ATLANTA — The Valdosta State University football team has been living and practicing in Atlanta all week due to damage from Hurricane Helene in south Georgia.
Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen spoke with the team’s coach Tremaine Jackson who says some things are far more important than football.
“Our community is hurting right now. We can’t hide that. We can’t lie about that,” Blazers Head Coach Jackson said.
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The team has been utilizing the Brock Practice Facility on the campus of Georgia Tech and staying in dorm rooms provided by Georgia State University.
“It’s terrible. It’s a tragedy. Our prayers are with them. I haven’t personally been through something that devastating before,” senior Blake Hester said.
“I came back home [to Atlanta] before it started to go. I called my mom. She wanted me to come home,” sophomore Ethan Nation said.
Others rode out the storm in Lowndes County. It’s not possible to practice or play there, but there’s still a game coming up on Saturday against Shorter University in Rome.
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“They asked us if we wanted to play the game. All of us were like, ‘Of course we want to play.’ So, they made it happen for us,” Blazers safety Larry Elder said.
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones surprised the team with tickets to Thursday night’s Atlanta Falcons game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This weekend, the Blazers will take the field, and hopefully lift the spirits of their fans back home.
“Hopefully by us playing, we can do that and work toward that. We want everybody to be okay. The people in our community wanted us to go play. They’ve been supportive about it,” Coach Jackson said.
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