THOMASVILLE — Thomas County Central’s wrestling team looked to a freshman to lead the Yellow Jackets to a Region 1-AAAA championship Friday afternoon.

“I told him before the match, ‘If you pin him, we win, if you lose, we lose.’ I put the pressure on him, even though it wasn’t his fault we were in that situation. He stepped up to the plate, and he grew a little bit,” said Central coach Matt Tanner of freshman Dean Rollins.

Rollins pinned his Bainbridge opponent in the championship round and propelled the Yellow Jackets to their second straight region title. They will host the preliminaries of the state tournament this upcoming weekend. 

Even more impressive was Rollins wrestling up in weight class. To avoid Bainbridge winning by forfeit in certain weight divisions, Central had Rollins, a 106-pounder, wrestle in the 113-pound weight division. He entered and exited the match unscathed.

“Their guy just had to win, and they would have won the whole thing. My guy had to pin them for us to win,” Tanner said. “You want to talk about a nailbiter, I think they had us on our back for like a minute in the first period. I thought, no way we’re going to survive this. 

“Dean fought his tail off. He refused to get pinned.  They went back and forth in the second period. Dean ended up pinning him. It was awesome.

“The kids picked him up and cheered him on. It was a good time and a learning lesson.”

Central won its matches against Dougherty and Bainbridge.

“One thing Bainbridge does, they fight. They work hard. They’ll catch you. If you get out of position, they’re really good at that,” Tanner said. “I’ve got a bunch of young guys that know how to wrestle, but they get out of position a good bit. Bainbridge capitalized on it.”

Central will host either Friday or Saturday. It’ll host Jenkins, the No. 4 team out of Region 3; Luella, the No. 3 team out of Region 5; and Cedartown, the No. 2 team out of Region 7. The winner of the preliminary round will advance to the Elite Eight the following weekend.