Seniors will make final walk to Billy Henderson Stadium tonight

Between the locker room and the football field at Clarke Central is a hill covered in pine trees.

Before each game, the Gladiators walk together down a staircase through those pine trees on their way to the field and another game at Billy Henderson Stadium.

The walk through "The Pines" has become one of Clarke Central's most important traditions.

Tonight, when Clarke Central hosts Rockdale County in the Class AAAA semifinals, the Gladiators' seniors will be making their last walk through the fabled pines.

"I didn't even think about it until now," Gladiators coach Leroy Ryals said. "I told the team 'This is your last hurrah.' This is really a second chance to do a senior night. It has to be special for them."

There are 16 seniors on Clarke Central's roster this year. Of those 16, seven seniors have been a part of the program since the start of their freshman year.

Terrance Bradshaw, Jeremy Johnson, Dimitri Holmes, Devante Derricotte, Jarron Hutchins, Derrick Smalls and Ryan Faust made their first walk through the pine trees as freshmen and will make their last walk to Death Valley tonight.

Win or lose, this will be Clarke Central's last home game of the season. If the Gladiators reach their first state finals since 1992 by beating the Bulldogs, their next game will be in the Georgia Dome.

"It is going to be pretty emotional," Smalls said. "It is going to be special for the seniors."

The group of seven seniors is special to Ryals because they are the first class the coach has led all the way from the beginning of its high school career to the end.

Ryals' first season as leader of the Gladiators was in 2006, when players like Holmes and Bradshaw were just starting.

"These seniors came in with me," Ryals said. "They played for us every year. I don't know how many people were on that freshman team, maybe 35 or 40. But just those guys made it every year."

This senior class has seen the steady improvement that has led the Gladiators back to the state semifinals for the first time since 1996.

When they were freshmen, Clarke Central went 6-5, losing in the first round of the playoffs. In each of the next two seasons, the Gladiators improved their overall record (7-3-1 in 2007 and 9-2 in 2008), but still had found no success in the postseason.

This season has marked the culmination of the seniors' work and effort towards bringing Clarke Central back to the recognition it experienced under legendary coach Billy Henderson from 1973 to 1995.

Since winning just one home game in 2006, the Gladiators have gone 11-3-1 in Death Valley in the past three seasons with the hope