Westover, Lee County enjoy ESPN cameras and national exposure

LEESBURG — It’s not often that the Worldwide Leader in Sports makes its way to Southwest Georgia.

In fact, the last time ESPN visited this area of the country was 2008 when Valdosta was named Titletown USA. The world’s top sports network was back on Saturday, and the line of parked cars stretched for about half a mile down the road outside Lee County High School before the nationally televised game between the Trojans and the Westover Patriots.

Crowds from both Westover and Lee County were in full force, and despite the Trojans staving off the Patriots en route to a 13-0 victory, both coaches spoke glowingly of the experience.

“It was just an unbelievable atmosphere (Saturday),” Lee County coach Dean Fabrizio said. “It was phenomenal. I want to give all the commendations to Westover. Those kids showed up and played hard. (Westover defensive tackle and top recruit) Trent Thompson is everything he’s built up to be. He’s a great player. They’ve got a heck of a football team and a great coach.

“This was a great day for Southwest Georgia. It shows the quality of football we have here in the Albany area. Two good teams, two reigning region champions matching up. Both sides brought a huge crowd, it was just a great atmosphere and a great day for Albany-area football.”

High school games on ESPNU typically bring in a national TV audience of nearly one million, and viewers were exposed to two of Southwest Georgia’s top programs on Saturday.

“Southwest Georgia stood up and represented (Saturday),” Westover coach Octavia Jones said proudly. “The fans came out and enjoyed a good game. They came in numbers. We knew it would be like that. We hope it can continue to be like that all year long. I hope it wasn’t just because it was a televised game. I really want the fans to get behind us and support our community.”

Originally scheduled to start at 1 p.m., kickoff was moved to 9 a.m. in order to circumvent extreme heat. Unfortunately, the sun didn’t get the memo. According to the ESPN broadcast, the on-field temperature hovered in the range of 120 degrees, when factoring in humidity.

“It was hot,” Jones afterwards, “but our guys have practiced in this kind of heat all summer. I don’t think it was a factor for them. As the game went on, they got a little tired because of the long TV timeouts, but both teams were in good shape. You didn’t have a lot of guys cramping, so it shows the coaches did a good job preparing the boys for the heat.”

You’d think that combining scorching heat and the pressure of being on ESPNU would lead to some jitters from the teams, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

“I think the nerves wore off once the game started,” Fabrizio said. “Everyone got into the flow of the game. Even with the earlier start, the heat was brutal. All the kids fought through it. We hydrated all week. We didn’t have anybody have to come out of the game with cramps, and I think that shows how hard we work on conditioning.”

Lee County linebacker and Dynamite Dozen selection Dextric Green said he had to block out the distractions during the game.

“We were motivated to get the win,” Green said. “To tell you the truth, ESPN can be a distraction. We prepared and practiced like we always do, and it paid off. People challenge us all the time, we look for that challenge. We embrace it. We come out ready to fight because we’re always ready to show what we can do.”

The game featured several prospects with Division I offers, but nobody demanded the spotlight quite like Thompson, who verbally committed to Georgia this month.

“We’ve been preaching to those guys all along: Trent is going to get all the attention up front,” Jones said. “He’s going to get double and triple-teamed, so that gives other guys opportunities to make plays. We think we found some guys (Saturday) that can step up and make those plays.”

Lee County is faced with the task of replacing quarterback Stephen Collier, who enrolled at Ohio State University this past spring. What used to be a high-scoring offense will lean on its defense this season, and they seem to be up to the task. With Thompson and his supporting cast, the same could be said for the Patriots.

“I’m extremely proud of the way the guys played,” said Jones. “We made a ton of mistakes, but at the end it was still a two-possession game. We have to clean up those mental mistakes, those things are correctable. I’m proud of the way the defense played. They played lights out, got put in bad situations, but that’s part of the game. You have to be able to stand up and respond. We’ll get those mental mistakes corrected, and we’ll be ready to bounce back in two weeks against Jonesboro.”

Due to the Saturday kickoff, other high schoolers got the chance to become spectators as well. Fresh off a victory Friday night against Lanier County, Randolph-Clay linebacker Gary McCrae made his way out to support Thompson, his future University of Georgia teammate. This weekend marks the first step towards a new chapter for both McCrae, a Dynamite Dozen linebacker who verbally committed to UGA over the summer, and Thompson. The two have become acquainted through visits to Athens.

“We’ve grown a lot since we met each other,” McCrae said. “We’ve been talking like every other day. We’ve gotten accustomed to each other. We’ll be at the UGA-Clemson game next week, and we’re going to hang out up there.”

As a relatively unheralded prospect himself, McCrae is inspired by high-profile matchups like this.

“Seeing games like this featured on ESPN,” McCrae said, “it motivates me to work harder. It helps me do what I have to do for the next level, you know, to get to the top.”