The Long County Lady Blue Tide flag football team has been one of the most consistent teams in Ludowici over the last five years. Entering their sixth season, the team is looking to take steps they have not taken in their existence.
Head coach Paul Austin has led the team since its inception and he has seen a rejuvenation of his coaching career. He has compiled a 77-16 record with four second-place region finishes, one region championship, five playoff appearances, three quarterfinal appearances and one semifinals appearance.
Despite all of those accolades, Austin sees one of the biggest challenges this year being the season being even shorter than normal. The GHSA cut out a week in November and moved the start of the season up, which causes conflicts with the softball season.
A large portion of Austin’s roster includes members of the softball team, including starting quarterback Mallory Skipper and twin sister receiver Alyssa. However, Austin has been optimistic and making things work where he can and he says that stems from working closely with head softball coach Harley Kennedy.
“Our approach to practice this year has changed,” Austin said. “We are having to schedule games that overlap during softball season. It’s changed our practice procedure, but that’s not a bad thing. We are able to practice every day with them for a small amount of time and then they go to softball practice. Me and Harley have worked it out really well. It may allow us to have more practice time with them because we normally wouldn’t get them until November, so that helps us out.”
Even with all the changes to practice procedure and scheduling, Austin has not had to make any changes to the playbook.
“We are not changing anything,” he said. “The girls we have coming back, they know the system. We should be able to just get in more depth with our system and continue to do what we are supposed to do.”
Flag football is such a new sport for many high schools across the country that teams in the area are just now catching up and figuring things out. With that, the competition has lagged behind for the Lady Tide, with local teams not giving them the same challenges teams in other parts of the state would.
While teams in the area are improving greatly, Austin has tried a lot of things to get his team as many competitive games as possible. This has come to fruition with the Lady Tide playing in the Corky Kell Classic against McEachern to open the season and hosting St. Pius X, a prominent private school team from Atlanta.
“Our region has been weaker in the past and there’s nothing we can do about that,” Austin said. “Some schools are now starting to pick up, which is good. But, we do, this year, have the hardest schedule we have ever had with the best competition. Being able to play bigger teams is going to help us in the playoffs down the road. Not that we haven’t played big games in the past, but when it came down to North Oconee in the playoffs last year, we were a little bit shell shocked.”
Austin has a lot of returning players for the 2026 season including the aforementioned Skipper twins. Joining them are receiver/defensive back and fellow senior Jersi Lester and Reese Davis, who makes the move to center this year.
Austin is specifically excited about his returning linebackers, sophomore Annlee Wells and Elizabeth Smiley.
“My returning linebackers that showed up last year did so well,” Austin said.
He also will rely a little more on his run game with a two-running back system, something he has been missing for a couple of seasons with the graduation of Makinzie Moody in 2024. Austin is excited about the freshman duo of Chelsy Howard and Imani Wallace.
Other players who have stepped up and should make impacts this year are sophomores Catherine “Yaya” Sikes and Rilyn Williams and freshman Demi Wasdin.
“We are young. We have some girls who will continue to do what they’ve been doing and we have some young girls who are really going to step up,” Austin said.
The 18-2 record the team had in 2025 is the best win-loss record in team history. One of those two losses came against Richmond Hill in what was effectively the region championship game.
The Wildcats connected on a deep pass near the back of the endzone that gave them an 18-13 win as the final seconds drained off the clock. Austin believes the team was “three yards away from playing North Oconee” in the state championship game rather than the quarterfinals with that loss to Richmond Hill putting them on the same side of the bracket as the Titans in the state playoffs.
With the team advancing to the quarterfinals four out of the five seasons and a semifinals appearance in 2024, Austin “loves the progression” with how his girls get better throughout the season. This, he believes, will make the difference.
“Our goal is always to win the region, get into the playoffs, and let it ride,” he said. “I think, honestly, how we get back there is working during the season so that the big moments that happen late in the playoffs don’t become huge problems, they are something that we have experienced before.”
The Lady Tide will open the 2026 season on Saturday, September 19 as they take on McEachern in the Corky Kell-Dave Hunter Flag Football Classic at West Forsyth High School.