There’s something about a Friday night in the fall that feels different in North Georgia.
The lights come on. The stands begin to fill. Bands warm up, cheerleaders take their places, and somewhere behind the stadium, you can already smell something cooking on the concession stand grill. Before the first whistle ever blows, you know exactly what kind of night it is.
This Friday, Friday Night Lights returns to My Country 99.3 WCON, and Josh Tanner and Jeff Wilson will be along for the entire ride.
It starts at 6 PM with The Tailgate Show, as Josh and Jeff get North Georgia football fans ready for the night’s biggest matchups and storylines. Then we’ll take you live to Habersham Central Raiders football, with every game of the season broadcast on My Country 99.3. After the final whistle, Josh and Jeff return for The Scoreboard Show, running down the scores, highlights, and stories from high school football across North Georgia.
But before we kick off another season, we asked Josh and Jeff a simple question:
What is it about high school football that keeps us coming back every Friday night?
Their answers begin in very different places.
For Jeff, football has been part of his life almost from the beginning. For Josh, the game found him much later.
Yet somehow, they both ended up under the same Friday night lights.
Jeff Wilson
As the son of a high school football coach, my earliest memories were spent around the local high school football team. Fresh-cut grass, the dew of early-morning summer practices, and the heat of preseason fill my memories and still make me smile. Football was not simply what we did in our family; it was who we were. All things in life revolved around and bowed to the football season. My heroes were the local high school players, and in my eyes, they could do no wrong.
Growing up as a coach’s kid came with a lot of perks. I had the freedom to roam and access to the team and its facilities, which allowed me to grow up quickly, become resilient, and feel like a small part of something special. Team sports are unique, and football may be the most special of all. People from different backgrounds and socioeconomic levels come together to work toward a common goal. Every position has a purpose, and when one person fails to do his job, the other ten players pay the price. Football teaches you that success is never just about the individual; it is about trusting the people beside you and doing your part for the team.
High school sports have always been a part of my life. The lessons I learned through playing high school and college sports have molded and shaped who I am today. Sport is the vehicle through which we learn sacrifice, discipline, resilience, and, ultimately, how to endure. The work required to prepare for the games becomes a classroom of its own, teaching young men lessons that extend far beyond the playing field.
I love football,
not just for the game itself, but for the lessons it teaches. It teaches us to work when no one is watching, to sacrifice for something bigger than ourselves, to persevere when things get difficult, and to understand that we are stronger together than we are alone. Football has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It shaped me, taught me, and helped make me who I am.
It will always be in my blood.
Josh Tanner
Unlike Jeff, I did not grow up surrounded by football. In fact, I’ve never played a down of football, not recreation league, not high school, not college, or otherwise! I was the short, scrawny middle infielder on the baseball diamond, more worried about turning a double play than anything happening on a gridiron. Football wasn’t in my blood the way it was in Jeff’s. But somewhere along the way, working in this business and getting to know these communities, it got in there anyway.
I’ve spent enough Friday nights now on sidelines and in press boxes across Northeast Georgia to understand what Jeff felt growing up even if I came to it from the outside looking in. I’ve watched a packed stadium go dead silent on a fourth-down stop, and I’ve heard a town erupt loud enough to rattle the press box windows. You don’t have to have played the game to feel that.
And that’s really what’s stuck with me. It’s more than the scoreboard. I’d argue it’s even more than the lessons these young men learn about sacrifice and discipline and doing their job so the guy next to them can do his. It’s a point of pride in so many communities, especially the ones we serve here in My Country. Friday nights aren’t just games they’re where the whole town shows up. The barber shop, the church pews, the gas station on Saturday morning all of it runs through what happened under the lights the night before. Win or lose, these young men represent their hometowns. They play for something greater than themselves, and for a few hours every week, an entire community gets to play along with them.
In a world where we’re more connected than ever, where I sadly feel we’ve lost so much of our local identity, high school football unites small towns across Georgia and across America in a way nothing else can. It doesn’t matter if you played the game or never touched a football in your life on a Friday night in the fall, you’re part of it. That’s what keeps me showing up, year after year, season after season.
Friday Night Lights Returns This Friday
🏈 6 PM — The Tailgate Show
Josh Tanner and Jeff Wilson preview the night’s matchups and get you ready for high school football across North Georgia.
🏈 Habersham Central Raiders Football — LIVE
Follow the Raiders all season long with every game broadcast live on My Country 99.3 WCON.
🏈 After the Game — The Scoreboard Show
Josh and Jeff return after the final whistle with scores, highlights, and the stories of the night from across North Georgia.
The helmets are ready. The stadium lights are coming on.
And Friday nights are about to feel like Friday nights again.
Friday Night Lights, all season long on My Country 99.3 WCON.