Bulldogs celebrate season at annual football banquet.

‘We’ll be doing this again next year, and next year we’re going to be handing out region plaques and all those things, because we’re going to be going at it. That’s our goal, to win the region.’

Doyle Kelley Cedartown head

football coach

Cedartown High School football players were given one last chance to celebrate their achievements during their annual banquet held last week.

And head coach Doyle Kelley promised one thing before the banquet came to a close: good times are ahead for Cedartown football.

“We’ll be doing this again next year, and next year we’re going to be handing out region plaques and all those things, because we’re going to be going at it,” he said. “That’s our goal, to win the region.”

Kelley and the team joined together to celebrate and hand out awards after their 10- 2 season, which saw them make a second round playoff appearance after finishing in second place in the region in 2017 behind former state champions Cartersville.

The Bulldogs handed out team awards to seniors Cruz Rodriguez, Trevon Wofford, Joseph Gibbons and others during the Feb. 1 event, along with region honors, Captains awards and more for the 2017 team.

Kelley also thanked players f or what he deemed a special season starting his head coaching career.

“I want to say thank you to the seniors. You know, sometimes God smiles down on you and lets you live a dream,” he said. “I got to live my dream this year, and I couldn’t think of a better senior class to live it with than you guys.”

Cedartown finished the regular season with only one loss to the Purple Hurricanes and won their first round playoff game before falling in the second round.

The Bulldogs will be losing 10 players to graduation this year, but Kelley said he expected that a lot of younger talent on the team will be stepping up to fill roles held by seniors like Rodriguez, who played both offense and defense for nearly every snap under scrimmage in 2017, and Wofford, who won the region and the team’s Offensive Player of the Year awards.

Contributed photo by Gail Conner Cedartown football players receive coaches awards for their 10-2 season.

Contributed photo by Gail Conner Seniors are given their away jerseys in shadow boxes as one of the many honors for their four years of play on the team.