Lowndes County, Georgia

<databox_county/>

School district history

Valdosta began playing football in 1913. It was much longer before that happened at any white county schools.

Until 1959, Lowndes County operated small high schools at Clyattville, Hahira, Lake Park, Naylor and Pine Grove. After a battle that lasted for most of the 1950s, Clyattville, Lake Park, Naylor and Pine Grove joined to form Lowndes County High School at a site near the Valdosta airport. This school adopted the nickname of Golden Eagles.

Seven years after Lowndes County opened, Hahira consolidated with it. In 1966, the new school was simplified to Lowndes and began going by the nickname of Vikings. Hahira had been known as the Tigers.

The systems have gone through many locations and names of black high schools.

Magnolia was the first city black school to field a football team. It gave way for a new high school building known as Dasher. Dasher was replaced as a high school in 1956 by Pinevale.

In the county, nearly all high school football at an African-American institute was at Lowndes County Training, which was later better known as Mount Zion.

The exact name history of that school has not been ascertained. At the time of its closure as a high school, the building was located across from Mount Zion church. If "Mount Zion" was ever an official replacement for Lowndes County Training is not known. The Georgia Department of Education began referring to the school as Mount Zion in the 1956-57 directory of Georgia schools, but the name had already long been in use by the Valdosta Daily Times.

Mount Zion's building was not in good shape by the end of the 1950s and there was a looming crisis over the condition of black schools in the county. A new white school had been built for Lowndes County High with state funds, but none had been ordered for African-Americans. For the 1959-60 school year, the Lowndes County Board of Education ordered all county high school students to the already-existing Webb-Miller plant in Hahira. With the extra student load, Webb-Miller suited up for its one and only football team that fall.

A new Westside High School was used in 1960-61 and continued as the county African-American high school until total integration in 1970. Pinevale also ceased as the city high school that year.

In the private school ranks, Georgia Christian briefly played football from 1963-66 in the Georgia High School Association. The program resumed in 2014 in the Georgia Independent School Association and later joined the GICAA.

The second private school to hit the gridiron was Wesley Christian, which had taken over the land once occupied by Mount Zion High School. After one season of play, Wesley Christian became known as Open Bible Christian. The program fizzled in the mid-1980s.

Valwood began play in 1984.

High school football history

Programs

<county_school_list/>