To say the Long County Blue Tide football team is having their best football season in a long time would be an understatement. 

However, despite the team having more wins this year than in the last five seasons combined, their goal has not yet been achieved. 

On Friday, Oct. 15, the team travels to Nahunta to face off against the Brantley County Herons in what will likely be the battle for the four seed for Region 1-AAA in the state playoffs. 

Not only would a win clinch the team’s first four-win season since 2012 when they finished with their only non-losing record at 5-5, it would advance them to postseason in the team’s 24-year history. 

“(The season) is going well. It’s been encouraging. It’s been good for our kids to finally have some success,” head coach Mike Pfiester said about the progress of the season. “Obviously there is still a long, long way to go, but them having an opportunity to win...those games at home is a big deal.” 

The Blue Tide have gone through the 2021 season with three mantras, all accompanied by Twitter hashtags: #TideFAST, #Team24, and #Play11. 

Pfiester has continued to stress to his team that having success in the regular season is great and lays the groundwork for future success, but their goal this year is to get to that eleventh game. 

Pfiester was more excited about the kids possibly having the chance to see their hard work come to fruition rather than him achieving a milestone in his young career as a head coach. 

“It would be a big deal,” he said. “The biggest thing would be that the kids would be able to see the results of the work they put in…it would be good for them to see the fruits of their labor...And for me, it would be exciting, it would be great, but all it does is set the bar...that would be a big, big step forward to changing that to play 12, play 13. There will always be one more step in the journey, there’s no doubt.” 

Since Region 1-AAA lost Liberty County to the Savannah region in 2020, the Tide knew that one win in region play would get them into the postseason. 

However, the 2021 season feels different as in 2019 the team had one win and in 2020, the team was winless going into their all-important game. 

They lost 28-21 to Tattnall County in 2019 and 21-14 to Brantley County last year. 

The Blue Tide currently has four former players on its coaching staff, all who played at different points throughout the team’s history.