QUITMAN — Though Cass Burch Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep won second place in the nation in 2005, the honor only brought out the spirit of a former Valdosta High School Wildcat in Cass Burch.

“I was so disappointed being No. 2,” Cass Burch says. “I remember Coach Hyder saying, Being No. 2 just means you’re the best loser. Getting second place, I knew we had the potential and we just had to do it.”

Last week, they did it.

Cass Burch Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Quitman won the 2007 Dealer of the Year award out of a field of 3,700 other Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealerships across the nation.

The award means that in every market, in every city throughout the United States, Cass Burch Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep beat them in a series of 28 categories, ranging from new vehicle sales volume to service and parts sales to customer service to the appearance of the dealership. Scores are based on what a dealership does every day of the year as well as on unannounced visits by a team of judges.

The Quitman dealership earned 979 out of a possible 1,000 points — the highest score in the competition’s history.

Cass Burch says the award is the culmination of everyone: his staff in Quitman, accounting and administrative support staffs and personnel in Valdosta, and the customers who keep coming to the dealership.

For Burch, the award is the culmination of all of these people working together. The award is the epitome of lessons he learned playing four years of football in the late 1970s for legendary Valdosta High Wildcat Football Coach Nick Hyder.

“I remember playing for a godly football coach who said, Winners never quit and quitters never win,” Burch says. “... I wasn’t all that good an athlete but I didn’t ever quit.”

Getting the second place award in 2005, “we had to make the decision that we weren’t going to quit.”

In certain ways, this decision was made several years earlier.

Taking over the Quitman dealership in 1998, Burch says it had only sold 56 cars during the previous year. It had been ranked in last place compared to other Chrysler dealerships nationwide. He started with no employees and no one who wanted to work there. People asked Burch what he thought he was going to do with the dealership.

He saw great things for the dealership, he says, even in the early days, but few others shared his vision. Burch could see what it could be, he says, and he kept with it.

“We went from dead last to No. 1 in 10 years,” he says.

That accomplishment wasn’t lost on him last week when he met Chrysler President Jim Press and received the national Dealer of the Year award. Though it is a proud accomplishment, it is one that leaves him humbled by the dedication of his people, the loyalty of his customers, and the blessings of God.