Returning to Winnersville

By Christian Malone
The Valdosta Daily Times

October 17, 2006 11:42 pm

— VALDOSTA — For a first-year head coach, the Winnersville Classic can be an eye-opener.
The atmosphere, the intensity and the crowd noise generally rival that of a state championship game. The rivalry is as fierce as any in the state.
But first-year Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin won’t be surprised, because he’s been here before.
This will be Tomberlin’s first Winnersville as coach of the Wildcats, but it will be his fourth Winnersville overall.
Many moons ago (actually, from 1989-91), Tomberlin was the football coach at Lowndes. He went 15-15 in three seasons as head Viking, including a 13-7 record his last two years.
In the end, what Tomberlin accomplished wasn’t good enough for the Lowndes County Board of Education. But he had the students’ support. After he was dismissed, nearly the entire Lowndes High student body walked out of school in protest.
That day, Tomberlin was summoned from his office to come to Martin Stadium. There he was greeted by nearly 2,000 students, all there to support him.
“When I walked out the door, and when they gathered around me and started shouting my name, it really sent chills up my spine,” Tomberlin told The Valdosta Daily Times on that day. “Then I walked out into the stadium, and they started cheering. The fact that they cared that much meant a lot.”
In the end, things turned out all right for both Lowndes and Tomberlin. Lowndes went through three losing seasons with Tomberlin’s successor, Milt Miller, but then turned into one of the state’s top programs, winning 10 games in six of Miller’s final seven seasons and a state championship in 1999. And Tomberlin headed to Washington County, where he built the Golden Hawks into a small-school football powerhouse. In 14 seasons at Washington, he won 157 games and three state championships, while being state runner-up two other times.
Today, his days at Lowndes are only a distant memory for Tomberlin, a stepping stone in what has turned out to be a fine coaching career.
“That was a different lifetime,” Tomberlin said about his Lowndes days. “I’m a different coach now. When I went over there, I was a young guy (31). I had not won a region championship or played in a state championship. I was a young guy that had some big ideas and some theories. Whatever happened back then happened.
“Then I went on to Washington County, and won nine region championships and played for the state championship five times, and had all those great players. And that’s my legacy right there. When they look back on my coaching career, they’re going to remember me from what I did at Washington County, and hopefully from what I do at Valdosta.”
If Tomberlin has any animosity towards Lowndes after all these years, he hasn’t shown it, and has long taken the high road whenever asked about it.
The faces on the sidelines have changed since Tomberlin’s first stint in Region 1. Valdosta’s Nick Hyder, Tift County’s Gene Brodie, Colquitt County’s Jim Hughes and Bainbridge’s Sonny Smart have moved on — Hughes and Smart to retirement, Hyder and Brodie to a better place.
But the region remains as tough as ever. A new group of coaches, like Randy McPherson of Lowndes, Tim Cokely of Colquitt, Jay Walls of Tift and Jerry Odom of Coffee, have kept the level of football in Region 1 at a high level.
Valdosta is only 1-6 in Tomberlin’s first season on its sideline. The Wildcats have been snakebitten, losing five games by four points or less. Valdosta will try to end its string of losses Friday night against its archrivals.
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500 Winnersville tickets remain
Valdosta High ticket manager Terry Daniel reported Tuesday night that just 500 tickets are left for the Winnersville Classic. The tickets go on sale to the general public at 8:30 a.m. today.
Lowndes High has sold all of its tickets. In fact, Lowndes ticket manager Owen Prince sold his initial allotment, then called Daniel, who sent him more. In all, Lowndes wound up with 4,000 tickets this year, the most they’ve ever gotten from Valdosta.

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