Country music song by Tritt linked to football victories for years
As Rabun County High School’s football team put the finishing touches and the final seconds waned in its 56-21 November 2025 first-round playoff win at home versus Dodge County, Rabun County head coach Rance Gillespie had one final question for his coaching staff.
“Y’all got that rice cooking in the microwave?” Gillespie nonchalantly asked his staff over his coach’s headset.
Other than a chuckle from wide receivers coach Wes Holcombe, the response was silence. Gillespie asked once again, “hey, y’all got the rice cooking in the microwave?”
After the next play from scrimmage, then-special teams coordinator and now RCHS assistant principal Ty Maxwell turned to Gillespie with a smile and laughter and said, “OK, I gotcha, coach.”
The reference, however, was missed by Rabun County running backs coach Clay Worley, who responded by saying, “Coach, I’m going to be honest, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
During Gillespie’s post-game speech to his team, the song that for years is played when the Wildcats win “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” by Travis Tritt started blaring over the speakers of Frank Snyder Memorial Stadium.
Gillespie paused while addressing his team and pointed to Worley – who stood close by behind the Wildcat players – as the head coach sang one of the most recognizable opening lines in country music, “I got rice cooking in the microwave.”
“When you get the game under control late in the game, there’s an emotion that comes on you that you want to get excited. And you can’t, because there’s still a lot of things that can go wrong, especially if you’re up three scores with a 12-minute quarter left to go,” Gillespie said of the rice-cooking interaction on the headset. “So you have to hold all of that in. At that point, (it) was my way of saying, ‘Y’all, let it go and enjoy it.’”
Georgia-native Tritt’s hit single, which was released in 2000, has been played after every Rabun County home gridiron win since 2013, when then-head coach Lee Shaw started what is now a symbolic tradition of Wildcat football.
The optimistic, feel-good country anthem was first played in September 2013 after Rabun County’s 55-7 season-opening home win over Hayesville (N.C.) and the song has been played 77 times, including that night.
Shaw – a former Wildcat player and RCHS teammate of Gillespie – is one of the winningest active head coaches in Georgia, accounting for 195 wins in his 29 seasons. Currently, Shaw is the head coach of Metter, RCHS’s regular-season home opener on Aug. 28.
Seven of those coaching seasons were spent at his alma mater, where he accounted for 70 wins, five consecutive region championships and a state runner-up finish in 2017. In 2024, Shaw was inducted into Rabun County High School’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Shaw was well aware of Rabun County traditions when he returned as the head coach like touching Levii’s Rock while running onto the field and ringing the iconic bell at Frank Snyder Memorial Stadium after each win.
He said he pre-planned the playing of the song and used it as a way to excite his players.
Shaw, who enjoys country music and Tritt, said the tune felt like it would fit after a win because the song fits the people of Rabun County, is singeable and was uplifting after a 48-minute battle.
“It was a great win. You battle and it’s just a great day to be alive, a great day to be a Wildcat,” Shaw told The Clayton Tribune of the song’s fit. “It just kinda flowed with everything that we talked about. It was just a great day to be alive after a big ole’ win and being a Wildcat.”
The song “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” is about feelings of gratitude, joy and an appreciation for the simple things in life even in the hard times. It shares a message of resilience that can be related to football.
But even when Shaw briefly retired from coaching in 2018, the tradition lived on and became a family affair. His son, Jaybo, was named the next head coach at Rabun County in December 2018 after serving as the offensive coordinator on his father’s staff.
The younger Shaw, who played collegiately at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern, continued to lead the Wildcats to success, and kept the “rice cooking in the microwave.” In his three seasons as the head coach, RCHS posted a 35-5 record with three consecutive region championships, led by current University of Georgia quarterback, Gunner Stockton.
During that time frame, the Wildcats boasted an 18-2 record at home.
That song stayed in both the Rabun County family as well as the Shaw family after Jaybo Shaw left in early 2022 to be the head coach at Wayne County.
During his RCHS tenure, Holcombe -- married to Jaybo’s sister, the former Anna Kate Shaw -- joined the football coaching staff in 2019.
Holcombe, a former Rabun County quarterback who wore the now-retired legendary No. 14 jersey, played for his father-in-law in high school, before playing collegiately at Western Carolina, where Lee Shaw also played in the 1980s. Holcombe was the team’s starting quarterback the very first time “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” was played after a win, well before it became a tradition.
“I think coming back and the game’s over and it’s played and you realize this song is still a tradition here, it just gives you a whole new set of emotions,” Holcombe said. “That makes you proud to come back to a place that has tradition, culture and people that are proud to be from Rabun County and love this place just as much as I do.”
After Jaybo Shaw’s departure in 2022, then-head coach Michael Davis, who was Shaw’s offensive coordinator for his final season, kept the tradition alive for the RCHS program.
The decision to not pause that song was especially important to Rabun County’s players.
Much like the Shaw lineage in Rabun County, the song is about family too.
During Davis’ first year as the Wildcats’ head coach, former Wildcat Carver Jarrard asked Holcombe if “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” would be played after a Rabun County win. Holcombe’s response was “absolutely.”
Both of Jarrard’s older brothers, Tanner and Brody, played for the Wildcats and graduated from Rabun County. They were also members of the 2017 team that went 14-1 and played in the state championship game.
Jarrard wanted to make sure the song would be played so he could experience that tradition, like his brothers did before him.
“He wanted to make sure that it was going to get played,” Holcombe said. “His older brother got to have that tradition and he had another older brother, Brody Jarrard; Same thing, he was able to go through that tradition. Obviously, Carver when that staff changed over, he wanted to make sure that lived on.”
“It’s a Great Day to Be Alive” also has made waves in Holcombe’s family with his three boys, Shaw, age 6, Russ, age 4 and Drew, age 2. The Holcombe boys can often be seen on Friday nights at Frank Snyder Memorial Stadium watching the game near the scoreboard, proudly wearing their own No. 14 jerseys that their father and grandfather wore.
Despite their young age, Holcombe’s boys have heard the song plenty of times themselves, whether that’s after a Rabun County home win, watching old Wildcat games and highlights at home, or just riding down the road. But they also know that the “microwave song,” as Shaw, Holcombe’s oldest, once referred to it as during a car ride, is only played after a win.
The tune, Holcombe said, is a “symbol of winning.” It represents a victory, excellence, and the hard work that is deposited in the offseason, and Monday through Thursday to prepare for the bright lights of Friday nights.
After a win on Friday nights, the Wildcats get to make a withdraw on their deposits from the offseason and practice days before a Friday night.
“I think it’s the same thing for my kids,” Holcombe said. “They might not understand it to that level, but they do understand that, that song only gets played when you win.”
The tradition has lasted for what will be 14 seasons when Rabun County kicks off in 2026 and has made an impact on several generations of Wildcat players.
“I’m always gonna be a Wildcat no matter where I coach, no matter if I’m coaching against Rabun County, I’ll always be a Wildcat,” Lee Shaw said. “Knowing this song has lasted that many years makes me feel good that it has turned into a tradition.”
While some hit songs can be overplayed and at times result in an annoying tendency to get stuck in one’s head, that is far from the sentiment around “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive.”
Neither the elder Shaw, Gillespie nor Holcombe said they have gotten tired of hearing it after a Wildcat triumph.
“I do not. I love it, man. It’s great,” Holcombe said. “I get fired up about it. Honestly, when I get off the phone with you and get in my truck and head to the house, I’m probably gonna play it just to listen to it.”