By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          A week ago Wednesday, Northeast head coach Jeremy Wiggins sat at a table with quarterback Lewis Cheney and wideout Kavon Conciauro at the football media day for Bibb County public high schools.

          Practice had started, and the Raiders were preparing for an opener at Fort Valley State’s stadium this week.

          Conciauro would certainly be a focal point for the Raiders’ offense, with returning quarterback Reginald Glover and Cheney and a more open Northeast offensive game plan.

          Conciauro caught 33 percent of Northeast’s completions last year for 30 percent of the yards, and six of the 18 touchdowns passes.

          But the middle of last week was mighty different than the start of this week.

          Conciauro is now about 30 miles away, having apparently traded the black, red, and gold of Northeast for the silver and black of Houston County.

          On Monday, Conciauro apparently posted on Instagram his decision, with a “Welcome to Bear Country” greeting in a graphic of him in a Houston County uniform. It was apparently soon pulled.

          As they sat at that table on that Wednesday, Wiggins had no idea what was coming.

          The Raiders open the season on Friday at 8  p.m. against Peach County at Fort Valley State’s Wildcat Stadium in the Gridiron Classic, sponsored by Bibb County athletics.

          Wiggins said Wednesday, a week after the media day, that he got a text Sunday night from Conciauro’s father, and that’s the only communication he’s had about the move.

As of Thursday morning, a source stated that Conciauro had yet to be enrolled at Houston County, and that the Bears’ coaches were not expecting what was posted on Monday. Such movement after preseason practice has started is rare.

          The social media postings don’t mean that Conciauro will suit up for the Bears at all, certainly not for a period of time. Schools must file an eligibility report with the GHSA, which then investigates and rules on eligibility. The timing of such a move will raise administrative eyebrows.

          With apparently such a short time span involved, it’s a safe bet that it’ll be a few weeks upon his potential enrollment and Houston County filing the proper papers - and there’s never a guarantee that a school is automatically interested in dealing with such a late transfer situation - before an eligibility decision is made.

The Bears, dropping from 6A to 5A, lost their top five pass-catchers from last year’s 9-3 team, one heading to Cincinnati and one to Mississippi State. Houston County, a consensus top-10 team in Class 5A, plays Alpharetta at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Corky Kell/Dave Hunter Classic.

          A message board thread on 247sports.com started Monday just after lunch had a post stating that “his family moved to Houston county (sic) after the school year” but to the Northside zone.

          Wiggins said he didn’t know if that was true, and that he no inkling any move was coming. He said the Raiders called 33 pass plays and 28 run plays last week in a scrimmage against Greene County, an indication that receivers would get plenty of action this season.

          Standout running back Nick Woodford will be back in a week or so from a torn ACL, and quarterback Reginald Glover returns after a 1,000-yard passing season.

          Last year, two players from Peach County transferred to Houston County late in the process and neither was ruled eligible.

          Wideout Isaiah Mitchell posted on Twitter in early August of 2023 that he was “transferring to Houston County High School For My Next 2 Years”, but didn’t play.

          The same went for highly recruited offensive lineman Peyton Joseph, who posted in the middle of September, after a few games, that he “will be playing for Houston county (sic) high school this season.”

          But he wasn’t ruled eligible.

          Despite not playing as a junior – information recruiting websites failed to acknowledge – Joseph had enough attention to commit to Florida in February, continue visits, de-commit in mid-April, and commit to Florida State in July.

Both are on this year’s roster and eligible.

          This is the second Raider from 2023 headed to Highway 96.

          Standout linebacker  Zion Paul, who had 19 tackles for loss and was fourth on the team last year in tackles as a freshman, transferred at the start of the summer, because of new jobs in the county for his parents.

          Wiggins wasn’t happy to lose such a young and emerging talent, but understood, and moved on. This situation was different, suddenly losing a key player after practice had started, somebody part of Northeast’s emergence as a top-10 lower-classification program in recent years.

          “Everything was up on the rise,” said Wiggins, 42-26 entering his seventh season leading his alma mater. “Getting Nick back at 100 percent, you open up the offense with Bam (Glover) and Kavon and some other good, solid players that had been playing for two or three years together that know the offense …”