AMERICUS — Kyle Champion was the water boy for the Americus Panthers when they won consecutive championships at the beginning of the millennium.

Jonathan Battle was attending school at Sumter County and occasionally attending games at Americus.

The two, now seniors for the Americus-Sumter Panthers, are all for bringing back and starting a new tradition for the football program.

The team entered Alton Shell Stadium last Friday in new jerseys and touched a blue Panther that had collected dust since its last use.

The Panthers scored on a pair of big plays to go up 7-0 and 14-7 before finishing with a 28-7 win against Liberty County in the opener.

Coach Michael Pollock hopes the Panther is here to stay.

“Our ag teacher Mr. (Eric) Dixon brought it down to me and said it was something they used to,” said Pollock. “If that’s what they used to do, and we hadn’t been doing it lately, I wanted to start back doing it.

“I think things like that are good. Anything the kids can kind of rally around and believe in and build unity about, I think that’s a good thing. It’s great for a school to have a signature tradition that means something to them. It’s something that if little kids are playing tag football in the end zones or in the stadium, and they see them touch the Panther, it makes them want do that when they grow up.”

One of Pollock’s missions when he was hired as the Panthers head coach in the spring was to bring winning back to the program. Since consolidation, the Panthers haven’t had a winning season.

While touching the Panther can be motivating, Pollock said the biggest motivation is winning.

“The school’s always been known for playing great defense, and we’re trying to be explosive offensively,” he said. “The biggest thing is to just win. It doesn’t matter how you win, just win. It’s getting kids believing in themselves, and that the only team that can beat them is themselves. It’s a chance to really start something new, a new era. I think they’re buying into it.”

Champion and Battle have been big supporters of Pollock from the beginning.

Battle said bringing back the Panthers is a great way to start the season.

“I feel like we’re trying to bring back the tradition, therefore we’ll play like they used to play,” he said. “I feel like we can be just as good as those 75-76 teams and the 2001-02 teams. We want to have the best defense and try to keep the offense on the field as much as possible.”

Champion said the team didn’t want to be remembered for the recent past, but just like his name, a champion.

“We’re trying to make a name for ourselves again,” he said. “We’ve been under the radar a couple of years, and we’re trying to get back to the promised land.

“Everything that happened before today is in the past.  I don’t want to say forget about it. But you’ve got to work hard at each day so you can prepare for the next game, next series, next play, so you can get better.”