TIFTON — As the 2008 regular season comes to a close, some teams are preparing for the playoffs. Other teams are preparing for 2009.

Five teams in our area -- Tift County, Tiftarea, Fitzgerald, Cook and Turner County -- are in the playoffs, and two teams -- Berrien and Irwin -- will be gearing up for basketball after tonight's game.

For Worth County, Saturday night is a playoff game.

But the Rams could already know by kickoff Saturday whether they are in or out of the Class AAA playoffs.

Worth is currently 2-4 in Region 1-AAA, tied with Westover (who owns a head to head win over the Rams), one game behind the Dougherty Trojans.

Worth would need Westover to lose to Cairo -- and Dougherty would need to lose to Perry on Friday night for the Rams to even have a shot at the playoffs.

Then, the Rams would have to win their game Saturday night against Monroe in Albany to pull into a fourth place tie with Dougherty.

The Rams own the head-to-head tiebreaker, due to their 49-8 trouncing of the Trojans on Sept. 19 and thus would get the No. 4 seed.

Some teams, like Cook, Turner County and Tiftarea, already know their playoff seeding.

Cook will be the No. 4 team out of Region 1-AA, and will take on the No. 1 team from Region 2, which currently is McIntosh Co. Academy. The Buccaneers are 9-0 on the season.

MCA will play Charlton County tonight. A Charlton win, and an Appling County win could send that region into a three-way tie for the region title.

Tiftarea Academy, after winning GISA Region 3-AA with a 40-14 win over Valwood Friday, will enter the playoffs with homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Panthers will host Robert Toombs Christian tonight. Robert Toombs lost 40-39 to Valwood, a team Tiftarea defeated handily last week in Valdosta.

As long as the Panthers keep winning, Chula will be the site of all of Tiftarea's playoff games -- including the state championship game.

Turner County is locked into the second seed from Region 2-A, after a 21-20 loss at Wilcox County for the region title on Friday.