.

Two scholarships were given in honor of Jones this year.

Chad Williams won the longtime scholarship named for Jones.

Criteria, said Ellington, was for the player to be a senior with good character, a GPA high enough to be accepted at a college or trade school and a four-year commitment to the program.

The second scholarship, the Bert Jones Commitment Scholarship, saw its first recipient honored Wednesday.

Bateman, who currently has plans to play for the University of Minnesota, won the Commitment Scholarship.

“He was always all-in when it came to Blue Devils and football,” said Ellington of Bateman.

The True Blue Spirit Award, was presented by assistant Mike West. Criteria for the award was for the player who “demonstrates the most energy and excitement.”

Casey Engram took the award, with West giving an example of Engram’s jumping that boosted crowds and the sidelines.

“Everybody needs somebody like that,” said West. Anders said Engram’s award was “very well deserved.”

The final award of the evening for players was the Gene Brodie Award, which was presented by longtime assistant Anthony Bateman to Faulk.

“The one thing I learned from Gene Brodie,” Bateman said, “is to work hard.”

The winner, Bateman said, was someone willing to give himself up to win a championship.

“He has earned every second of it,” said Anders.

Anders had one final recognition for the ceremony, given to Segraves. Segraves is set to retire after 30 years of coaching in Georgia.

Anders first presented a watch to Segraves, to “symbolize the great times we’ve had together.” Then came a walking stick, which Anders said was to help him in his elder years.