Top 10 Best Tailgating Experiences in Georgia High School Football

Earlier this year we asked our audience for the top Georgia high school football stadiums that provided them with the best game day experiences. From those submissions, we received a lot of stories about fans’ best experiences not just during the game, but before and even after the game outside the stadium. Most of that was, of course, the tailgating rituals that are as much part of the Friday night fun as the game itself.

Based on my personal experiences from attending high school football games at dozens of different sites around the state, as well as audience input, here are the top 10 Georgia high school football tailgating experiences you don’t want to miss this fall.

1. Lowndes

Martin Stadium sits just off the east side of I-75 on the campus of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia. Millions of people pass right by the huge, 13,000-seat home of the Vikings that is affectionately known as the Concrete Palace every year.

If you happen to pass by the stadium on the Friday of a home game, you will see hundreds, if not thousands, of fans assembled as far as the eye can see along a service road that runs parallel to I-75 and lies between that interstate and the stadium.

Fans begin arriving hours before kickoff with grills and smokers and coolers filled with cold drinks. There’s something for everyone.

2. Coffee

The best tailgate community that I have personally experienced is with the fans outside Jardine Stadium in Douglas, Georgia, home of the Coffee Trojans.

Longtime Coffee fans Steven Tate, Rodney Johnson, and Collins “Yea Buddy” McDaniel, along with hundreds of other Coffee fans, don’t just spend all day on game days grilling up burgers and hotdogs. Oh no, they spend all week preparing tailgate meals.

“We all decide on Monday what the game day meal will be and what each person is bringing to the tailgate,” Johnson said. “We prep the food all day on Thursday, then on Friday we get to the stadium around 1:00 p.m. and start cooking,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that although he and his group do the cooking, the community actually helps out in a big way.

“We have different people in the community that donate food and money to help us because we feed a lot of fans,” Johnson said.

That included the trip to the 2023 state championship game, when Coffee played for the Class 4A state title. Johnson said his group not only fed the many fans from Coffee who made the trip, but also those working the game.

“We fed many of the workers at Mercedes Benz Stadium that day,” Johnson said.

In addition to the food, the group also has DJs Brandon “Pole the Great” Moore and Oscar Paul (aka DJ One Speaker) keeping the masses entertained with music all day leading up to the game.

“It’s all a group effort, and it’s a game day experience like no other,” Johnson said. “No one does it like the Coffee Trojans tailgate team!”

3. Benedictine

Last year for our ITG Next Game of the Week featuring Benedictine versus Perry for the Region 1-4A title, we traveled to Savannah’s Memorial Stadium, home of the Benedictine Cadets.

When we arrived a couple of hours before kickoff, I noticed dozens of flags flying high above one of the largest groups of fans I’ve ever witnessed assembled before a high school football game. The crowd was gathered in the parking lot, which sits across the road outside the north end zone, and it only continued to grow as we approached game time.

Jack Holland, Benedictine’s athletic director, explained that tradition has a lot to do with it.

“There’s such a great deal of passion and enthusiasm with our fan base and alumni and the history and tradition associated with our program that goes back for decades, and, because of that, there’s a lot of pride with our fans and our program,” Holland said. “The football team starts their pregame walk from the tailgate area.”

The team’s fieldhouse is on the opposite end of the stadium, so the players’ long walk originates in and among the tailgating fans, making the Benedictine tailgate scene one of the most fan-friendly and interactive pregame events.

Holland said tailgating begins early on game day.

“They (fans) start reserving their spots with tents and chairs early in the morning,” Holland said.

It’s truly a sight to behold.

4. Dalton

The tailgating outside Bill Chappell Stadium, located in Dalton, Georgia, and home to the Dalton Catamounts, was mentioned in our “Top 10 Best Georgia High School Football Stadiums” story earlier this year.

“It was as close to a college atmosphere as I have ever seen,” said Phillip Shane Thompson, former Dalton football coach, about the Dalton home game experience. “Hundreds of fans lined the street in anticipation of the firetrucks bringing the players and coaches to Harmon Field, and they had milk jugs filled with quarters that were deafening. There was always a live band playing, and the entire practice field was full of fans tailgating.”

Local restaurants catered the tailgates, which just added to the festivities.

“It was electric,” Thompson said.

5. Dublin

The Shamrock Bowl in Dublin, Georgia, is one of the state’s most treasured high school football venues due to the championship-caliber action that happens between the rows of shamrock that surround the field. The tailgaters outside the stadium are pretty well known too.

Reese Chapman Smith, a high school football official, had this to say about the tailgating atmosphere outside the home of Dublin Fighting Irish: “I wasn’t able to tailgate with them, but I officiated the 2024 quarterfinal game at the Shamrock Bowl, and the entire parking lot across the street was packed with tailgaters having a good time.”

High school football fan Roshoun Carter said his favorite stadium is the Shamrock Bowl, with one of the top reasons being the tailgating.

“I vote for Dublin, with its tailgating and seeing the players walk down the hill (before the game),” Carter said.

6. Gainesville

When head coach Josh Niblett arrived at Gainesville High School four years ago, he immediately made the football team better. The Red Elephants made it to the Class 6A state championship game, and that induced excitement throughout the fan base, which led to an increase in tailgating. Niblett wanted to see even more fans get involved.

“There is a team of us that get together, and we plan a community tailgate each home game,” said Red Elephants supporter Kimberly Fulmore. “We put out a flyer inviting everyone to have fun, and everyone shows up around 4:30.”

Before home games, fans now begin assembling by the hundreds in the huge parking lot just outside the gate of the home entrance. Once the team buses arrive at the stadium, the fans are ready to enthusiastically welcome the Red Elephants.

“We all come together with one common goal: to cheer on these young men,” Fulmore said.

So far, so good for the Red Elephants.

7. Rome

Rome High School players and coaches receive quite the welcome as they make their way to the locker room at Barron Stadium in Rome, Georgia. Known as the Wolf Walk, players and coaches walk from the downtown arena known as the Forum toward the stadium with fans on either side of the street. The Rome marching band plays while cheerleaders lead the fans in various cheers, pumping up the team as they arrive at Barron Stadium.

“It starts at 5 o’clock on game days, and it’s the whole team walking across the Coosa River to the stadium,” said Kelly Fountain, grandparent of former Rome quarterback Reece Fountain. “It’s one of the best scenes in high school football anywhere. It’s very cool.”

8. Valdosta

Valdosta High School is certainly known for its decades of winning football played at Cleveland Field inside Bazemore-Hyder Stadium in Valdosta, Georgia.

The fans who begin tailgating across the street outside the American Legion building and next door to the stadium on the lawn and parking lot at the Valdosta Board of Education building start early and stay late.

Tailgaters get their parking spots reserved along Williams Street as early as Thursday afternoon, the day before the game. Drivers passing by can see smoke belching into the sky as Wildcats fans sit in their chairs with their red solo cups filled with their favorite beverages. For these tailgaters, it’s always 5 o’clock somewhere.

9. Marietta

Northcutt Stadium, home to the Marietta Blue Devils in Marietta, Georgia, has a large grass lot just outside the east side of the stadium, which serves as the main entrance for home fans. That lot is used by the football team as a practice field Monday through Thursday, but on Friday it’s taken over by hundreds of Blue Devils supporters, who gather under large tents on one side of the lot for food and fellowship. On the opposite end of the lot are large inflatables, such as bounce houses, for the kids to enjoy themselves while the adults do their thing.

10. Monroe, Westover, Dougherty

Hugh Mills Stadium is the shared home of the Monroe Golden Tornadoes, Westover Patriots, and Dougherty Trojans.

According to Trojans fan Andrew Watkins, every school’s fan bases would go all out in their tailgating efforts to outshine the opponents’ fans, and it became bigger when two of the local schools played each other. He said each school’s fan group had its own nickname based on the school’s physical address.

“Westover is known as the 2600s, Monroe would be known as the 900s, and the Dougherty fans were the 1800s,” Watkins said. “We got those numbers from our block number on our street address, and it’s been that way as long as I can remember.”

That carried over to identifying which tailgating party had that week’s best tailgating fare.

“My best memory of this past year was when the 1800s (Dougherty fans) had BBQ,” Watkins said. “We were feeding everyone, and they were all coming back for seconds and thirds (servings).”

If we didn’t include your school’s tailgaters and you feel like you belong among the state’s best, please email Phil Jones (phil@itgnext.com) and let him know!

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