Coach Gene Brodie retired in 1993 with 131 wins at Tift
County and 72 losses. Twenty-seven of those wins
came in the first four years of the 90s.
In 1990, the
Devils went 8-5 losing to Griffin in the state
quarterfinals. Playoff wins over Bainbridge and
A.P. No. 1 Warner Robins made Tift fans fell like the
90s might hold another state championship run.
Little did they
know, 1997 would be that year, but under the direction
of a man named Charles Winslette.
The 1990
playoff win over Bainbridge came one week after a
regular season loss in the Devils' Den. Because of
the win, Bainbridge earned the right to host the first
round.
Down at the
half 28-7, the contest would turn into the "Gannon Hall
Game." Hall piled up over 200 yards through the
air with QB Mickey Weldon and the Devils came back to
win 35-34.
Weldon threw
for over 1,700 yards that year. Hall caught 49
passes of 963 of those yards. By any account,
those are all-state numbers.
Senior Clay
Shiver and sophomore Todd Fordham were on that '90 team,
as well. Both would go on to All-American honors
at Florida State and careers in the NFL. Shiver
was also a Parade All-American.
1990 was also a
good year as Tift lost one of its most accomplished
enemies--Robert Toomer. Worth County won three
in-a-row over the Devils behind Toomer who gained 506
yards in just three tries against the Devils.
Brodie's 1991
team would return to the playoffs. The Devils went
6-5 (including a 10-6 loss to Valdosta) and lost to
Colquitt County in the playoffs. It was a reversal
of roles for Tift from 1990. This year it was Tift
winning in the regular season and falling in the
playoffs.
Colquitt went
on to lose to state and national champion LaGrange 17-16
in the championship game. LaGrange defeated
Valdosta in the quarterfinals that year 6-0.
While the 1991
team was known for its balance and teamwork, there were
some significiant individual efforts. Roderick
Bryant ran the ball a school-record 222 times in the
regular season. Lance Williams threw for 1,100
yeards and the late Bert Jones was the team's leading
receiver (40-709, 8TDs).
The next time
Tift made the playoffs was in 1995 under Winslette who
took over after Jerry Riopelle. Riopelle accepted
the head job only after the program needed him to fill
the shoes of Eddie Feely. Feely suffered a stroke
and never held a practice for the Devils.
Winslette went
5-6 in his first year and lost to Colquitt in the
playoffs after defeating the Pack in the regular season.
This was the last time region one teams would face each
other in the first round of the post season.
In 1996, Tift
went 7-4 making its first appearance in the newly
formatted state playoffs. The Devils lost to J.R.
Revere and Bruce Thornton's No. 2 LaGrange team 19-10.
Most of the
Blue Devils came back for the 1997 season, and Tift
would go all the way to the title game before losing a
close one to Parkview.
Worth Bowers
was the state's Offensive Player of the Year guiding his
team to historic wins including a 21-14 win in the
Georgia Dome over a Brookwood team that had won 26
in-a-row.
So strong was
1-AAAAA that year that all four region playoff teams
were ranked in the top six after the season ended.
That cemented the need for a state playoff instead of
the region playoff system.
Bowers threw
for 2,323 yards on 144 for 253 passing and 20 TDs that
year. For his career, he finished with a school
reccord 4,347 yards passing just edging Ken Hobby
(4,245) and Tye Cottle (4,164).
In 1998,
Winslette's streak of consecutive playoff appearances
ended in a haze of injuries. The year started with
Tift ranked No. 2 in the preseason only to move to No. 1
when Parkview lost in the Corky Kell Classic in the
Dome. But, it was all down hill from there.
The Devils'
stable of running backs went down with many and varied
injuries and the unbelievably difficult schedule turned
into an insurmountable task. Tift played five
ranked teams and went 4-6. Dougherty, who was
unranked, went on to win the AAA state title under the
direction of the late John Reynolds.
The upset of
Colquitt County was the highlight of 1998. The
Packers went on to the semifinals that season.
The 1999 season
was arguably the worst season in history. Tift
played five more ranked teams and finished 1-9 under new
coach Bob Stinchcomb.
First team
all-state performers in the 1990s include Shiver,
Fordham, Brooks Brodie (along with Johnny Lipsey, Brodie
is the only player to make first team all-state twice).
Tyson Summers, Bowers, Brian Brown, and Rome Strozier.
