“This does not define our season”: Houston County overcame a tough defeat at Thomas County Central for their best regular season finish in 10 years

Houston County had region championship hopes for the first time in a decade going to Thomasville on Oct. 24, but Thomas County Central had other plans.

The Yellow Jackets dismantled the Bears and held their offense to its lowest score since a shoutout loss to Coffee the year prior.

Despite the defense performing well overall, turnovers and big plays undid them in the end.

Frustrations boiled over and tempers flared as a couple of scuffles took place. The 12th Man buzzed all night long in support of TCC.

But Bears head coach Jeremy Edwards affirmed his love for his team, his players, his program in that post-game huddle.

He asked that they come back on Monday with a winning attitude, and that their loss did not define their season.

A week later HoCo beat Lee County to finish 9-1, their best regular season record since the 2015 region championship season, and will host a playoff game for the first time since that same season.

“I’m kind of at a loss for words,” Edwards said after the Lee County game. “[The staff] talked about how fast this season has went by, and I think time flies when you’re having fun. And we’ve got a great staff, we’ve got great kids, and it’s just a lot of fun to be around them. We just want to keep this thing rolling.”

This will be Freedom Field’s first playoff game under Edwards, who’s had to travel to face one-seeds in his first three years.

“To be able to play at home [in the] first round of the playoffs is huge here at Freedom Field. We don’t have to travel. We’ve had to do it for the past three years playing a one seed every single year. We know we’re gonna get somebody’s best shot…but I’m so proud of these kids.”

HoCo started out a program-best 8-0 before the TCC game, and Edwards said that the next week his players came back ready to work.

“Immediately,” Edwards said on how fast his players flushed the TCC loss. “Our theme of the week was mojo. We had to get the excitement and all that back, which we didn’t lose, but we lost the game that Friday night. We had probably our best four days of practice we’ve had since I’ve been here.”