DOTHAN, Ala. – The Colquitt County football team’s coaching staff lost a chance to get some scouting information on Dothan High when the Wolves’ game against Cairo scheduled for last Friday was canceled when a Syrupmaker player tested positive for COVID-19. The Packers will go to Dothan to play at Rip Hewes Stadium on Friday with a chance to get off to a 3-0 start following wins over Banneker and Valdosta.
Dothan is 0-4 after having to forfeit its opener against Park Crossing because of a quarantine related to a COVID-19 positive test.
The Wolves have dropped three in a row since, falling to Enterprise 42-13, Auburn 43-13 and Prattville 35-0. Dothan’s chance to get a win over 0-3 Cairo went by the board when the Wolves’ Homecoming game was canceled just hours before kickoff.
Cairo learned of the positive test Friday morning and some 10 players were quarantined.
Dothan attempted to find an opponent to play on Saturday, but was not successful.
Friday’s game against the Packers will serve as the team’s Homecoming.
Longtime Colquitt County fans might remember going to Rip Hewes Stadium in Dothan in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Packers played Dothan High in a home-and-home series in 1990 and 1991.
Colquitt won handily in Moultrie in 1990, taking a 41-3 decision.
But the next year, on their way to a berth in the state championship game, the Packers fell at Dothan 19-17.
Colquitt also played Northview High of Dothan from 1988-1993, going 2-4.
Two of the losses were at Rip Hewes Stadium. The Packers lost there 10-7 in 1990 and 13-7 in 1992.
The Dothan High team the Packers played 30 years ago was known as the Tigers.
The one Colquitt will meet tonight are the Wolves.
Dothan and Northview consolidated two years and the new Dothan High program took a new mascot.
In 2019, the Wolves’ inaugural season, Dothan went 8-3 in Class 6A.
Dothan has moved up to 7A, the highest classification in Alabama, this season.
The Wolves were scheduled to open on Aug. 21 at Hoover, but that game was canceled. After forfeiting to Park Crossing, the Wolves have struggled on both sides of the ball.
The opposition has been able to throw consistently on the Wolves, completing 72 percent of its passes.
The Dothan quarterback is 6-foot-5, 225-pound senior Bauer Sharp, who has three returning senior starters at wide receiver to throw to.
Like Colquitt County, Dothan has had to replace four offensive line starters this year.
In a radio interview ahead of last Friday’s scheduled game against Cairo, Dothan coach Smitty Grider said his team needs to get more consistency on offense.
“We have got to move the chains,” he said.
Defensively, Grider said his Wolves need to put more pressure on the opposing quarterback.
Dothan is still trying to is trying to rebound from having missed six weeks of practice because of the coronavirus.
“We are just now getting close to where we’d be at the start of the season,” Grider said. “You just can’t roll ‘em out there and let ‘em play. We’ve just got to be patient.
“But we are getting better every week.”
