Houston County tries to regroup during bye week, prepare for Northside
Jake Fromm is one of two dozen seniors on Houston County’s football team.
Thoughts of the potential of that senior season no doubt started only a day or two after their junior season ended with a 59-47 loss at eventual GHSA Class 5A champion Allatoona last November.
The Bears lost some key receivers and load of quality defensive players, but the program was clearly on the rise as a state championship contender.
Fast forward to this week, with the Bears idle as the end of the regular season nears. Fromm and those seniors must face the fact that only two games might remain in their senior season.
“It’s crazy to think there it could be only two left, however many games there are left,” the senior quarterback said. “Whether it’s two, whether it’s seven, I’m gonna play every single one of them like it’s my last and play as hard as I can.”
That’s the reality after the GHSA added a seventh classification last spring that led to major reclassification. Houston County and Northside, along with Jones County and Warner Robins, went from a comfy — and lopsided — Region 2-5A with a weak collection of Augusta teams to different classifications.
Jones County and Warner Robins remained in Class 5A, in different regions, while Houston County and Northside moved up to 6A, and were put in a region with Valdosta, Lee County and Coffee.
Valdosta is one of the state’s most prominent programs. Coffee was basically a .500 program that was on the rise after dropping down from 6A to 5A a few years ago, right after hiring Robby Pruitt as head coach.
And Lee County was another program headed forward under former Peach County assistant Dean Fabrizio, the Trojans’ talent collection hitting an attention-getting level.
Early in the season, all five teams were ranked in the Georgia Sports Writers Association poll before Coffee fell out a few weeks later. Now, it’s all the way down to three ranked teams, all in the top five, Houston County joining Coffee as the lone teams in the class to land in the “also received votes” category.
The Bears and Eagles went from a region with breathers to a region that can choke a team. And Houston County is, figuratively, gasping a bit.
Region 1-6A teams have only four region games, so the margin for error is basically nonexistent. There’s almost no chance to dig out of a hole, and the Bears are most certainly in one, an 0-2 hole and in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs.
Welcome to the rugged region.
“I’m gonna tell you, mentally, physically, it’s the toughest year,” said head coach Von Lassiter, whose team is 6-2. “There’s no downtime. It’s a grind like I’ve never seen.”
Co-No. 1 Valdosta, which ends the regular season against Houston County at Freedom Field, and Coffee are 1-0, Northside and Lee County are 1-1, and Houston County is 0-2.
Houston County was No. 1 when it visited Lee County and lost 55-29.
The Bears were more than impressed by Lee County.
“That was by far the best high school defense I’ve ever seen,” Fromm said. “They had grown men all over the field.”
That’s no understatement, according to Lassiter.
“The level of players that was in that game,” Lassiter said, his voice trailing off. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Lee County took over as No. 1, and that lasted a week, thanks to a 29-7 loss at Northside, which a week early did everything but beat Valdosta in a 14-6 loss.
Coffee put Houston County in the must-win mode last week with a 45-38 home win.
As backs-to-the-wall as the Bears are, nothing is set yet because of the balance of the region. Coffee visits Northside this week, and Lee County hosts Valdosta this week.
“It’s obviously a tough region,” Fromm said. “We knew that coming in. But we’re working through it.”
While Bears can’t catch up to anybody, two teams will lose and come closer to the Bears, who must sit and watch and hope for, well, all sorts of things.
As it is, next week’s tussle with Northside — the final battle with Fromm and Northside quarterback Tobias Oliver and the Eagles’ regular-season finale — would grow in importance if the Eagles lose to Coffee. Then, a Houston County win puts the Bears and Eagles in a tie at 1-2.
The final week has Lee County at Coffee and Valdosta at Houston County.
Despite a new level of adversity, the Bears have been sharp so far in practice as they get healthier and prepare for Northside on Oct. 28 in a must-win game.
“We had the best two practices of the year,” Fromm said of Monday and Tuesday’s workout. “For us, it’s easy to keep working. We know we have to step it up.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Houston County tries to regroup during bye week, prepare for Northside."