Head Football Coach Ben Reaves Offers Insight on Eagles’ 2023 State Title Run
Winning a state championship is hard. Winning a state championship in Georgia high school football’s highest classification is really hard. But if you believe that final game is your only destination, then all that’s left is making it a reality. That’s the story of Milton High School, the 2023 GHSA Class 7A football state champions.
The First Half of the Season
After a tough 27-13 season-opening win over Collins Hill, Milton traveled to South Florida to take part in the first Broward County National High School Football Showcase along with 13 other teams. Milton faced the Western Wildcats from Davie, Florida, and mustered just 10 points in the 14-10 loss.
The Eagles rebounded with two straight wins, including a 20-point win over Roswell in Week 3. They followed that up with a 37-12 win over Alpharetta before suffering their second loss of the year in Week 5, a 42-27 loss to North Cobb.
That left Milton with a 3-2 record at the halfway point of the regular season.
For anyone outside the Milton football family, this Eagles team did not resemble anything close to a state-championship-winning program.
But head coach Ben Reaves wasn’t concerned with what the outside world thought of his football team. He knew the type of team he had, and that’s all that mattered.
“We play as tough of a non-region schedule as possible each season to make sure we’re battle tested heading into region play,” he said. “Because of that, our record isn’t always as pretty as people would like to see or even a true reflection of who we are as a team. But, despite all of the outside noise, as long as you have internal buy-in, you have a shot.”
The Midseason Team Meeting
Staring at that 3-2 record, Reaves thought it was a good time for a bit of a self-check.
“At that midseason point, I asked our kids to start working with vision and purpose,” he said. “I made it known that we weren’t necessarily showing up to lift or practice each day to prepare solely for a game on Friday, but we are showing up every day, punching the time clock to see how good we can be as individuals and as a team in December.”
In a midseason team meeting, Reaves laid out an ultimatum to each player and member of his coaching staff that they would approach every game with Week 15 becoming the ultimate vision.
Milton won their five remaining regular season games to improve to 8-2 heading into the state playoffs.
After winning their first- and second-round playoff games, Milton found themselves facing their biggest challenge of the season heading into the quarterfinals. It was one thing to say they had bought in, but the team’s resolve was all about to be tested in a big way, and Reaves knew it.
The Biggest Test Yet
“That belief system we had built and the work we were putting in all season was about to be challenged when Colquitt came to Milton in Round 3,” Reaves said.
He thought Colquitt County was the best squad his Eagles had faced all season, and he knew the questions about his team really being good enough to win the state would be answered that night.
“As the game began, we did not come out playing our best ball,” Reaves said. “We were down by two scores, at two different times, to a top-10 team in the nation.”
The Milton Eagles were up against their biggest test since that midseason, soul-searching moment.
“We did not flinch as a team because we believed in ourselves,” Reaves said. “We just kept playing hard and kept giving everything we had with every play, and when that final second ticked off the clock, it just verified that we were the team we said we would be.”
The Eagles defeated the Packers 39-37, but there was still work left if Milton was going to make it to the Game 15 benchmark they had set for themselves.
Next up was the semifinal round against the Grayson Rams, who also believed they had what it took to get to Game 15 after upsetting the Buford Wolves by a 19-14 final in their own quarterfinals match.
Milton won 45-35 at Grayson.
The State Championship: Milton vs Walton
If there was one word that defined this 2023 Milton Eagles team, it was “believe.” And believe they did.
Ever since that midseason team gathering when Reaves laid it all out and asked his team to focus on getting to this final Game 15, the Milton Eagles believed they belonged.
“We were so bought in and believed so deeply in what we knew we could accomplish that when Dec. 13 finally got here, our Game 15, we would only accept one outcome, which was to win,” Reaves said.
Milton’s offense had been getting the job done so far in these playoffs, but when it counted the most, it was the Eagles’ defense that rose to the challenge. Facing a Walton offense that had not scored less than 35 points in a single game all season and came into the state final game averaging an incredible 56.8 points per game, Milton held the vaunted Raiders’ offense to a mere 21 points while scoring 31 themselves to capture the 2023 GHSA Class 7A state championship.
It was Walton’s first loss of the season. For Milton, it was taking everything Reaves and his team had talked about accomplishing and making it a reality.
“Once you get down to those final four to eight teams, every team remaining has experienced a certain level of dedication, patience, and perseverance to get to that point,” Reaves said.
It seems the Milton Eagles believed more than any other team that this is where they were supposed to be.
