VALDOSTA — Bloody, stitched-up nose and all, Marvis Parrish took the wildcat-formation snap, broke a tackle and saw the field open up in front of him. And as he sprinted to the goal line, a stadium filled to capacity erupted for the all-purpose player for Lowndes High.
With his game-breaking 84-yard touchdown run in the Vikings’ 30-20 win over archrival Valdosta High on Friday night at Lowndes’ Martin Stadium, Parrish became the focal point of a rivalry that does not have an equal in the state of Georgia and maybe anywhere.
“I mean, football in this town is so much crazy,” said Parrish, his nose bloodied from a Valdosta Wildcat hand that reached under his face mask. “It’s crazy.”
The scene at the stadium known as the Concrete Palace was verifiably off kilter. Two hours before the 8 p.m. kickoff, perhaps 500 cars or more filled the school parking lot. A half hour before kickoff, practically every seat in the 12,000-seat venue – a capacity larger than Fifth Third Stadium at Kennesaw State, the state’s newest FBS program – was filled.
The population of Lowndes County, on the Georgia-Florida border, is about 122,000. That means, accounting for the smattering of game attendees from outside the county, about one out of every 10 or 11 Lowndes residents was at Friday night’s game.
“You have two very passionate fan bases that are going to be there supporting,” said Lowndes coach Adam Carter, who won a Class 7A state title at Grayson High before taking the Vikings job before the 2023 season. “Literally, when people tell you that this is the one that you talk about for the next 364 days, they’re not lying.”
Before the game, tailgaters gathered under tents, barbecued with smokers, played cornhole and tossed footballs. Fans dressed in Lowndes crimson and Valdosta black and gold. Many were garbed in shirts commemorating the “Winnersville Classic,” the game’s nickname. (Quite reasonably, the city of Valdosta dubs itself Winnersville, what with the Wildcats having won 24 state championships and been awarded six national titles while the Vikings have scored five state titles.)
Friday night’s game was notable in the series. The two teams often have taken turns as the more dominant but entered this game with identical records – 8-1 overall and 3-1 in Region 1, Class 6A. With a win, No. 9 Valdosta would claim the region title. If Lowndes could break the Wildcats’ two-game streak in the series and win, it would earn the region title if Richmond Hill High helped out and beat Colquitt County High.
The game sold out well before kickoff. To meet the demand of those who couldn’t be there, Lowndes streamed the game online and sold about 700 packages at $30.
“It is like nothing you have ever seen,” Lowndes athletic director Danny Redshaw said of the rivalry game earlier this week. “That is the only way that I can describe it.”
Redshaw, in his 28th year at Lowndes, came to the school from its archrival. When he made the move, he said, “I had folks that wouldn’t speak to me for four, five years after I moved.”
As he always is, Elijah Holmes Sr. was in attendance to support Valdosta. Holmes, a 78-year-old retired mechanic, said that he has been to every Wildcats game except one since the early ‘70s when the school desegregated. His wife, Ruth, has the same record of near-perfect attendance.
And Holmes didn’t even attend Valdosta, although a brother and his children did, including his son Elijah Jr., who played for the Wildcats at one of their peaks in the early ‘80s. Holmes graduated from all-black Pinevale High when the school system was segregated.
Said Holmes in explanation of his devotion, “Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.”
In front of Holmes sat Josh Montgomery. A year ago, his fourth child was born in Valdosta on the same night as the Valdosta-Lowndes game. As the baby arrived around halftime, he contemplated hustling over to Valdosta’s Bazemore-Hyder Stadium for the second half.
His wife “even told me I could go if I wanted to,” he said.
Montgomery elected to bond with his newborn son, particularly since he could watch the game on livestream. How close was the decision?
Said Montgomery, “Very close.”
Similar devotion supported Lowndes. There are Vikings supporters who have kept prime season tickets in their family for decades. The touchdown club numbers more than 300, including some contributing as much as $2,000 annually. With that support comes expectation, particularly for the Valdosta game. Carter, who previously has been an assistant at Valdosta, came to Lowndes well-versed.
“You know the importance to both communities,” he said earlier in the week. “There was no hiding that. You’ll see somebody at the store and (it’s) ‘Coach, we gotta win.’ ‘I know, I know. I got you.’”
“I think coaching at Valdosta is very challenging,” Wildcats coach Shelton Felton said with a laugh. “Because the mindset here is to win a championship every year.”
The high expectations, the hunger to take down an archrival and the objective of earning a region title all rode on a single track Friday night.
The energy in the stadium was palpable. On the home side, fans blew vuvuzelas, rang cowbells and shook noisemakers fashioned out of gallon milk jugs. The stands behind the Valdosta bench were no less raucous, supporting a team led by quarterback Todd Robinson, a four-star prospect committed to Georgia.
It was an environment unlike just about anything at the high school level. Valdosta band director Travis Kimber, who held the same position at M.L. King High in DeKalb County for 18 years before coming to South Georgia in 2019, said he was told before his first Valdosta-Lowndes game that there was nothing that could prepare him for the event’s magnitude. Even from the first day of the game week when anticipation began to build, the advice proved prescient.
“I let (friends in Atlanta) know it’s like the SEC on Saturdays,” Kimber said. “It’s the closest thing you’re going to get to an SEC football rivalry.”
It runs deep in the community. For example, Holmes, the longtime Valdosta supporter, said that on the Sunday after the game, church members attend services wearing the colors of the winning school.
On the field, the teams tore off big plays. Long touchdown runs and passes. A kickoff return for a touchdown. Fourth-down stops. The half ended 20-13 in Lowndes’ favor.
A scintillating halftime show followed, both schools performing with the flair and sound of college bands.
In the fourth quarter, with the score 23-20 in Lowndes’ favor, Parrish broke the game open with his 84-yard touchdown run. The extra point gave the Vikings a 30-20 lead that Valdosta could not close. The night ended with Vikings players celebrating on the field, taking pictures with a game trophy that was perhaps four feet tall.
Beating Valdosta meant “everything,” Parrish said. “We got our get-back for the last two years.”
Offensive lineman Ben Corhei, who helped free Parrish on his run, said it felt “amazing” to have ended the losing streak to the Wildcats.
“The best win of your life,” he added.
It scarcely mattered that Colquitt County did not cooperate, beating Richmond Hill to take the region. Lowndes will be the No. 2 seed, guaranteeing a home game for the first round. A metro Atlanta team will travel down I-75 to tangle with the Vikings at the Concrete Palace.
“I told somebody I don’t know if this was a bigger game than any I had as a head coach maybe other than the state championship,” Carter said. “It means that much to these kids and this community. To be able to bring it back to Lowndes and our fans and our community, it’s just a special gift.”
Credit: Andy Harrison
Credit: Andy Harrison
Credit: Ken Sugiura
Credit: Ken Sugiura
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