EDITORIAL: Lee County Trojans going for the title

After an improbable rally last week took them to a place where no Lee County High School football team has gone before, the Lee Trojans are poised to bring home a state championship  Friday night.

If Mother Nature cooperates.

At this writing, there was some question as to whether the Lee County-Coffee County rematch at 8 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta would kick off as scheduled. Weather forecasters were predicting snow and icy conditions, with the chance of some light snow making it as far as Southwest Georgia.

If that happens, the Class 6A championship will be delayed a week and moved to Lee’s home field, where Lee would host Coffee, which it defeated there 23-7 in a hard-fought contest last month that was closer than the score indicates. A 50-yard punt return for a touchdown by Elijah Carnes halfway through the fourth quarter broke the game open.

With the exception of a stumble against Valdosta, the Lee Trojans — sporting five athletes who have committed to Division I college football programs — have handled every challenge this year under the direction of head coach Dean Fabrizio and his staff. Fabrizio, in his ninth season at the helm, has turned around a Lee program that was 0-10 when he got to town, first into a competitive one in perhaps the state’s toughest region and now into a championship-caliber team, which captured its second region title under his leadership.

While it’s always tough to beat a good team twice in a season — one only has to look at Georgia’s win over Auburn for the SEC championship after losing badly to the Tigers a few weeks earlier as an example of that — this has the makings of a magical year for Lee County.

Last week was the type of game that makes believers out of skeptics and creates legends for future generations. Against a talented Glynn County team, the Trojans found themselves in an unusual position on their home turf — down 31-6 with halftime closing in. It would have been easy to look at the scoreboard and start thinking about prospects for 2018.

Instead, the Trojans managed to score in a span of 33 seconds just before halftime, then on their first possession in the third quarter. With Lee still down by a touchdown and a field goal, Glynn County had its last gasp to take a 38-20 lead into the final quarter before Lee’s defense forced four straight fumbles that the Trojans turned into 22 points and a ticket to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“The only way we were going to come back was through each other and through God,” Lee County wide receiver Josh Asbury said. “That’s all that happened, God and each other.”

Perhaps Lee is a team of destiny this season, but championships are earned. The only guarantees is that the 6A champion will come from South Georgia, and the winners will be the Trojans, a nickname Lee and Coffee share. We can’t even be 100 percent certain that a champion will be crowned  Friday night instead of next week.

Clearly, Lee County is a team that has the ability to earn the top prize. But regardless of whether the Lee Trojans win the first public school state football championship for a metro Albany school since Dougherty High’s 3A win in 1998, they already have proven to be a well-coached team of players with a great deal of talent and even greater heart who have represented the community and region well. We wish them the best.