Defending region champion Tift will also be a team to watch, as it returns most of its defense and offensive line, and 1,000-yard rusher Kaream Hess. Walls is optimistic junior Nick Prostko or sophomore Malcolm Dixon can do the job at quarterback in the team’s spread offense.

“I’m the guy with the bullseye on his back,” Walls joked. “We won’t sneak up on anybody this year.”

Collins is the coach with the toughest job this year. Only three weeks ago, Doug Johnson, the only football coach in school history, suddenly stepped down due to heath problems. A week later, Collins, the team’s offensive coordinator since 2000, was named the head coach.

“It was hard to lose Doug. But our coaches haven’t missed a step,” Collins said. “Our players have stepped up and responded after what happened with Doug.”

Houston will have the most rebuilding to do. Collins said the Bears lost 36 of their top 44 players from last year, including All-State running back Eric O’Neal, the region’s Offensive Player of the Year. Collins said most things would stay the same, but that the Bears, who run a wing-T offense, would probably throw the ball more, with senior Jeff Thompson back at quarterback.

Like Houston, Colquitt and Warner Robins also graduated most of their starters.

“We’ve got two starters back on offense and three on defense,” Cokely said about the Packers. “We graduated a lot of seniors. Like Houston, we’ve got guys we’ll have to leave on the field (playing both offense and defense), because we’re so thin.... Our offense will be a vertical passing attack, like it has been the last two years. We like to stretch the field vertically.”

“We lost 38 seniors, and some of those guys were very good football players, especially on defense,” Way said about the Demons. “We’ve got a lot of players to replace. We’re a wing-T team, and we graduated our halfback, fullback and wingback. We have ability in the backfield, but they need experience. Defensively, we lose Brian Buford (a linebacker that signed with Valdosta State), who is the all-time leading tackler in Warner Robins’ history, and Roderick Rose, who is our eighth-leading tackler all-time. It will be hard to replace those guys. But we’ve had a good summer, and we’re looking forward to getting the season started.”

Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson kept his speech brief, talking less than two minutes. McPherson postponed a trip to the beach to attend the media day, but headed for St. George, Fla. afterwards.

“We’re looking for good things from this team,” Lowndes’ sixth-year head coach said. “Last year, we only had (four) starters back. This year, we’ll have 16 back.”

Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin was the best-dressed coach, showing up in a suit and tie. Like he has most of the offseason, he praised his players for their work in trying to turn around last year’s disastrous 1-9 record.

“We’ve been getting after it in our workouts,” Tomberlin said. “The kids have done a great job. We’ve had anywhere from 106 to 135 players at our summer workouts. I believe we’re on the right track. We’ve got 10 of our top 12 players back on defense, and a three-year starter back at quarterback in Michael Turner.”

The event’s keynote speaker was former University of Georgia football coach Ray Goff, who was a quarterback at Moultrie High School in the early 1970s.

Goff echoed the coaches’ opinions about how tough Region 1 football was.

“I like South Georgia and I like South Georgia football,” Goff said. “You look at the championship teams Georgia has had, and they all had a nucleus of South Georgia players. When we won the national championship in 1980, our quarterback was Buck Belue from Valdosta, and a lot of other guys from this region also had great careers at Georgia. I liked signing players from South Georgia, because they knew how to play football.”