With Mount Airy set to attempt a 1A state football title repeat Saturday in Winston-Salem, it seems a prudent time to take a look at some of the statistics of not only the past several seasons, but the entirety of the Mount Airy football program.

An easy place to start could be the most obvious — the Granite Bears’ 31-game win streak.

Mount Airy’s last defeat came in a 34-23 third-round playoff loss to Albemarle in 2007.

Perhaps even more impressive, to find the Bears’ last regular-season loss, one would have to go back nearly a full calendar year from their last overall defeat to 2006 and a 42-13 loss to Elkin, a time during which the Buckin’ Elks were defending state champions.

Since the loss to Elkin, the Bears are 49-2 (43-1 during the past three seasons) and have averaged 43 points per game while giving up just 10, including 15 shutouts.

This season marked the Bears’ sixth consecutive 10-win season and their third straight undefeated conference campaign.

With the dramatic come-from-behind 27-26 win over Robbinsville Friday, coach Kelly Holder won his 111th game as the Granite Bears’ head coach.

Holder is 111-37 in his 11 seasons walking the sidelines of Wallace Shelton Stadium, good enough for a 74.8-win percentage and an average of 10 wins a season.

Holder has a career record of 123-60, including a 22-23 stint at Surry Central from 1995 until 1998.

Holder trails only Jerry Hollingsworth (178 wins) and Wallace Shelton (166 wins) in the win column in the 75-year history of Mount Airy High School football, and those three coaches combine to have coached 72 percent of the Granite Bears’ overall games.

In the history of the Mount Airy gridiron, from 1934 until 2009, the Bears have played in 861 football games and have a combined record of 581-261-20, making for an average of 7.7 wins per season.

Saturday against Wallace-Rose Hill, the Bears will be competing for the school’s eighth state football title.

Mount Airy won Class B titles in 1935, 1938 and 1942, Class A titles in 1946 and 1948, a 3A title in 1968 and 1A crown last season in 2008.

The Bears are 0-2 in title defenses, with losses coming to Henderson in 1947 and Reidsville in 1969, while they also reached the title game in 1941 before losing to Laurinburg.

Mount Airy will take on Wallace-Rose Hill, the No. 3 seed from the 1A Eastern bracket, Saturday at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem.

Contact Thomas Smith at tsmith@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.