MOULTRIE — It was a bittersweet 2016 football season at The Citadel for former Colquitt County Packer Dondray Copeland.

The Bulldogs won eight straight games and claimed a second-straight Southern Conference championship, while their senior linebacker from Doerun was earning a Gold Star for his 3.75 grade point average.

But on the night before The Citadel defeated Gardner-Webb on Sept. 17, his mother, Michelle Copeland, died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

She was 48.

His mother had been in declining health and was on life support, but urged her son not to miss any games.

So after being at her bedside when she passed, Copeland joined his teammates the next day and made seven tackles as the Bulldogs pulled off their third-straight fourth-quarter comeback victory.

Copeland had his mother’s initials on his wrist tape and his teammates gave him their support, dedicating the victory to him.

Still, it obviously was a difficult time.

“It was rough after she passed,” Copeland said recently. “It was hard to stay focused.”

But he continued to help lead his team to victory after victory, while also working hard in the classroom to earn his gold star.

Obviously, his mother would have been proud, especially since she had encouraged her son to accept the scholarship at The Citadel following his 2011 senior football season at Colquitt County.

Copeland’s football career was nearly derailed before it began when he suffered a severe knee injury and broken leg while attempting a triple jump as a freshman.

He spent much of the next two seasons rehabbing his knee.

Copeland was a member of the 2010 Colquitt County team that fell in the state championship game to Brookwood, but started just his senior season.

He played well, however, helping lead the Packers to an 11-3 record.

A 180-pound safety, he was credited with 49 tackles and broke up two passes.

He scored two touchdowns, one on a pick-6 against Tift County.

The other came in the regular-season finale against Valdosta when he forced a fumble, picked it up and returned it for a touchdown.

He also had another interception in the Packers playoff victory at North Gwinnett.

His performance as a senior and his size and speed caught the attention of a number of college recruiters.

As did his strong academics.

The Naval Academy showed some interest, as did Presbyterian, Miami of Ohio, Valdosta State and The Citadel.

Travis Pearson, then Colquitt County’s defensive coordinator, knew one of the members of The Citadel’s coaching staff and sent video of Copeland to him.

One of the Bulldogs’ assistants then traveled to Moultrie to get a better look and invited him to The Citadel’s Charleston, S.C., campus.

Copeland, his mother and grandfather made the trip on a day when he also planned to go to Valdosta State.

The trip to Valdosta State never happened.

Copeland had his reservations about The Citadel at first.

He wore his hair in dreadlocks then and was not pleased at the prospect of cutting them.

But his mother fell in love with The Citadel, he remembers.

“She knew she wouldn’t have to worry about me,” he says. “I’d have a curfew, they wouldn’t have to buy clothes for me. And she knew I’d get a good education.”

Copeland was red-shirted in 2012, but appeared in all 12 games the following year, primarily on special teams, and was credited with three tackles against Clemson.

In 2014, he played in 10 games, but earned 10 starts and played in all 13 games as a junior the following year.

He recorded 66 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack. He also had three interceptions in what he termed his best season.

One of his biggest games as a Bulldog came at Georgia Southern that season when he had a career-high nine tackles and forced a fumble. He also had six tackles in the 41-38 victory at Coastal Carolina in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs.

The Citadel went 10-2 last season, losing only to North Carolina and to Wofford in the first round of the FCS playoffs.

Grown to 6-foot-2, 207 pounds, he had 15 solo and 18 assisted tackles, two pass breakups and one forced fumble.

Copeland calls himself a “tweener,” too small to play linebacker, but to big to be a safety.

He played what is termed the rover in the Bulldogs’ 4-2-5 defense.

Copeland said he had little trouble adjusting the college game, saying Rush Propst’s Colquitt County program had him prepared.

“We got after it in practice and we got after it in the weight room,” he says. “When I got to The Citadel, I had the strength, the speed and the size. I just had to get used to the speed of the game.”

Copeland credits Pearson and Packers cornerbacks coach Dextra Polite in helping get ready for the next level.

“Coach Polite was always on me,” he says. “But he was always there when I needed him.”

Copeland got his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice last year and, in addition to the Gold Star, was on the Dean’s List three times with GPA’s of 3.2 or better.

 He has remained at The Citadel to do graduate work, earning a scholarship as a member of the track team.

Copeland said he is unlikely to go into the military and is planning to use his criminal justice degree to get into the security business.