You here.

We are happy.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the countdown to kick off here on GPB Sports Facebook Live.

That's Jon Nelson.

I'm Hannah Goodin.

And that's the last time I get to say that this season, because this is the last show of the year until championships.

And we all know what it is.

It is December 1st and which means it's semifinals championship and it is haircut championship haircut season, no doubt.

We zoom in on that.

Let's see that fresh hair.

Jon, how you feeling?

Championship haircut.

I feel very aerodynamic.

Thank you for asking.

No, no, it was.

It was time.

And you want the hair to kind of grow in a little bit.

You don't want to just kind of shout a.

Lot of it.

A lot of.

It.

And you don't want to shock folks like the day before the championships and sit there and go, oh, here's championship, here's a haircut.

Now you want to kind of let it grow in a little bit.

Some folks can kind of sit there and get adjusted to the notion of, Oh yeah, Nelson got his championship haircut, so that's why I got it for the semifinals instead of before the finals, to not give the viewer something to be scared about.

Yes.

Yeah, it was getting a little frightening.

So semifinal week, 32 teams and we have a new friend introduced this week.

We do.

Once again, going below the the level here.

We want to thank Coach Cecil Lester and our friends at Dooley County.

Dooley County Bobcats.

Got to show them the lightning.

Lightning bolt and back to front.

And there it is.

There's your lightning bolt to show you the direction that you're supposed to go.

And so, once again, thanks to Cecil Lester in Our Friends at Dooley County for adding this to the stacks.

And as we always say, you want to add yours to stacks.

Get in touch with this.

Will add it once again, thanks to Cecil and everybody down there, Dooley County, for adding to it very, very cool to add this one of the stacks.

We want all 400 plus.

We got the space, trust me.

Once again, thanks to everybody, Dooley County.

Because we started late.

We'll have a shorter show today but we.

Got a fly.

Got to get to it.

But John, you had some coaching carousel news and notes off the top.

Yes.

Two important gigs are now open.

One of them is Mr. Rodney Garvin, who led Medford to a little over ten.

And on the average, ten wins this season.

The last five years he's gone back to Vidalia, where he was DC for 11 years before he left to take the head coaching job at Metter.

So he's back to Vidalia.

Jason Cameron left at the end of the season, so Rodney Garver goes back to Vidalia, metter is now open in single-A and retiring after 30 years in the coaching business.

Last 16 is head coach at Peach County.

Chad Campbell retires at Peach County.

His brother Lee also retiring as well.

One of the I think they're the first brother duo to win state championships in the state of Georgia.

Lee did it at Hopkinsville, Chad did it at Peach.

But Chad Campbell retiring at Peach County.

So matter is now open.

Peach County is now open to big gigs in Middle Georgia, open as the coaching carousel started.

Jerry Deal does hear Michael Baxter.

He says Milton Eagles it's one of our one of our games will be talking about today and showcasing tomorrow.

Showtime.

Hey, guys.

Destin Ward, Rosser, Southerland for Marietta, Michael Devane.

Okay, let's get things started.

And first, we're going to take a look back at our quarterfinal match up from a week ago, which was Walton versus Carrollton at Grisham.

Oh, no, no, no.

Oh, no, no.

I forgot that.

Sorry.

We're trying to get started so fast.

I forgot the most important.

Part of what's for lunch.

People having a shorter show means that more than eating lunch.

So let us know what's for lunch one last time here on Thursday.

Now proceed.

Thank you, John.

I don't know if you've ever organized me before, and that was a pretty deep eyeroll.

I am really high, like, okay, okay, okay.

Walton versus Carrollton, Immigration Stadium.

This featured the classifications leading passer and Trojans quarterback Juju Lewis I'll let you go through the numbers, John, but he wasn't even the best player on the field.

Bryce Hicks the I think this is once again the first time that we have had a repeat Georgia Cotton Commission player of the game, Rice said just under 90 yards rushing.

He had, I think it was five TDs on the night total five tackles and a pick.

So yeah.

Bryce Hicks, you definitely deserve to be the Georgia Cotton Commission player.

The game for winning for helping as you saw three three black through there get the win.

So Carrollton gets to Duke once again it was tied early.

What we've seen from Joey King in the Carrollton Trojans is halftime adjustments.

Second quarter adjustments, taking advantage of mistakes from Walton Raiders and Daniel Bruner putting the pedal down third and fourth corner.

They go on to the big win.

Why they're in the semifinal.

Advanced to face Colquitt County and we'll get into that in just a bit.

We had flag football last night as well.

We had the first and round, second round of the playoffs at McEachern and we want to show you some of those highlights as well.

So and then the quarterfinals will be tonight, go to school.

McEachern played host to Walton in Alpharetta.

And for upwards of 6:00, Walton played McEachern does.

A lot of dodge and going on there that's a great individual effort and then the keeper here and that you see quarterbacks do that these days once again it's where when you pull the flag where the ball is so you see a lot of extension from quarterbacks to make sure that the ball is marked forward.

And McEachern was in a bit of a challenge with Walton, but McEachern came in one of the one of the top teams in the state in their classification.

Remember, you have seven, eight, you have five, eight, six, eight, and then you have single-A two quad.

So Walton in McEachern, big win for McEachern in a tight game.

They were challenged by Walton in that one.

And so then Alpharetta and Brookwood.

Little, little underhand there little Patrick Mahomes.

And that was the only score.

Alpharetta got the big seven nil.

So Alpharetta advances as well.

And then this is this is a play.

So you had those two winners play each other and now North Gwinnett and Marietta tonight.

And seven, eight, Milton McEachern.

Milton McEachern won the third game there.

Rosalyn Altoona, Polk beat North Gwinnett, Marietta, North Gwinnett, Marietta 630 on the Web GPB that August sports and GPB sports at 5868 is Central Carroll in West Side Macon East Coweta Evans Trinity Christian Saint Pius Lithia Springs Mount Zion Jonesboro Single through Quad Calvary Day Pace Academy.

Harris County St Vincent's.

Harris County had to travel from Hamilton to Harford Stadium in DeKalb County to advance out of their bracket.

North Side, Columbus, Southeast Bullock.

Southeast Bullock.

Still putting up big numbers unbeaten.

Unbelievable what they're doing in CB Long County the blue to Lou SC going up against Logan Bill so those are your matchups and flag football the show continues as we breathe.

John knows everything about flag football too, apparently, guys.

So let's see where his long King County is up.

There's some flag football gear.

I think Long County's that one up there directly over my head.

But Long County exists here.

So Long County is part of the helmets.

And once again, we show you all the helmets that we have.

Long County, I believe, is directly over my head right there.

I think that's in Long County.

If my math is correct, we'd have to turn it around where you would see the state of Georgia and the county seat along county Lou.

Two whiskey that is a part of the Ludlow I little whiskey so well done making it to the final eight in the three classic.

Congratulations to all our girls playing flag football.

Time now to show you our play of the week in guys football over the G AA Class three a semifinal game between Deerfield, Windsor and Brooklyn football.

This is the last play of the game and it speaks for itself.

So the call here is hilarious.

Awesome.

I mean, it's it's a fantastic finish.

Deerfield wins.

I don't.

Know if we can show it again with that audio file.

But I mean, it was a great call.

I mean, it's Deerfield.

Windsor was trailing the Brooklyn Play by Play and Brookwood School had the play by play there.

And know okay, we're going listen to overtime John here.

Listen to this.

Look at him.

Get it?

He caught it.

Oh, it always.

Here we go.

Here we go.

Getting ready for the game boy and getting tackled.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

When you got a tackle tackled, you got to get the band down.

He is on his goal.

Oh, my God.

Are you kidding?

There's been a little decline everywhere.

There's a believe feel.

The flags were on.

Are you kidding?

The game was the wins there.

That's the high school football wrapped up in a minute clip.

I don't know what.

Absolutely.

And so the gear is having their championships at Mercer.

And tonight at 8:00, I believe the three a final John Milledge who's we're going to find out more about John Milledge coming up later in the show.

Deerfield Windsor Advances to take on John Milledge in the Class three A Final in the game.

More on John Milledge in a bit.

Yes, final score.

And that one was 20.

So your heart just absolutely breaks for the Brookwood guys in the booth for that call.

I know.

That was awesome.

Okay, we're going to turn the page.

We're gonna preview our football Friday in Georgia.

Game of the week this week.

But there's two, but there's two.

So it's games of the week two back to back, double header semis.

John take us through it.

Mill Creek in Milton and seven a and once again it goes to the the idea of you've got to have a certain capacity for seeding to host the championship game.

Milton did not meet capacity, so they had to come up with a neutral venue and the neutral venue ended up being like win stadium.

So that's why you have a game at 5:00 and then you've got a game at eight.

Rome and Langston Hughes, you have the seven, eight.

Sammy, you have 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game, Roman Langston Hughes, a78 semi and a68 semi here on GPB, a first in the history of Georgia Public Broadcasting at a neutral venue where the championships are.

The following week we did that.

We did the semifinals when they were the single venue at the Georgia Dome before it went to home sides.

In the past, this is the first time that we have had a doubleheader semifinal for football Friday's in Georgia.

The playoffs, seven, eight and six eight.

This is cool.

Well, let's do a little bracketology and look at the other games for those classifications.

And they start with seven.

Eight, seven, eight.

We talked about what's going on on the right hand side, the left hand side, Colquitt County and Carrollton.

Colquitt Counties hosting remember equal seed, the top bracket.

Get your host Carrollton and Colquitt Millcreek and Milton that is your seven A in six day Roswell in Gainesville is on the other side of the on the left hand side of the bracket.

Once again, Roswell did not meet capacity, so that game will be at McEachern, Roswell, Gainesville, on the left, Houston, Rome on the right, five A where county is hosting Dutch town Cartersville and Warner Robins.

Dutch town is defense where county's putting up big numbers.

Warner Robins and Cartersville.

On the right hand side, heavyweights go all the way through Clottey work your way through there.

Cedar Town in north the county.

Cedar Town has been top ranked all season long.

You've got Benedictine.

What's our verb?

That we always like to do?

There's so many I've loved lurking.

I was going to say lingering.

Was.

Lingering.

You want to.

Learn knows from Benedictine and true from the right hand side troop and Benedict and they always seem to play in the playoffs regardless of the round trip.

I show you what's going on there.

Carver Atlanta, three teams from the same region.

Carver Atlanta, Sandy Creek, Cedar Grove, the three, the two and the one.

Oconee Counties the only one.

One of these things is not like the other.

As we say here in public broadcasting, Oconee County is the only team not in region five.

It's in the final four and three.

Next up, this is Stout Fitzgerald Fellowship, Christian Appling County and Thompson to two fantastic matchups four great teams making it through.

I still maintain that one of the toughest brackets around in the state of Georgia.

Then you've got your single A's in D one Irwin County in Plainsboro.

That one's listed as a toss up, four in seven.

And Christian, welcome.

Saint Francis You get four and seven and Christian great work by Frank Barden down in Saint Francis is a region champ and your last.

One I can't wait for the Saint Francis game.

Balance.

Lincoln County bound has been top ranked most of the year, but the right hand side a lot of folks looking at Johnson County and SLI that that one could go to the last team that has possession that's your eight brackets that's the shortest.

Bracket I know I was like, man, we have a short show in really?

You flew through that.

John short show.

You might get through it all know in time anyways.

No, won't happen.

There'll be something where I'll sit there and try to expound.

Well, I'm going to go back to six eight for our gain.

Langston Hughes versus Rome.

And one of the best players on the field will be Rome senior defensive lineman to final in Green.

He is committed to Clemson but has some unfinished business to do.

He is title hungry.

Here's what it's going to take for them to get through.

Hughes From his perspective.

I say like they offer the offense is pretty good.

That's that's why they need winning games.

But I say, like, I feel like our defense and in our confidence in each other, we're going to be we're going to be good.

I feel like our defense can hold up.

We start out the run and pass and get pressures on a QB start, stop them and when they go.

He's not all brawn, he's also brains.

One of the reasons he chose Clemson is because of academics.

He wants to be a mechanical engineer in the air, far out.

So that's awesome.

For the full interview and more about his recruiting process.

What you're putting 2022 this Friday in between games, that's when the recruiting show will air.

Yes.

And if you thought we were flying here on Countdown to kick off no commercials in recruiting 2022 this week in between games.

That's going to be fun.

One Matt is going to have to be properly hydrated and then some for this week show.

Yeah well I'm going to do the kicker and then we're going to jump into Facebook comments section until producer Lori tells us to stop.

So the kicker, we are congratulating John Milledge Academy for winning its 49th game in a row versus Bellwood.

Yep, and they have been the dominant team in the game.

And this is just once again part of the, the history that they've been able to build there at John Milledge.

We mentioned that tonight as they are chasing after win number 50 thanks to our friends at 13 WMC to keep track of what we're seeing John Milledge win number 50 in a row could be theirs if they knock off Deerfield wins are you saw how the Deerfield wins are made it to the last game of the year.

John Mitchell is very accustomed to doing the same things of John Milledge.

Could find the number 50 in a row beating Buford old record and they beat the record during this run get beat number 50 in a row tonight it five star down at Mercer tonight I think 8:00 kick is when that is scheduled but come great you have to tip your hat to Jimmy for what they been a.

Lot of.

A lot of wins in a row 49 they could get 50 tonight and 50 gives them another state title.

That's pretty cool.

Okay.

We've got some people commenting about what they're eating for lunch.

Yeah.

What's for lunch?

We have class in green.

I don't think I've ever said that name on the show.

He's having Subway, so maybe a new viewer.

Nothing wrong with that.

Let us know.

Evan Ricci's having a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with yogurt.

Well, okay.

What flavor yogurt.

Did you lose some of the yogurt?

I lost him at the yogurt, but I'll sit there and ask.

Him how to make.

It even better, as long as the same flavor with the yogurt.

Because plain yogurt can't do that.

Like the bacon, egg and cheese part.

The yogurt.

You got to tell me what flavor it is.

I usually I'm like a maybe a blueberry or strawberry kind of fruit based yogurt person on those rare days, every decade when I have yogurt.

So please tell me that there's fruit in there.

And it's not just plain Hindu cottage cheese even.

And Jared is having D. Q Austin, Abbey Butler, old timer, barbecue in Rome, Ark.

Evans is just plain yogurt.

So, no, John, that's not for you.

I'm going to stick with the bacon, egg and cheese part.

You can have the yogurt.

Showtime wants to know who has the longest drive this week.

The longest drive this week.

Let's see as I sit here and do math sitting here.

Irwin County and Swain's Barrow is not a contender.

Could be Fitzgerald and Fellowship might be Benedictine and troop going from one frontier to the other.

As I sit here and look at the match ups, my gut tells me is that it might be Benedictine and troop or Dutch town and where county.

That would be my gut or possibly Fitzgerald felt it might be Fitzgerald Fellowship Christian.

So I think that we have three contenders and Hannah is the one with the computer, so she'll do the math.

And Jordan do broth is having salad with chicken on it, not chicken salad.

Salad with chick, I mean.

Yeah, the grill or the grill or the blackened kind.

I mean, yeah, I've done that before when I've had a salad once a decade.

Yeah, well, we got to go to our lunch too.

So here is our championship schedule here.

What we have to look forward to in a week from ten to December eight through ten, we watch everything obviously on TV, it will also be live streamed on Facebook and Twitter and all the places.

You name it.

We're doing sports and the GPB sports app Flag Football will be day one there, TV and channels, plus the singles.

And then for Friday.

It's even.

Evens and then Saturday's odds.

Yes, 12, 330 and seven.

Traditional are the start times, but depending on length of games and things like that, that's what you're looking at for Friday and Saturday.

Thursday it is the all football extravaganza all the way through.

You've got flag football championships, plus the two single-A games.

So let's see three, five, 11 football games in three days on GPB, GPB dot org the GPB sports app all our social media the twitch the twitch.

Let's see we have the tick tock.

The tick tock.

Yes, you too.

That's right.

We got it.

We got to record some of those and we're done, too.

And we also have to do lunch.

We have to do lunch.

So this is it for the year, guys.

I have to give a shout out to our newest c k fan.

Yeah, that is producer Lori's new nephew, Kai, which means ocean.

Hawaiian for ocean.

And we wanted to say, hey, welcome to the world and welcome to.

The world of high.

Stakes human life.

Welcome to the world of high school football in the state of Georgia.

Straight.

You just make sure that you can try to grab the comet by the tail or try to catch the water through an open hand.

That's what it is all year long.

Okay, we're out of time.

We do want to thank all of our viewers.

We love you guys.

You make the show without you guys, this wouldn't even be a show.

Thank our producer Lori for all of her heart.

Everybody behind.

Everyone behind the cameras, in the hall, in the control room, every show, every Thursday.

Thank you, John.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Pointed at me, so I thought we were pointing at each other.

It's time to.

Eat.

It's time to buy.

We'll see you.

We'll see you tomorrow for our double header.

And then you get to watch us all.

So much of us championships.

You will miss us.

You'll see us all day, all over the place.

Okay, bye.

You.