It was Sept. 9, 2000. The Schley County Wildcats were playing their first-ever football game against Glascock County at the then-Sumter County campus.

Down one point, coach Rusty Tondee decided to go for the win, but his Wildcats failed to score and came up short, 15-14. But that’s the greatest memory that still lingers in Tondee’s mind since the school opened its doors nine years ago.

“There were people everywhere; they just wanted to come see us,” said Tondee. “We were new, and we hadn’t been in school three weeks. We had a two-point play that was called no good. They said we fumbled into the end zone, but it was clearly in the end zone by a foot and a half. The same official that made the call seen me a little bit later and told me they missed the call.

“We had a caravan from here. It was that first game I’ll never forget. It was so much fun.”

When Schley County opened its doors of the high school in 2000, the school was starting from scratch. And all the athletics program had at the time was an old weight set donated from Bill Clark at Dooly County.

The Wildcats won one game that year, a 21-16 decision against Stewart-Quitman. But the memories never grow old.

“Thirty of us got dressed in a dressing room at the board office,” said Tondee, who is 47. “That was the Neanderthal days of the athletic program. When I started, I didn’t have anything. I hope I did a good enough job to pass off a successful program.”

Tondee passes the athletics director and assistant principal torches today to a former player of his in Brian Hall as he takes a couple of steps over into the high school principal’s office. He replaces Larry Stubbs, who was promoted to superintendent after serving nine years as Schley County’s principal.

“It’s hard to say goodbye to the every day operational duties of being the AD, but as principal, I will be ultimately responsible for the athletic programs as well as the academic program of Schley County Middle and High School,” said Tondee. “I’m looking forward to the new challenge. We’ve created a good thing I think, and now it’s my responsibility to take it and run with it a while to pass it off at a later date. I want to leave something better than when I got it.”

And that’s just what Tondee did.

Schley County went from a new program in 2000 to competing for the postseason in most sports, especially baseball. Coach Tim Peavy has been with the school the entire time and served as an assistant that first season under Tondee on the baseball team.

Peavy remembered the days of trying to put a fence up at the field behind the Schley County Board of Education building so the team could play baseball. And now, the Wildcats have won at least 20 games in five-straight seasons and have reached the Elite 8 and Final Four.

“We had to dig holes and put up plastic fencing just so we could have a field,” said Peavy. “Even to this day, there’s still not a fence there.

“But coach Tondee always believed in Schley County and what was happening. He believed in the community, and they were going to support it. He never relented from it. He made a commitment to excellence, and he was not going to settle for less than the very best. He didn’t want second-rate facilities.