“Like I said, this is a very competitive community, and when you put a challenge like that out there, people here get after it.”

– Herb Reinhard, Valdosta State Athletics Director

The distinction of being a “TitleTown” is more than just symbolic to Valdosta State Athletics Director Herb Reinhard. He called it the epitome of a community rallying around an athletics initiative – precisely what Division II has been preaching to its membership.

“It was very much a community-wide effort, spearheaded by the two large public high school systems and the university,” said Reinhard, the Valdosta State AD since 1992. “We weren’t concerned about getting the public excited, because this community lives for this kind of stuff – it’s a very competitive community that loves athletics and loves to win.”

When Valdosta was named one of 20 finalists, the community staged a pep rally for the ESPN taping in the city school system stadium on the edge of the Valdosta State campus that the Blazers use for football. Reinhard said there was some concern about how many people would come out in south Georgia in early July, and though the day “turned out to be just as hot as we thought it would,” a throng of 6,000 supporters greeted ESPN’s film crew.

“ESPN was blown away,” Reinhard said. “People were tailgating around the stadium as early as 10 a.m., and crowds grew throughout the day – it was an NCAA-playoff or high school state-championship atmosphere.”

ESPN ran Valdosta’s spot on the July 16 edition of SportsCenter (preceded by reruns of the 2004 and 2007 Valdosta State Division II football championships on ESPN Classic), and the Blazers athletics department hosted a viewing party that again attracted a large and lively community turnout.

Once all the finalists had been aired, a four-day voting period ensued.

“Like I said, this is a competitive community, and when you put a challenge like that out there, people here get after it,” Reinhard said.

He said the two school systems – bitter rivals on the field – collaborated like champions. Led by the respective public information officers (Valdosta State graduates Jennifer Steedley of the Valdosta City system and Heather Bonner of the Lowndes County system), each got the word out with their constituencies. Valdosta State officials also rallied their students, faculty and staff. Even the governor issued a proclamation urging Georgians to vote for Valdosta.

ESPN called two days before the announcement. They wouldn’t say why, but they were asking for the governor and other dignitaries to be there, so Reinhard suspected either Valdosta was one of two or three finalists or had won – which meant the community had 36 hours to stage another rally. “The question was how many of the 6,000 who sweltered in the heat through all those retakes would be willing to come do that again,” Reinhard said.

The answer was all of them – and about 2,000 more. And when the announcement was made, Reinhard said there was a tremendous sense of excitement for a community that felt proud about what it had done. “In all,” he said, “we received the kind of exposure that quite frankly we don’t have the dollars to buy.”

It has been long-term exposure, too. While traveling out of state with his family this summer, Reinhard said strangers would notice his Valdosta State apparel and say, “Hey, you won that TitleTown thing, didn’t you?”

TitleTown also has resonated with another member of the Valdosta State community – the school’s new president, Patrick Schloss, whose first day on the job literally was the one on which the announcement was made.

“He stood on the field and made some remarks on behalf of Valdosta State, but had yet to be in his office,” Reinhard said. “And I said to him afterward, ‘Look, we don’t do this here every day. This is neat and exciting, but I do not want you to think that we are going to be able to do TitleTown every day.’ ”

Reinhard better not say that too loudly to the engaged Valdosta community, though. They might take him up on it.