CALHOUN, Ga. — Hal Lamb knows there’s a lesson in defeat. The Calhoun High School football coach is just tired of having to try and convey it to a group of teenagers that can’t understand why it’s never their turn to taste ultimate victory.
Lamb’s Yellow Jackets lost for the third consecutive year to Buford in the GHSA Class AA title game Friday, each year a more heartbreaking loss. Moments after seeing his team lose 31-24 in overtime after pulling off a dramatic rally from a 24-7 second-half deficit, the veteran coach was still trying to get his mind around what had happened.
“Life’s battles aren’t sometimes fair. It goes on, but it’s not fair right now,” Lamb said after needing a few minutes to himself to gather his emotions at the Georgia Dome. “It was a war. You look at them and they’re so much more physical looking than our kids, but our kids fought them tooth and nail.
“This is the proudest I’ve ever been of a football team. I told the seniors that they are probably the greatest senior class we’ve ever had here. They won 50 games in their careers and most kids don’t play any more than 40 games, so to win 50 is saying something. But we want them to go on and make something of themselves in life. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing here.”
One of those seniors, quarterback Landon Curtis, is often cited by Lamb as the personification of what he has built in the program. On most any school in the area Curtis could have been a three-year starter, but he waited until this year to get his shot and he responded with nearly 3,000 yards passing and 32 touchdowns.
He, like his coach, struggled to see the bright side of the loss.
“It’s tough to come out here and give so much to fall short every year,” he said moments after the final whistle. “This team is so special and it would have been great to win it for them.”
The players were still filing out of the locker room and Lamb was going over some of the game’s key moments, including several possibly game-changing plays that didn’t happen. While the Jackets committed three killing turnovers, the Wolves were an inch or a bounce away from having two.
On the team’s first scoring drive, Buford’s Eric Barr broke off a 37-yard run to the Calhoun 3, but just as he was being herded out of bounds, the ball popped out and rolled through the end zone. The referee ruled him out of bounds, but replays showed the ball came out just as his foot was coming down. Instead of a touchback, the Wolves scored two plays later.
Later in the first quarter, Buford’s Paris Head caught a short pass at midfield and fumbled, but the ball bounced right into teammate Darrian Smith’s hands. Minutes earlier, Calhoun’s Dustin Christian had a similar fumble, but it also bounced right to Buford’s Smith, who returned it 60 yards for a touchdown and 14-0 lead.
Those plays, and others, will stay with Lamb for sometime.
“Sometimes I wonder if fate is against us,” he said. “They had two fumbles, one that went out of the end zone and they didn’t call it and the other that bounced right back to them. I guess that’s the way the ball bounces. I don’t know if we’re ever going to get it, but I know we’re going to keep trying.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296.