When Bernard Green’s and Christopher Miller’s players grow up and walk into the Liberty County Recreation Department office, they’ll have a picture of their state championship team there on the wall.

With Green as head coach and Miller as assistant coach, the LCRD’s 10-and-under all-star football team blasted its way through the district and state tournaments, winning the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association Class B state championship.

“It means the world to us because we came up through this rec department,” Miller said. “It means the world to us.”

“I still don’t know if they understand how big it was,” Green added.

The all-stars made two treks across the state to Tifton for the state tournament. They routed host Tift County 44-0 in their first game and the next day downed the Rincon Renegades 15-6 to advance to the state title game.

They returned to Tifton the next week to meet Carrollton at Tift County High School’s Brodie Field, which seats 12,000 people. They downed Carrollton 27-6 in another runaway victory.

“It was a very nice venue,” Green said of the home of Tift County High’s Blue Devils.

The Liberty all-stars dominated Carrollton, even with getting a couple of touchdowns called back.

“It was fun,” Miller said. “The first half was kind of competitive. We pulled away in the third quarter.”

“By that time,” Green said, “we had taken the soul out of them.”

Green and Miller took their young charges to parts of Georgia the kids had never seen before in the quest for the state championship. Prior to the long van ride to Tifton, they played in the district tournament in Douglas, beating the all-stars from Ware County, Glynn County and host Coffee County in succession to capture the district crown.

The all-stars beat Ware County on a Tuesday, went back two days later to beat Glynn and made the final trip to Douglas on Saturday morning to beat Coffee County 32-0 for the district title, which also was a first for a LCRD all-star football team since 2019.

“We were driving two hours every day that week,” Green said.

To get ready for the district tournament, the all-stars had three scrimmages set up, facing teams from McIntosh County, Long County and Glennville. They won all three of those matchups, too.

“So we like to say we went 9-0,’” Green said.

Because Green and Miller coached the winning team in the LCRD’s 10U league, they were named coaches for the allstar team, along with Byron Johnson. With input from other league coaches, they selected an initial roster of 22 players for the district tournament. They had 15 players by the time they started making the trips to Tifton.

Green’s son Tristan is the running back on the team and Miller’s son Kaiden is the quarterback, and the coaches built the team around the two, who also are state track champs.

“We picked the right ones,” Coach Green said. “They got it done.”

“For a championship recipe, you have to put a little bit of this and little bit of that and I think it all mixed up very well and we got the pot we wanted at the end,” Miller added.

The Liberty 10U allstars came from all corners of the county – “from Midway and Riceboro and from Walthourville,” Miller said – and included a girl, Jalani Brooks.

“She was a key point on this team,” Miller said. “I would love to see more little girls get involved. She might have kicked down the door for that to happen.”

Green and Miller also needed help in getting their team to and from Tifton. Miller made a pitch to family friend Reggie Pierce, and Pierce helped procure hotel rooms for the team. Green and Miller remembered what it was like for them when they were younger and playing on LCRD allstar teams. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, the rec department cut back on providing a van and hotels for state tournament trips. “We knew what the old experience was like for us,” Miller said, “and we wanted to recreate that for these kids.”

Another friend arranged a Mercedes van for the coaches and the players to use.

“We rode in style,” Miller said. “The kids got a chance to be 100% themselves in that van and they loved it.”

On their first night in Tifton, after ordering pizzas for the players, the coaches gave them a lights out time of 11:30 p.m.

“They were all asleep by 10:30,” Miller said.

The all-stars also got new uniforms and equipment from the LCRD to play in the state tournament. Miller recalled wearing the exact same uniform he handed to one of their players.

“The old ones were pretty bad,” he said, “but the new ones looked good. I think it made the kids play a little bit even harder.”

Green and Miller thanked LCRD director Raymond Gross and the rec department’s Ricky Gilliard for their support and help.

“They supported us 100%. They really believed in us from that start,” Miller said. “To have that support was huge.”

Having played sports in the LCRD when they were younger, Green and Miller also said they want to set a standard for the kids in their tutelage.

“Our mindset is as many young boys and girls we can have around us, we know they are not in trouble anywhere,” Miller said. “We stand on discipline and respect, respect for one another, respect for adults. They thrive off that brotherhood and iron sharpening iron. You can’t do anything but be better when you go up against someone who is considered one of the best.”

Soon, that team picture will go up along the walls of the rec department, joining the photos of other state championship teams, but this will be a first for football.

“You see all the pictures of all the state champions. I can see the pictures of those who are adults now when they were kids,” Green said. “You are going on that wall forever. You can see your 10-year-old picture and this team up there forever. Those type of memories you could never replace.”

Liberty County commissioners honored the coaches and the players – Brooks, Green, White, Anthony Canty Jr., Royal Craddock, Jonathan Cuspard, Jayden Dodge, Dallas Dotson, Zaylon Duncan, Marquice Gaulden, Jadaviah Green, El Hornsby, Byron Johnson Jr., Joshua Joseph, Christopher Lee, Cayden Stevens and Elijah White. Commissioners also honored the cheerleaders – Kadence Botzenmayer, Hadlee Brown, Ninova Gardner, Josie Hauser, Summer Johnson, Alasia Malone, Imara Mosely and Leilani Scott – and their coaches, Pamela Botzenmayer and Ashlee Brown.

The players, Green said, were upset that the season was over, even if ended with a championship. With their travels across the southern half of the state, the coaches also wanted to show them how much there is outside Liberty County’s lines.

“To give them that experience was the prize at the end of the day,” Miller said. “That was bigger than the trophy. The hugs we got at the end were bigger than any trophy.

“We are very grateful just for the opportunity to represent Liberty County as a whole,” he continued. “Everybody knows who the best 10 and under football team is in the state of Georgia. You can’t deny it.”