DODGE COUNTY, Ga. — Several Central Georgia teams have been successful on the gridiron, but it's been a few years since Dodge County has been in that conversation.
"We all want to win, but people weren't buying in. We didn't have the discipline that we needed - yeah, that's the downfall," said senior Duke Johnson.
That's how he describes the past two seasons at Dodge County. Now, the lights shine a bit brighter at Memorial Stadium.
The Indians are on a four-game win streak. Johnson said their recent success comes from new leadership.
"The coaching staff, and they way they have us prepare for everything and us playing together as one like we're brothers," Johnson said. "That's another thing - we're all one. When something goes down, we never point fingers, we all just go flip the script."
Phillip Brown is in his first season at Dodge County. He said the program just needed a mentality change.
"Day one when I stepped in here, the talent has always been here at Dodge - we just needed a change in culture," Brown said.
A culture that has five building blocks.
"Its hard work, its energy, its accountability, its resilience and its team.... And really and truly in the first four games all of those things have shown up," Brown said.
Three of their four games have been decided by seven points or less. This Dodge County senior class is on their third head coach.
"This one is very different because our coaching staff - you can tell they love us more, happy, they hang with us, laugh with us," Johnson said. "We go eat every Saturday after we win so it's like a bond we've never had before."
Senior offensive lineman Jordan Jenkins said the team and staff aren't the only ones enjoying the success.
"[It is] really making the whole town happy because when your football team is winning the whole town gone be happy down South," Jenkins said.
People are so happy to see their kids getting results, they started a new tradition. After the Indians get a win, they drive through downtown Eastman to wave to their friends and family.
It's a new routine, but the fans are dedicated.
"We played at ACE Charter a couple weeks ago and got back here around 12:30 and it was storming and we had two blocks of people out there cheering us on...and the people out here love it so we wanna hopefully keep that tradition going each week," Brown said.