By: Ron Reagin

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Camden County Wildcats will bring a lot of Valdosta ties with them to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium on Friday night.

Four members of the Valdosta Wildcats’ 2016 state championship staff is now coaching at Camden: head coach Tucker Pruitt, defensive coordinator Alan Rodemaker, DeMario Jones and Kevin Pych.

Two former Valdosta players are with Camden as well, Phillip Moore, a standout 1,000- yard rusher who graduated in 2011, and 2021 graduate wide receiver Javonte Sherman, coming off a successful career at Middle Tennessee State.

Coach Mike Daily also has ties to Valdosta. They will all be on the visiting sideline when the two sets of Wildcats meet in the Region 1-7A game.

Asked about the connections, Pruitt went down the list and admitted he had not realized how many were on his staff. “It’s been business as usual,” he said. “It shows that the ties in coaching that are built over the years stay with you in your career, whether it be a coach you coached for, a coach on your staff or a player you coached.” Pruitt, who also played college football at Valdosta State, and said he has “a lot of memories in Bazemore-Hyder.”

Rodemaker has been through this before. He was on the Colquitt County staff when the Packers played Valdosta. “To be honest, we are so focused on getting better, week in and week out, that we haven’t talked about it,” Rodemaker said, adding that he is excited to return to Bazemore-Hyder.

Valdosta coach Shelton Felton, in his sixth season, said he has been too busy this week getting his players off “cloud nine” after the big win in Moultrie to think much about the coaching ties. He compared it to Georgia beating Alabama and then losing to Auburn the next week, and said his players, especially his leaders, have responded well so far.

Felton called it “very unique” to have that many coaches with Valdosta ties on one staff, noting that some of them still have family and friends in the stands and in the Wildcat community. “There may be some black and gold Wildcats with mixed emotions,” he joked. He said he is glad to see those guys “still leaning on each other and coaching together” after their time at Valdosta.

Pruitt said he is glad to have the men with Valdosta history, and everyone else on his staff, because they have their hands full getting ready for the ‘Cats.

Rodemaker said it is “going to be a big challenge to slow that offense down,” and the numbers back him up. No. 5 Valdosta (7-0, 1-0) is unbeaten, unbeaten at home and coming off a 52-44 win at Colquitt County, its’ first victory in Moultrie since 2010.

Senior quarterback Tripp Perry, who spent most of three seasons as a backup, had the night of his career there, completing 20 of 25 passes for 383 yards and scoring his first career rushing touchdown.

Deron Foster, an Oregon State commit, has run for 839 yards and 19 touchdowns. Marquis Fennell, a Stanford commit, has 759 rushing yards at 11.5 a carry and 1,419 all-purpose yards, including the 95-yard touchdown run that turned the Colquitt game.

Camden (5-3, 1-1) lost 50-13 at Lowndes before beating Richmond Hill 40-27 at home.

Senior quarterback Xavier Collins has thrown for 1,128 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Sophomore Malakhi Poole has 577 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns.

Senior Sean Green, a receiver and cornerback, has 29 catches for 546 yards and 8 scores, and he took a kickoff back 76 yards against Valdosta last year.

Rodemaker said his defense is getting better every week, a must in a region as tough as Region 1-7A.

The connections will get plenty of attention before kickoff, but every region game carries weight in the standings and the postseason formula, and this one will be settled between the lines.

Felton put it in bigger terms. “Whenever my time ends here, I will want Valdosta to continue the standard that has been here for decades,” he said. “You know, sometimes it feels like it’s Valdosta against everybody!”