When powerful Wilcox County jumped to a 21-0 early lead in the Georgia high school playoffs last Friday night, the football coach of tiny Greenville called time out. He gathered his boys on the sidelines, drawing them close so they could all hear, and then said as strongly as he could, “At Greenville we don’t give up. We never give up.”

So “battle with valor” is what the Patriots did, all the way to the final whistle. It wasn’t enough to fully recoil and win the game, but even Wilcox’ kids will tell you the 39-19 test was hardly as easy as it might sound. That is the “life lesson” each of the Greenville players will proudly carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Listen, Greenville went through the regular season undefeated, winning 10 straight, five times by shutouts. That’s unheard of at a school with only 380 students but therein lies the bigger story, the greater lesson, the one that each player will wear as an indelible brand on his heart in all the years to come.

To begin, you’ve probably never heard of Greenville, a tiny town without a stoplight about 70 miles southwest of Atlanta. It is located somewhere down near LaGrange, if that helps. The stale economy has now closed the largest factory (the town mayor even commutes to Atlanta) and the kids whose folks can afford it go to a private school not far away. Greenville High School doesn’t get much lower on the state’s food chain, you understand?

But, as it sometimes goes, several years ago a youthful Jeremy Williams was named as the head football coach and that’s been the biggest thing to happen in Meriwether County – my goodness -- since a U.S. President named Roosevelt once came to bathe at nearby Warm Springs. Trust me, from the minute “Coach Williams” arrived, nothing has been quite the same.

The beloved coach, a 38-year-old who once started at safety for the University of Memphis football team in the early ‘90s, has become a saint-like figure to his players. Many boys on the team are poor, and have single parents, but Jeremy has used football, his infectious wit and an eager, encouraging approach to change lives, both young and old, more rapidly than Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne once produced All-Americans.

Early last summer, again in the way things sometimes go, “Coach” noticed his thumb was “acting funny” and it wasn’t long before it was finally discovered he was fatally ill with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Now you understand why it was such a big deal, just last Friday night, when “Coach,” who now speaks in a voice that can hardly be heard, called his guys around him and tried to say as loudly as he could, “At Greenville we don’t give up. We never give up.”

If you were to walk into his office today, you might notice a Bible verse attached above his desk, one from the Book of Matthew: “Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking (reverently) and the door will be opened to you.”

It was that way when he played college ball at Memphis. Nobody much wanted the economy-sized quarterback from Columbus (Ga.) Kendrick High but a Memphis recruiter, at the last minute, offered Jeremy a chance to “quarterback” the Tiger’s defense as a safety.

The Tigers’ best defensive back got hurt early in the first game of Williams’ freshman year and Jeremy took his place. It was the very first game he had ever worn a blue jersey. Jeremy Williams then started in every game for the next four seasons, playing with such velocity his Memphis teammates called him “The Georgia Assassin.”

So, yes, he is very much a realist and, in one of several great stories that have appeared recently in the Atlanta Constitution, he is blunt: “The prognosis is ‘when’ ... as nobody has ever been cured of ALS,” the coach said. “It’s a matter of time. Some die within two to three years, some in five to 10 years, and some in 20. Now, I will be cured one day with Jesus Christ, and I believe that.”

At another point he said, “I’ve had people ask me about [retiring], and I always reply, ‘For what?’ When I can’t do the job that I feel like I should be doing, then I will step away. Until then, I’m going to keep going. That’s what the doctor suggested, too. A lot of people, when they get ALS … they forget about living. They sit down and wait. I’ve never been like that. I’ve always fought with everything I had.”

Now let’s go back. Here’s a guy who has literally become a father-figure to his players, 44 rag-tag kids who have found by watching the coach’s death approach that they need a fatherly man pretty badly, and, all of a sudden, last Friday night, life’s cards went sour. They lost a game they wanted so badly to win for their beloved, young “Coach.”

The guy who brought pride back to town has coached these last few months from a golf cart. On the sidelines an assistant had to “echo” his commands because his thin voice will no longer carry. He can no longer throw a football. There is no question that Jeremy Williams will one day die.

“Maybe that’s why God put me in Greenville … and, if so, here I am. I am grateful for it. These young men mean everything to me. I’m glad to be part of their lives.”

Last Friday night it was Wilcox County 39, Greenville 19. The season has ended. The season is over.

But the victory, the really big victory, still lies ahead and everybody in Greenville, Ga., pop. 968, knows about it. That’s the bigger thing. That is the lesson for each and all of us -- Its OK to die but don’t give up while you’re going about it.

royexum@aol.com