THOMASVILLE – The Brookwood Warriors aced the regular season portion of this year’s schedule. Now come tougher tests; starting this week with the GIAA Region 3-AAA playoffs at Georgia Southwestern State University.

Brookwood finished the regular season 24-2 and 8-0 in region play. It is the number one seed in this week’s region tournament and is currently the top ranked team in the state.

Brookwood head coach Nate VanDuyne’s team is in prime position to contend for region and state championships over the next couple of weeks.

“I really like where we’re at. Obviously, we played well throughout the course of the season, but I think the big thing for us right now, we have so many guys that contribute,” VanDuyne said. “I think that alleviates a lot of pressure off of individuals to have to perform and carry a team. Even throughout the two games (last week), we had five to six guys in both games that had 8-plus points. When you’re that spread out, it makes it really hard to key in on one guy.”

“We just have a luxury right now of having seven to eight guys that are playing at a really high level. I think last year we had multiple guys that were doing that, but it wasn’t to this degree.”

It’s the second straight season that the Warriors enter the postseason with legitimate championship aspirations. They won the region tournament last year but lost to Frederica Academy 64-48 in the state playoffs. Brookwood finished the year 26-3.

This year’s team was rarely tested in region play, winning each of its region games by double digits. It even recorded a pair of victories over Thomasville High School. Brookwood entered this week with three straight victories.

But VanDuyne understands the caliber of competition will get tougher this postseason.

“Even over the past couple of weeks, to finish the season playing teams like Thomasville and going down to Florida High, I think that has really prepared us and reminded us of last year,” he said. “We go up to Macon and play Frederica, who was a very good team last year. You just realize that you’ve got to have talent to compete at that level, but you also have to execute. You only get one shot. 

“We’re more mature (this year). We’re deeper, we’re better.”