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AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 04
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday night lights
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It had been about nine years since I’d spent a Friday night watching a high school football game, but when I found out one of my vacation days this week coincided with off-week plans that my son and my middle brother Jon had made to drive over to Elberton to see the Oconee County Warriors take on the Elbert County Blue Devils in the famed Granite Bowl, I couldn’t resist.
The trip sounded like a great idea for several reasons. First, I’d spent a lot of time over the years in Elberton, where my wife Leslie is from, and young Bill and I had heard lots of tales of the Granite Bowl from her days as captain of the Elbert County cheerleaders, but we’d never actually been to a game in the unique venue that claims to be the state’s largest high school stadium. Jon wanted to go because he lives in Watkinsville and he’s a longtime supporter of Oconee, where his youngest daughter, Caroline, is a senior. And to top it all off, Oconee’s senior quarterback, Zach Mettenberger, is a highly ranked prospect who plans to enroll at UGA in January. So it was sort of a back to the future kind of thing: Family roots and a future Dawg QB.
It got even better when my other brother, Tim, arranged to get off work early and came over from north Fulton to join us on the trek from Athens down Ga. 72, where we passed through our Madison County roots (my Dad is originally from Colbert) on our way to the Granite Capital of the World.
We arrived early, so we walked around the town square a bit and decided to grab a quick supper at Bojangles, only to find ourselves in the slowest fast-food joint we’d ever encountered. After waiting 15 minutes in a line where no one seemed to be getting any food, we were informed it’d be another 15 minutes for Dirty Rice. Cole slaw is fine, I said.
The Blue Devils started playing in the Granite Bowl, built by supporters and the local granite industry in a ravine behind the county courthouse, back in 1954, though the stadium wasn’t finished until 1962. Its granite bleachers, which form a horseshoe around three sides of the field, give it a seating capacity of at least 15,000 (the city claims 20,000). The scoreboard would look familiar to UGA fans because it’s the old Sanford Stadium board, donated to ECCHS during the last Sanford renovation.
This 8-AAA matchup between the Blue Devils and Warriors was Homecoming night at ECCHS, but their program has fallen off some from the days of its 1995 state championship (when T. McFerrin was the coach), so even the home side of the stadium was far from full. I did notice, though, that the Elbert stands filled in quite a bit as the first quarter progressed. “They were waiting on the Dirty Rice at Bojangles,” Jon quipped. We sat on the Oconee side with lots of parents of players, band members and cheerleaders. Jon pointed out country singer John Berry among the Warriors supporters.
The Elbert band marched onto the field for the national anthem and “Devil With a Blue Dress On” (something they didn’t play back in my wife’s day) and then brought their team on to the strains of the traditional school fight song, “Hoorah for Devils,” which I’ve heard Leslie sing numerous times over the years. They played the ESPN “SportsCenter” theme when the Blue Devils blocked Oconee’s first PAT try. Oconee’s pep band stayed in the stands for this game but was also quite active, frequently playing the war chant/tomahawk chop popularized by FSU and the Braves (one of Oconee’s mottos is “Fear the spear”). At times, both bands created a cacophony by blaring out competing fight songs at the same time. Ah, high school football!
As Tim noted, one of the pluses of watching a high school game in person is that you’re so close to the action you hear all the sounds of the game and occasionally even can make out what the coaches are telling the players on the sideline. Elbert came into the game 2-2 while Oconee was fresh off its first win, a comeback over Franklin County, after opening the season with three nonregion losses against Blessed Trinity, Dunwoody and St. Pius X. But it was obvious from the start that the bigger, faster team from Watkinsville was several notches above the home team in terms of talent.
Mettenberger, wearing No. 6, stood out from the start, if for no other reason than he appeared to be about a head taller than most of his teammates, at 6 foot 6 and 233 pounds. Ranked the No. 10 QB prospect in the country by Rivals.com and Scout.com (behind Georgia’s other QB commitment, Aaron Murray of Tampa), Mettenberger is considered a classic pro-style prospect, but though Oconee is running a no-huddle spread offense under first-year coach Mitch Olson, it’s predicated on the short passing game, so we got to see a lot of his very strong arm. Mettenberger can really put some zip on the ball, a la Matthew Stafford. Jon said he looked much improved over last season, when he was still growing and wasn’t very mobile. Friday night, he looked comfortable and confident, and generally made good decisions, frequently dumping the ball off to a back when his four wide-outs were covered. He does need to work a bit on looking off his receiver, and Tim noted an occasional slight hitch in his throwing motion. He chunked it 46 yards with ease on one play, though he overthrew his receiver. On another long pass, this time a TD, he showed great timing.
Unfortunately for the home crowd, the only thing they really had to cheer all night was the bevy of beauties escorted across the field by family members during the half-time Homecoming Court ceremony. Otherwise, it was all Oconee, with Mettenberger completing 17 of 28 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns (and that was with three passes dropped), and the Warriors’ tough little scatback, Jamie Stephens, running for 122 yards on 20 carries. Final score: Oconee 38, Elbert 0. Oh, and this wouldn’t be to Jon Fabris’ liking, but Oconee routinely put its kickoffs into the endzone.
With two highly ranked QBs coming aboard (in addition to the ones UGA already has), there’s no telling whether Mettenberger’s future includes a lot of time holding a clipboard or Saturdays of triumph Between the Hedges, but I got a kick out of getting an early view of a future player, sort of like in the days of the Bullpups’ Thanksgiving game. I hope those were just the first three of many touchdowns I get to see him toss.
