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Lowndes, in the same county as Valdosta, opened in 1959 and quickly became the high school of choice for white families fleeing integration in town. Rodemaker’s 71-35 loss to Lowndes at home in 2018 was particularly painful because it occurred in what is known as the Winnersville Classic.

Jerry Lumley, the lawyer for Lee and Kelisa Brown, another Black board member, said Rodemaker was cut loose primarily for a reason any Wildcats fan would understand: He was 1-3 against Valdosta’s biggest rivals, Lowndes County and Colquitt County. “Do I think that was a factor?” said Wilson, who has since resigned. “One really big example was when he said, ‘What we need to have in our football program is a coach of color,’” said Love, who is white. He said that the current member Warren Lee, who is widely considered the leader of the Black majority, made decisions on racial grounds. William Love, a former school board member and not part of the vote, gave a deposition for Rodemaker’s lawsuit. The Black board members voted again to let Rodemaker go, against the recommendation of Cason, who is also Black. “Whites have made decisions on behalf of the Black community for years, but when a white man is dismissed all of the sudden hell breaks loose,” he said. Floyd Rose, a longtime pastor and civil rights leader, reminded the Black board members that Black voters had put them there and urged them to reaffirm their decision. Many pleaded for Rodemaker to keep his job. 10, 2020, the townspeople packed the 900-seat Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center, selected because it was large enough for the expected crowd. Still, there was enough support for Rodemaker to force the board to revisit its decision at a meeting a few weeks later. After some lean years for the Wildcats, he reckoned that if the team was going to lift its game, the Touchdown Club had to do the same. In 2002, Nelson joined the board of the Touchdown Club, a now-70-year-old booster club. How big a deal is it to be a Wildcat? When a famed coach died suddenly in 1996, 7,000 mourners packed Cleveland Field to pay their respects as his body, dressed in the Wildcats’ gold and black and cradling a football, lay in repose on the 50-yard line. “It kills me I’ll never get over it,” said Nelson, who carried his firstborn son home from the hospital in a Wildcats helmet. His only regret was that he never got to be a Valdosta Wildcat. Nelson, 65, said that he has never considered the loss a tragedy. That was the end of the horse and might have been the end of Nelson if the doctors hadn’t taken off his gangrenous arm at the elbow. He got the nickname after his horse stepped in front of a pickup truck with him in the saddle. Not many people know that Nub Nelson’s real first name is Michael. Poignantly, this racially split community seems unsure whether it can come together even around football.įor now, Valdosta is plumb out of coaches, with its current head coach on administrative leave after he was caught on tape whispering about a recruiting slush fund and the previous one, a white man, alleging racial discrimination after he was fired, though a five-touchdown loss to a local rival can’t be dismissed as a factor. So the Wildcat faithful can only bemoan the scandal suddenly unfolding before them, one involving mysterious hirings and firings, rampant rumors and allegations of dirty dealing by some of the South’s most famous college coaches. The Valdosta Wildcats are undoubtedly one of America’s most successful high school football teams, with more than 900 victories, two dozen state titles and its star players seemingly on a conveyor belt to football meccas like Georgia and Alabama. There is no joy in Titletown, as this South Georgia city calls itself. If you were unaware, Pruitt previously served under Propst at Hoover High in Alabama.īefore landing a job at Tennessee, Felton was the head coach at Crisp County in Georgia.VALDOSTA, Ga. The school fired Felton, Jeremy Pruitt and Brian Niedermyer in January for alleged recruiting violations.įelton, of course, coached under Pruitt at Tennessee. Interestingly enough, Felton is available to accept this job after being fired by Tennessee. Propst has now officially been replaced by former Tennessee assistant coach Shelton Felton. Following the audio recording release, Propst denied the comments he made on the tape, which was recorded without his knowledge.ĭespite his conflicting statements, the damage was done and the school decided to move on from the coach.

Propst also accused Nick Saban and Kirby Smart of rules violations in the recording. Garcia is now enrolled as a true freshman at Miami.Ī viral leaked audio recording of Propst was released this offseason with including the coach admitting several rules violations. California four-star quarterback Jake Garcia is one of the players Propst allegedly broke rules to recruit to Valdosta.