The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets captured their fourth-straight state championship this month with a 13-6 win in overtime over Columbus at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

The Jackets had to replace some key players from last year’s squad and among those players stepping into key roles was junior wide receiver and defensive back Kelsey Johnson.

 “Kelsey had to step up this season on defense and she also had to fill a hole on offense until our softball players joined us,” said coach Marci Cochran. “She has speed and is great at pulling flags. She just doesn’t miss. She is our vocal leader and is always positive. She led our team with 95 flag pulls and also had five interceptions this season.”

“Winning a fourth straight championship meant a lot to me,” Johnson said. “Coming into a new season knowing that we’ve lost five good seniors I knew that it was going to be hard to fill those shoes, but I knew with hard work and dedication we could go back to the Benz, and that’s what we did.

“I always knew that I had to be a leader on and off the field. Losing to Calvary was a light switch that turned on for us as we knew that we needed to play harder and smarter. Each and every one of us worked really hard to made it back to the Benz and win our fourth straight championship.”