The Long County Blue Tide flag football team is entering year four and they are looking to continue its success from the first three years. With an experienced group of seniors and a young core of talented players, the team looks more ready to make a run than ever before. 

The 2023 season ended with the team not making the quarterfinals for the first time in its three-year history, but head coach Paul Austin is still thankful for everything the girls have taught him in that span. 

“Man, over the four years I’ve learned so much,” Austin said. “These girls have taught me so much. Our girls want to compete every snap.”

The team has not gotten past the third round and into the semifinals in three years and Coach Austin knows that is one big hill they still need to climb. That and winning a region championship. 

He says that comes down to one thing: trust.

“We have to focus on trusting each other. Offensively and defensively” Austin said. “We have a veteran defense that has played together now for at least three years in JV and varsity. Offensively, we are reloading our quarterback position and some receivers. We also need to get healthy in some positions. We have to trust the process as they grow and mature. Our focus is a region title first then we will make our run. For right now, we have to grow.”

Speaking of the quarterback position, the team lost three-year starting quarterback Kyleigh Sizemore, who became the first player in team history to sign a scholarship to play flag football. She is now the starting quarterback at LaGrange College. 

Austin talked about replacing her and how she and the seniors on the team last year helped build their program. 

“Her experience will be missed,” Austin said. “That being said, I’m very excited about the future. 

We have some amazing young girls that have really stepped up this summer and showed out. Us having a middle school program helped in developing this. I’m really excited that I get to really open the playbook up a little more because we have about four girls that can really spin it. They each have different talents they bring to the offense.”

The middle school program was started this past spring and they went undefeated and won the region championship, defeating great teams such as Richmond Hill and Southeast Bulloch along the way. 

Despite losing a great class of seniors from last season, Austin said that their goals still remain the same: “Play at an elite level every snap and we will be in a position to make a run.”

The team will be faced with an additional challenge for the 2024 season. Out of their 11 regular season games this year, only three will be played at home. 

Austin said this does create a challenge for the team but he looks at it as having “six home games” because they play two opponents per night. He said it will be important to have big home fan support for those three games. 

“Well with our new region, we only get two home play dates…I wish we had more but it just didn’t work out for us this season,” Austin said. “This is why it’s important we have a huge fan base during our few home games.”

The team will play a scrimmage game against Richmond Hill on Tuesday, October 15 and open the regular season on Thursday, October 17 at Bryan County.