THOMASVILLE — The state championship will be a new stage for the Thomasville Bulldogs players and many of the team coaches. But the Bulldogs head coach has experienced a state championship environment before and will be counted on for guidance and leadership heading into Friday’s Class AA title clash with Fitzgerald at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta.

“What you’re going to see is football,” said head coach Zach Grage, who was an assistant on Colquitt County teams that lost in the Class 7A championship in 2010 and won in 2014. “I think we’re going to do a real good job as far as our itinerary and our trip. That’s one good thing about having experience with it before and having a mature group, we have to bring up everybody on the night before. 

“We’ll take a trip and hopefully watch part of the single-A game on Thursday night, so that, it’s not the first time that they’ve seen the stadium. They won’t have that ‘ah’ factor in there. It kind of reminds me of ‘Hoosiers’ where they still measured the goal and still measured the court.

“I think our biggest thing will be the atmosphere. I anticipate our crowd and Fitzgerald’s crowd to be loaded up, but it’s going to be so much different in that open air; bigger stadium that holds a lot more folks that almost seems empty.”

It will mark the Bulldogs’ first championship game experience since 1993 when they lost to Thomas County Central in the Class AAA title game. Thomasville last won a title in 1988 under head coach Mike Hodges. The Bulldogs dismantled Callaway, last year’s state champion, 31-6 in the semifinal round last week.

“It feels awesome,” Grage said. “It’s like we told our younger guys and younger coaches, and I even had our coaches raise their hand after Friday night’s game, how many on the staff is it’s their first state championship experience at the high school level? I think it was eight or nine out of 11. It’s something that you can never take for granted.

“We’re really excited to be here, and hopefully, we can finish it up.”

Fitzgerald lost to Callaway in last year’s Class AA championship game. Its last state championship came in 1948, though it’s finished as state runners-up three times since 2015.