THOMASVILLE — The GISA Class AAA playoffs were deja vu for the Brookwood Warriors. 

For the second consecutive year, the Warriors’ season came to an end in a shootout at the Westfield Hornets. Last year it was 49-48. This year it was 49-41.

It was a disappointing finish for the Region 3 champs.

“We certainly grew as a team and maybe as much as any team I’ve ever coached throughout the season,” Brookwood coach Shane Boggs said. “To miss that opportunity to move on to the semifinals, it was disappointing. It was such a fun team to be around. It’s always disappointing not to be able to go back to work on Monday. That’s been my message to them. It was a really fun team, and I’m proud of how they hung in there and worked for each other. I’m proud of the progress we made for sure.”

It was a tale of two seasons for the Warriors. They dropped their first six games, won their next five en rout to the region title, before losing to the Hornets last Friday night.

Now the Warriors must regroup and look to next year with a young and talented corps that produced record-breaking results this season.

“Rodge Waldrop throws for over 3,000 yards as a sophomore, including 502 yards the other night at Westfield, which broke his previous record of 499. Destin (Moore) and T.J. (Thomas) broke Rodger Walker’s single season (yards receiving) record. T.J. breaks it in the second half, and Destin broke both of those,” Boggs said. “All of those guys are back. We return four of our five O-linemen, which is great. We’ve just got a great core group to build around. You’re starting no more than three seniors on either side of the ball (this year). A lot of times you’re starting four juniors and four sophomores. That’s a pretty young team that we’ll be bringing back, and we won five out of our last six games.

“We’re sad to lose these seniors, but we are excited about next year’s group for sure.”

Waldrop tallied 3,158 passing yards and 32 passing touchdowns, second all-time in Brookwood history to Scott Cheney’s 3,283 yards and 33 touchdowns in 2007. 

Moore finished with 1,018 receiving yards, including 272 against Westfield. That broke his previous  record of 197. Thomas finished with 981 receiving yards and had a school record 14 receptions against Westfield. Grant Gaston, another returnee next season, finished with 735 receiving yards, sixth on Brookwood’s all-time single-season list.

“It’s kind of a scattering at positions,” Boggs said. “Last year we lost three of our four starting linebackers to graduation. That’s not the case here.”