Football Friday Night Week 1

The 2026 Georgia High School Football season kicked off last week.  Let's take a look at how my teams fared in their openers:

Warner Robins 34, Veterans 23
Game Summary:

Warner Robins trailed 17-7 in the first half and didn’t lead until Chandler Dyson’s 43-yard run for a 20-17 edge with 10:09 left. Dyson rushed for 105 yards. X’Zavier Cannon had 125 all-purpose yards. Warner Robins held Veterans to less than 125 yards of total offense. EJ Adeside had three tackles for loss and scored on a 44-yard reception. Alijah Alexander had four tackles for loss, three QB pressures and a fumble recovery and scored on a short run. 

Comments:

Warner Robins allowed two kickoff returns for touchdowns and another long return deep into their end of the field.  They need to tighten up on the special teams.  I'm sure they are working on it this week.  Otherwise, they did a good job hanging around and getting the win.  

This Friday:  vs. Northeast Macon (1-0).  Northeast won their opener with a 39-0 shutout of Westside Macon.  Northeast has never beaten Warner Robins in 24 meetings.  Warner Robins won their last meeting in 1999 (35-0).  The closest meeting with in 1991 when Warner Robins edged Northeast 6-0.  I was at that game and it was quite a defensive game.  

Villa Rica 29, Alexander 27
Game summary:

Villa Rica kicked a late field goal to go up 29-20 with 1:06 left, but Alexander immediately answered with a kickoff return touchdown to cut it to 29-27. Alexander recovered the subsequent onside kick, but turned the ball over on a chaotic final play with laterals as time ran out.

Comments:

Michael Hilbert picked up his first win as head coach.  Very close and competitive game in their opener.  Let's see if they can keep it going against Hiram this week.

This Friday:  at Hiram (0-1).  Hiram opened against Cartersville and were demolished 48-0.  Villa Rica leads the all-time series 6-5.  Hiram won the last meeting in 2019 by a score of 42-3.

Fitzgerald 22, Clinch County 13
Game summary:

Clinch County, traditionally a running team, was held to 21 rushing yards. Traviian Miller was 10-of-20 passing for 188 yards. Clinch stayed in the game until Fitzgerald, the No. 2 team in Class 2A, scored a touchdown in the final two minutes. Next: Friday vs. Jeff Davis (1-0)

Comments:

The Panthers played tough with Fitzgerald.  They just needed a few breaks or they would have won this one.  

This Friday:  vs. Jeff Davis (1-0).  Jeff Davis defeated Vidalia 37-0 in their opener.  Clinch County is 2-7 in all-time meetings against Jeff Davis.  They last met in 1977.  Jeff Davis won that meeting 63-0.  Incidentally, I watched the 1976 game when the Panthers won a thrilling 7-6 game to qualify for the playoffs.

Faith vs. Reality

I grew up believing in having faith and trusting God. I have heard hundreds of sermons about how if we just have faith the size of a mustard seed that we can move mountains. I can’t say that I’ve seen that happen personally.

I want to have faith and believe the impossible but am I also setting myself up for disappointment when my faith doesn’t match the reality of the result? What do I do when I believe but then the result isn’t what I was believing for?

I remember the “name it and claim it” people. If you have enough faith, God will give you what you ask for. The only reason that you don’t get it is because of a lack of faith.

B.S.

That’s not how it works. Faith and believing doesn’t always give you the results you are asking for. Sometimes you don’t get what you want. Even worse, sometimes you get the opposite of what you were believing that you were going to get. What then?

This morning I prayed and believed in the result. It didn’t happen. I sit here disappointed. I am disappointed in myself and in my faith. I’m not mad at God as most would be. I just don’t understand what He’s doing or why. Unfortunately God is under no obligation to tell us. We just go through this blindly.

When faith does not lead to the outcome we hoped for, it creates a deep spiritual and emotional shock. Some people think that faith guarantees an answer if you believe hard enough while others argue that true faith is about trusting a higher purpose rather than treating God like He’s a vending machine.

I think the important lesson to learn here is to have faith in God and not in the results.

God knows what He’s doing even if we don’t. I may be sitting here pouting because God didn’t match up the results to my faith but what can I possibly do about it now? Regardless of how mad I could get, it won’t change the result. So where does that faith leave me now and in the future?

I honestly don’t know. I need some time to myself and some soul searching. I have to get to the place where I can be okay with the times where my faith doesn’t meet the results I had expected. When our expectations are not met, it can mess with our emotions but we have to regroup and allow ourselves time to process it.

I’m not happy right now but I will be okay. I have been through this before. It’s not the first time and it won’t be my last. I feel like when Jesus asked the disciples if they wanted to leave after hearing some difficult teaching. Peter answered with “Lord, to whom should we go? You have the words to eternal life.”

That sums it up. We either keep trusting in God or we don’t.

One Star Review

I have self-published six books.  That's not bragging. None of them are best sellers.  In fact, I am not swimming in the royalties from my book sales.  Even my own family members haven’t bought them.  

I recently looked at my books on Amazon to see if they were still there.  They were.  I had an idea about promoting my football fiction books with football season approaching.  

Then I noticed something had changed on one of them.  

An anonymous reviewer gave it one star.  

No review.  Just a one star rating. 

Ouch.  

My mind went overdrive wondering about the identify of this one star reviewer.  Was it someone who knows me? Did they hate the book that much?

What’s funny is that on the same book I also have a five star rating.  

Yet that one star bothers me.  

Why is that?  Why does something negative seem to overshadow something positive?

If I can’t handle a one star review then maybe I shouldn’t be doing this.  Why should I even open myself up to the possibility of a negative review?

My first thought was to take all of my books down.  I still might.  

I am still a writer but maybe books aren’t my thing.  I certainly haven’t had any best - or - any sellers.  Writing is such a fickle craft.  

I remember with my first book I had lofty ideas that all I had to do was put it on Amazon and my book would take off.  

It didn’t happen.  

I didn’t happen for the next five books either.  

Where do I go from here?  Am I going to let a one star review break me?