By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GAUTIER — Gautier has played in the Class 5A South State championship game for the past two seasons, a first in the history of the program.
This season the Gators hope to notch another first on the gridiron, and take that next step towards winning a gold football.
Gautier fell to Laurel 31-10 for the right to advance to the Class 5A state title tilt last year, and that was a follow-up to the 2022 season in which the Gators lost to Picayune 49-14 in the same round.
“We’ve been blessed the past couple of years,” seventh year Gautier head coach Marc High said, in a recent interview. “It’s all about the kids and understanding the moment. They’ve had a full buy-in and they see what can be accomplished when that happens. We’ve always tried to build something here and I think we’re on our way. We’re not to the end point we’re trying to get to right now but I think we’ve done a good job working to get to that goal.”
High returns eight starters on offense as his Gators chase that trip to Hattiesburg for the state championship game this season, including standout running back Solomon Baggett and senior quarterback Trey Irving.
As a sophomore last year, Baggett ran for right at 1,500 yards and accounted for 16 touchdowns. Baggett’s rushing total marked the most by a Gautier player in at least 15 years and is the most by any returning player in the “Southern Six”.

Irving, who fought through an injury-riddled season, played in just over half of Gautier’s games and threw for just over 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns. He also ran for almost 500 yards and scored four times.
The duo helped lead the Gators to an 8-5 overall mark last season and a second place finish in Region 4-5A.
Defensively, the Gators get back just four starters from last season but one of those players is one of the best defenders in South Mississippi in linebacker Fredrick Nicholson. Nicholson registered 136 total tackles including eight stops for a loss.
“Coming into last year, we had lost so many guys on offense we had to make some adjustments that worked out,” High added. “It’s the same situation on defense this season. The guys coming in we feel confident about.”

The Gators have fallen to fellow region foes in both of the past two Class 5A South State championship games. Gautier lost to league foe Laurel twice in a four week span to end the season last year, with the Golden Tornadoes securing the Region 4-5A title with a 48-30 win in the regular season finale.
In the final game of the 2022 regular season campaign, the Gators lost to Picayune 48-42 in overtime and then fell again to the Maroon Tide four three weeks later as well.
“We’ve always been in a pretty tough region ever since I’ve been here,” High concluded. “You have to be ready to strap it up ever week. We’ve got a really good senior class with some really good leaders, and they know how to push. They’ve been in the big games and they know how to push the young ones and the young ones are really buying in on it. We’re excited and everyone’s ready for the season.”