Congratulations to Southeast Bulloch's football team for capturing the No. 1 seed from Region 3-3A. It might not be its first region title since its back-to-back region titles in 1993-94 under head coach Tom Bracket. But then again, it might be.
That is all up for debate.
But as things stand in 3-3A, Southeast Bulloch will carry the No. 1 seed from its region into the playoffs because it is the only program remaining after the other six teams – five from the Savannah area and Liberty County – backed out of the season indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Savannah schools will only play Savannah schools; Liberty suspended athletics indefinitely.
So ... last man standing wins.
“We just kind of got all bombarded at once (when Savannah and Liberty pulled out). One day you got 10 games and then the next you got five,” said Southeast Bulloch coach Barrett Davis. “We kind of just tried to take it in stride and do the best we can. We’ve been able to reschedule some of those games and get some of them back and find another opponent. So it’s been good so far.”
So what happened? Liberty County suspended its fall sports and extracurricular activities in late July and in early August, when Savannah Chatham County Public School System pulled its programs – Beach, Groves, Johnson-Savannah, Savannah and Windsor Forest -- from fall competition, it left the Yellow Jackets as the only survivor.
“So kind of what the Savannah schools did is they said, ‘Hey, we’re all going to play each other and what we’ll do before the season, we’ll go ahead and let it be known that Southeast Bulloch and Liberty will be the 1 and 2 seeds automatically, no matter what happens, and so we know that’s a fact already,” Davis said. “And then if Savannah schools decide later on that they want to come back in and fight for those 3 and 4 seeds, they’ll be able to. If Liberty drops out, then the Savannah teams might have the opportunity to come back and fight for 2, 3 and 4 seeds. But we went ahead and just made those rules up front.”
Davis has been at Southeast Bulloch since 2018. In his first season, he led the Yellow Jackets to a 9-2 record, the best year at Southeast Bulloch since an 11-1 season in 1993 under coach Bracket. Before talking the head job at Southeast Bulloch, Davis was the linebackers coach at Burke County from 2009-14, coaching the defensive line in his final season. Then he was the defensive coordinator at Lakeside-Evans from 2015-18.
But regardless of how this unique season pans out, 8-0 or 0-8, Davis is guaranteed a top spot in the region and a playoff berth.
“Yeah, hey, it feels good on top,” he laughed. “I guess I can go ahead and get those region championship t-shirts printed.”
The Yellow Jackets are scheduled to open their season against Screven County on Sept. 4 at home, and its worth noting that they await the No. 2 seed from Region 4 in the first round of the playoffs scheduled for late November.
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