FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Football is back, and this year, Bibb County Athletics has a new event to kick off the season.
They partnered with Fort Valley State University to host a season opening football showcase, the Gridiron Classic.
Bibb County athletic director, Kevin Grooms, said this plan has been has taken years.
"Well I thought about this about five to seven years ago when I was the athletic director at northeast high school," he said. "We had some conversation about it but a lot of the teams was in the same region so we couldn't kind of do it the way we wanted to do it."
After a transition period and a new job as district athletic director, Grooms saw an opportunity to make the Gridiron Classic happen at his alma mater.
He said the motivation behind it is getting the kids on a different field.
"That's big for our student athletes," Grooms said. "It's only a small percentage of student athletes that actually go to college to play any type of sport, so to be able to play on a collegiate field in high school, those are lifetime memories. What we're trying to produce is lifetime memories for our student athletes."
Starting at 2 p.m. on Friday and 12 p.m. on Saturday, athletes will take the field at Wildcat Stadium on Fort Valley State's campus.
Fort Valley head football coach Shawn Gibbs said how excited he is to host the inaugural event and for the exposure that'll come from it.
"It's going to be a great opportunity for a lot of people to come see our campus," Gibbs said. "I think we've got a lot to offer and we're ready to welcome them to our campus," Gibbs said.
Grooms said schools all over Central Georgia have connections to FVSU.
"The list goes on and on what all the schools that are a part of it," he said. "It's the fan base and the alumni so we're trying to bring the fan base back to Fort Valley to participate in this event."
All six high schools in Bibb County are participating. Other teams from Central Georgia, like Macon County, Baldwin, Peach, Bleckley and Perry will also compete.
Dougherty County, a school from Albany, Georgia, also made the drive to participate.
While Grooms could only accept 12 teams, he said other teams also wanted a spot.
"I had schools calling me from South Georgia that want to be part of this great event," Grooms said.
While this is the first year, Grooms said he wants to keep this showcase going for years to come.
The athletic director added that he's already planning to expand the event to include basketball or even track and field.
"It's something we want to continue to do for the lifetime of the university, lifetime of the school system and just try to just brand it and to make it a whole lot bigger each and every year," Grooms said.
For Grooms, he couldn't say enough about how excited he is for the event.
After planning it for about seven years, watching all the coaches and players come together for the event made him emotional.
“I wanted to shed tears,” Grooms said. “To see a vision, one of your visions, go through something you thought about six or seven years ago. (To) actually see it come to fruition, I have no words.”