Smart to speak at fund-raising dinner for alma mater Bainbridge

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart keeps his team on the move during the annual G-Day football game Saturday, April 20, 2019, at Sanford Stadium in Athens.

Credit: ccompton@ajc.com

Credit: ccompton@ajc.com

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart keeps his team on the move during the annual G-Day football game Saturday, April 20, 2019, at Sanford Stadium in Athens.

If winning a state championship wasn’t enough to stir interest in Bainbridge football, a fund-raiser next month at the Bainbridge Country Club featuring the school’s most famous alumnus ought to do it.

The Bearcat Touchdown Club has secured Georgia coach Kirby Smart to be the guest speaker at a benefit for the team on May 16, according to The Post Searchlight of Bainbridge.

Smart reached out to Bainbridge coach Jeff Littleton to congratulate him on the school’s first state title since 1982 and to ask if he could help the program in any way, according to the newspaper. Smart agreed to help with the fundraising dinner.

Smart played football, baseball and basketball while at Bainbridge and was part of the football team that won a region title and reached the Class AAAA semifinals in 1993, when Smart was an all-state defensive back under his father, Sonny Smart.

Bainbridge would not win another region title or make the semifinals again until 2015 under Littleton.

This season, Bainbridge was a surprise winner of the Class AAAAA championship when the Bearcats, who were only 5-5 in the regular season, won five straight playoff games and avenged a 38-0 regular-season loss and defeated Warner Robins 47-41 in three overtimes in the title game.