Stockbridge’s football team, the first from Henry County Schools to play for a state championship, got a surprise visit this week from perhaps Henry County’s most famous resident, Shaquille O’Neal.
The basketball legend visited the players and coaching staff Wednesday during a celebration of the team’s accomplishments. Stockbridge will play Perry for the Class 4A championship on Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
O’Neal came with Henry County sheriff Reginald Scandrett, who in 2021 named O’Neal the sheriff office’s director of community relations.
Stockbridge coach Thomas Clark had invited Scandrett, whose son graduated from Stockbridge, to come speak but had no idea that O’Neal would be joining him and talking to the players.
“He was just saying get your minds right, finish the drill, don’t lose to Perry,’’ Clark said. “But not only did he talk to the team, but he mixed with them and played around and interacted with them really well. He did a team breakdown with them, and he was in the middle of it.’’
Georgia High School Football Daily and a bottled water company also were there separately to honor Stockbridge as their state team of the week.
O’Neal has been active in his adopted home since buying a home in McDonough seven years ago. In 2021, the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation committed $1 million to the launching of the Shaquille O’Neal Boys & Girls Club of Henry County.
O’Neal, a four-time NBA champion and 2000 MVP with the Los Angeles Lakers, is a sports analyst for TNT’s Inside the NBA.
Stockbridge’s football team has won 12 straight games since an 0-2 start and defeated two-time defending Class 4A champion Benedictine 45-31 on Friday in the semifinals.
Stockbridge and Perry are the only two among 16 state finalists in eight classes that are making their first finals appearances. Stockbridge played its first football season in 1964. Perry played its first in 1954.
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