FAYETTEVILLE,Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - The Fayette County Tigers rode a two-day voting surge to overtake the Rockdale County Bulldogs on the High 5 Sports Team of the Week Facebook poll. 7,044 votes later, the Tigers won the right to a live Thursday pep rally hosted by Good Day Atlanta's Paul Milliken.
"It's very exciting, it's going to be a great opportunity for our student body," said Fayette County Head Coach Nick Davis. "Our players have worked hard this offseason and Spring and Summer, when I took over, so it's good to get some reward for the hard work and determination..."
Davis has experience in front of the FOX 5 cameras, his teams at Riverdale and Spalding won team of the Week honors, but the young Tigers are a different story- they have a losing record paired with a winning attitude.
Fayette County failed to win a game in 2018 and hasn't had a winning season since they went undefeated in the 2007 regular season. That team had two future NFL players, Brandon Boykin and Matt Daniels dominating both sides of the ball, but this year's edition can't rely on that sort of talent.
"We're one and two currently. We've played some good football, just inconsistent and that normally happens when you take over a program that hasn't really had much success. We have a whole new coaching staff and new schemes on both sides of the ball, so we're still learning,' Davis told High 5 Sports. "We have a young team, we're playing a lot of sophomores, and we only have 12 seniors on our roster."
After the Thursday pep rally, Davis will prepare his Tigers to take on his former team, the Spalding Jaguars on the road at Griffin Memorial Stadium. Davis turned that program around, taking them to the playoffs three consecutive seasons during his eight years at the school.
"It's going to be a hostile environment...that's what I'm trying to prepare them for. It's going to be different, but at the same time it's going to be refreshing to see some old faces."
Fayette County looks to even their record at 2-2 after opening the season with road losses at Hampton and Hardaway, and a satisfying 34-21 home win over Pike County.