TIFTON — Three Tift County football players earned 1st team All-Region honors for 1-6A in a recently released list. Each phase — offense, defense and special teams — were featured for the Blue Devils in Damion Moate, Zamorian Brown and Rylan Pearman.
Moate, a senior running back, finished his year with 1,002 yards and seven touchdowns. His season high was 187 yards against Thomasville and he had seven games gaining at least 100 yards. Moate also caught eight passes out of the backfield for 85 yards. For his career, Moate scored 14 touchdowns.
Also a senior, Brown made 40 tackles in 2023, 33 of them solo. Brown was credited with two interceptions and 13 passes defensed, but arguably his biggest play of the year was his 94-yard blocked field goal touchdown return against Gadsden County. It was just the second blocked field goal touchdown in Tift history and first in a decade.
Pearman, a junior, had one of the most anonymous but important jobs in football: long snapping. The junior was there for 49 punts, 20 Tift touchdowns and two field goals. The field goals were the first in two seasons for the Blue Devils.
Tift’s 2nd team picks swung more towards defense with four players picked in Landon Jones, Danny Freeman, Kaleb Lewis and Jaden Nelson. Taylan Morrow was named to 2nd team offense.
Morrow emerged as a receiving star his senior season, reeling in six touchdown passes. His long was 75 yards. Morrow finished with nearly half of Tift’s total receiving yards, at 603, with a season high of 108 against Northside and another 100-yard game against Lee County. He caught at least one pass in every game.
Simply stated, Jones was everywhere in 2023. He had a team-high 15 tackles for losses, made four sacks, returned an interception for a touchdown and made tackles on both safeties the Blue Devils recorded. He also had 17 hurries.
Freeman had an interception touchdown, too, picking off Veterans in Tift’s first region win since 2021. He made 42 tackles on the year, six for losses, and had one sack.
Twenty-three of Lewis’ 35 tackles were solo and he also had a hand in Tift sacks. Nelson made 53 stops, 46 of them solo. He had three TFLs and made two interceptions. Though not counting in his season stats, Nelson had a pick-six in the scrimmage against Lowndes.
Player of the Year for Region 1-6A was Lee County running back Ousmane Kromah. Lee also had the Athlete of the Year in Devin Collier and Defensive Lineman in Leroy Jackson.
Thomas County Central, set to play in the Class 6A championship game had Coach of the Year in Justin Rogers and Special Teams Player of the Year in Kendarius Reddick. Antwann “A.J.” Hill of Houston County was Offensive Player of the Year. Northside of Warner Robins had two big award winners in Defensive Player of the Year Jarris Coney and Offensive Lineman of the Year Chastan Brown.