OAKWOOD — Even after opening the season with two straight wins over Johnson and Chestatee, West Hall football coach Tony Lotti could see the storm clouds brewing on the horizon.
“There were just some things going on that made me realize this team was going to have to learn some hard lessons,” Lotti said. “Mostly it was just teenage kids learning how to deal with things, with life. They also were trying to learn how to handle success. But I didn’t think it would hit at the level it did.”
Lotti wouldn’t get into specifics but suffice it to say the storm he saw coming hit fast and hard. The Spartans reeled through five straight losses, including three straight to open Region 7-AAA, dashing any hopes of repeating as region champs barely halfway through the season. In fact, just making the playoffs seemed a longshot with three of their final four games on the road.
“You know, things were not looking good and we were easily staring a 2-8 season in the face. There were just so many distractions. I wasn’t totally sure we would be able to recover,” Lotti said. “No one ever truly expects to go through something like what we did.”
But knowing the storm was coming also allowed Lotti and his staff to prepare for it. And, in an ironic twist of fate, it took a perfect storm to redeem West Hall's shaky campaign.
West Hall faced three must-win games and needed help across the board to have any shot of finishing as the No. 4 seed in 7-AAA. While Lotti said there was nothing he and his staff did any different, the Spartans responded with three consecutive wins over Fannin County, Banks County and Lumpkin County down the stretch -- and got Fannin County and Banks County losses on the final night of the regular season to claim a third-straight playoff appearance.
“We really didn’t do much different,” Lotti said. “The kids just made a commitment and never quit. We preach that if you stay true to yourself and work hard good things will happen. They saw that over the final three games.
“They learned that no matter what people are saying about you, you’re never quite as good as people say and you’re never quite as bad as people say. I just think (during the losing streak) that they were pushing so hard to make plays they weren’t able to make them.”
A key point of the season came when junior quarterback Jacob Satterfield went down with an injury on the first series of the game against Fannin County and sophomore Cameron Shirley was forced into action. In a must-win game and coming off five straight losses, it could have been the final nail in the coffin.
Instead, the upperclassmen rallied around the youngster and helped ignite a mad-dash sprint to the playoff finish line.
“That was a big loss for us because Jacob was an experienced leader,” Lotti said. “But I think the rest of the team realized that they needed to step up and help (Cameron) out. Once that happened I saw things start to change. They started fighting to win and believing in each other. That was huge.”
Their reward: A showdown with No. 1-ranked and defending Class AAA champion Calhoun (10-0) on the road in the first round of the playoffs on Friday. However, it’s nothing new for the Spartans.
West Hall (5-5) faced a similar position in 2013 when the Spartans traveled to then-No. 1-ranked Cartersville in the first round. If not for a missed field goal on the final play of the game -- a call that some felt was questionable -- they would have walked off with a huge upset. Instead, it finished as a narrow 28-26 loss.
Certainly the Spartans, who have several key seniors like Kwon Williams and Tyquan Statham that played key roles on that team, can use that as inspiration and motivation, right?
“Honestly, that was two years ago against a different team,” Lotti said. “Maybe there are some things we can take from that game, but had we won that game then we could talk about the positives to come out of that. But, in the end it was still a loss.”
Region 6-AAA champion Calhoun will offer challenges like no other so far in 2015. The Yellow Jackets lead all of Class AAA in scoring (499 points, 49.9 ppg) and have yielded the fewest points in Class AAA (80, 8.0 ppg) during the regular season. They also are working on a 25-game winning streak behind senior quarterback Kaelen Riley.
Lotti said they won’t be intimidated by the matchup but acknowledged that it will take their best effort of the season. The Spartans have averaged 27 points per game during their three-game win streak while yielding 19 ppg for the season on defense.
“I’m sure they’re a huge favorite in this game. And they should be. They have a tremendous team,” Lotti said. “But we’re OK with that. We’re not going to change anything and put in new stuff. We’re just going to have to do what we do well and be consistent.
“We can’t turn it over and we’re going to have to sustain some drives and keep the ball away from their offense. When we’re on defense, we’re going to have to make tackles in open space. If you miss on those guys they can score on every play.”
With the opportunity of a lifetime in front of them, have the Spartans learned the hard lessons to turn what had the makings of a nightmare season into a sweet dream?
“Looking back (on the losing streak) it was really more of a mental thing,” Lotti said. “They shook that off in the Fannin game. Can we pull off the upset? It’s a big task in front of us. But after what we’ve been through and the way the kids fought back and turned things around, I wouldn’t totally count us out.”
