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ri.,T.v.,.;i. v i-......... 1.. ,-r-T '. l 1 . rr: ■ — I ■■ ■■' ■ : ; ■ rr, v ■ ■ .vi ■ TT m The Houston Home m i Journal SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29,1990-SECTION B Success rate high for Hornets and Panthers in 1990 Year filled with many champions By MARK BLUMEN Sport* Writer With all the Perry High School Panthers and Lady Panthers squads finishing at or above the 500 mark, success at Perry High School was eminent. First the Perry High School bas ketball squad finished with a 17-7 record before bowing out to the Mary Persons Bulldogs 62-60 in overtime in the Region playoffs. Perry won the first seed with a 12-2 mark and had victories over Jackson, Manchester and Peach County. Jake Smith, Ken Sikes and Tazari Green and Darrell Johnson proved to be a force in the open floor while Robert Grace showed his emergence as a bonafide assist man. Super sub, Kenneth Grace proved to a major contributor whenever the big men were in foul trouble. Against the Red Devils in Jack son, Sikes went out with two fouls early but Grace came in to hold his own and the Panthers trailed only by one at intermission. Sikes later came back to hit the winning shot with two seconds left. The nemisis proved to be the Bulldogs and Perry fell all three times the two teams met. Mark Blumen HHJ Sports Writer Future looks brig'., for both squads Christmas is over and now it's lime to get back into the swing of things. Perry and Westfield both will be back on the hardwood and bodi face tough, grueling schedules. Over at Perry, Central Macon will be in town the day after New Year’s and will bring their number five ranking and a perfect 10-0 record into the Panthers gym. Perry played them well the last time the two teams met up in Ma con. Perry fell by a 68-58 score but was within four points late in the game. Perry also played without one of their main scoring threats in Ken Sikes. The Panthers may have to play again without one of their top players. This line it's Tazari Green. He has been out with Kidney Stones and the last lime these teams met, Green had 21 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Westfield faces a Stratford team up in Macon on Friday night and now that the Hornets have had lime to group together, look to see a different Westfield team. By all rights, the team had played their first two games with a B-tcam lineup and the first two when the football players relumed was those guys getting used to each other. Although the 0-4 record looks bad, Coach Cater Pierce has vowed his squad would be improved this year Obviously the group he has are proven winners. Look at their ju nior varsity record over the last two years. Only one loss and 19 wins, so I know these guys will turn things around. As for both of the girls teams, Perry has played to a 4-5 record and looks like they could be in for a Please see BLUMEN, Page 4B . I mmmm**m*m*i I J§L j E jja Kenneth Grace shoots his jumper. Jake Smith watches on as both were part of the 1989-90 Perry Panthers. Outside shooting was a major factor that the team was planning on working on in the offseason. Five of the teams Perry lost 100 W * r i ■ '*’* George Francis applies pressure in a recent Panther jayvee game. Perry is off to an undefeated start at 5-0. I Lady Hornets look to keep the momentum going for 1991 year By J.J. COOPER Special to the HHJ As Christmas break approached last year, the Westfield Lady Hor nets looked forward for a chance to work on improving their struggling offense. What a difference a year makes. This year the Lady Hornets, off to a 3-1 start, are working to keep the offense running at the same tempo that it did before the Decem ber break. With an offense that has been working in fine tunc and a defense that has been more than adequate, the Lady Hornets main concern is that they continue to play with the same intensity after the break as they did before it. The lime-off has been good— it allows us to rest and to work on things, but it docs kind off lake some of our momentum," said Lady Hornet coach Donna Campbell. The Lady Hornets have had mo mentum lately. In their first two regular season games, Westfield's offense has approached a level of consistency that was only dreamed were teams that packed in a zone and dared the Panthers to shoot. Warner Robins rallied from a 10 Please see PANTHERS, Page 4B of last year. The change is not a result of a new style of offense or a change in philosophy, but rather a familiarity with the old system. As their playing time under the system has grown, the team's points are up and mistakes are down. With the offense seemingly in good shape, the Hornets arc work ing on the other facet of the game defense. "Our defense must improve over four quarters. We want to work on our pressing gams," said Campbell. The pressing game has become a major facet of the Hornet defense, as they rely on a press 80% of the time. A switch to a new three-quarters press rather than the old full-court press has resulted in more steals. "We're getting a lot of steals. We've changed our press. The new one seems to fit us belter," said Campbell. As a team, the Lady Hornets have blended together well. — Perry sports Complete coverage of Perry High, Westfield, Recreation leagues & Outdoor news J Success attained by many in 1990 By MARK BLUMEN Sports Writer Although the Westfield Hornets and Lady Hornets squads of the 1990 seasons all didn’t have re markable years as far as winning percentage, both teams did enjoy successful campaigns as far as indi vidual honors arc concerned. Both basketball squads finished with under 500 records but both had people enjoy their final seasons at Westfield with good statistics. The Hornets finished with a 5-16 record, but four of the Hornets had banner years. Coy Lassiter, Michael Sullivan, Bobby Thompson and George Hunt each achieved success during the 1990 season. The Lady Hornets finished with an 8-15 record as Tey Abercrombie and Tracie Dunaway enjoyed fine seasons for Westfield. The Lady Hornets were eventu ally eliminated by Stratford in the playoffs, a team in which Westfield handled twice rather easy during the regular season. In baseball, the Hornets won only eight games all year but five players were nominated to All-re gion and one was also named All- Stale. the five that were All-region were Shaync Arrington, Michael Sulli- — - ■ Panther jayvees off to fast start with five consecutive victories By MARK BLUMEN Sports Writer When a team is off to as fast a start as the Perry High School Panthers jayvec squad, attitude and smiling faces arc seen everywhere. The team is currently 5-0 on the year and two faces from the squad that arc enjoying themselves tremendously are Rico Simon and Travis Thornton. The squad also has a new coach in Max Vickers and the team feels he is just like one of the guys. "Coach Vickers is doing good for his first year. He's not the type that gels mad. He's real calm," Thornton said. "He just like one the fellows. Most of the time we arc just having fun and that's what it's all about. He comes out there and plays with us." Last year's squad finished with a 7-5 record and Simon feels this fast start can be attributed to when all the players were together back in eighth grade as part of the Perry Middle School Panthers. "Although we don't have the same starting lineup, most of us arc wanting to get on the varsity. We're trying hard to show Coach Thomas what we have," Simon added. Working on basically a seven person rotation, the Hornets have generally avoided fatigue and foul trouble. Campbell credits that partly to conditioning, something the Hor nets have worked to improve over the Christmas break with rope training and running. Christi Horsting has proven to be a powerful inside scorer, as ex pected, while Erica Graham, still nursing a sore wrist, has provided a scoring punch from the outside. Angela Santiago and April Horsting have helped clear the boards underneath, while Tabalha Goss has led from the point guard spot. Laura Langston and Bristol Davis have provided needed bench help. But as Campbell enters January, she hopes, and expects to pick up a third key bench player. Kim Marshall and Kaci Williamson both have a shot of filling that role. The Hornets will return to action on Friday, January 4, as they face the Stratford Eagles in Macon. Phil Kennedy shows his lorm in the long jump for the 1990 Westfield track team that finished fourth in state van, Bobby Thompson, Malt Per fect and Bubba Gibbs. Arrington was the All-State nominee from the Hornets. In golf, the Hornets linksters Max Vickers Panther B-team Coach "Maybe not this year, but in the future we can be on the varsity. We all played together in recreation and got heat in the championship. We had everybody on the team except for Arthur Billings and he's on Lite varsity." One of the things that the two feels makes this squad so good is the guard play. "Michael Lane can fire them up from outside and Jeff Ridley can dish off," Thornton explained. "Michael Lane is real good at hit- Tabatha Goss shoots a layup against Deerfield Windsor. Westfield hopes to extend a winning streak. ————i started off with a 12-0 record and eventually were the slate runner-up. John Lambcrlh, Geoff Hill, Russ Dunaway, and Andy Sparrow keyed Please see HORNETS, Page 4B ling ihc three. That's when the de fense will go to a box and one and that's how Jason Sikes and I get baskets down low." Simon continued, "Another thing about Coach Vickers is that he wants the point guard in the middle whereas Coach Thomas wants the point guard on the side, we have a lot of guards, but I can play forward. Michael Lane, Jeff Ridley, Eric Richardson and Stacy Francis can all dribble (real well) so it makes it easier to run the break." Although most of the teams that Perry has played thus far have outsized the Panthers but the two feel the quickness is added dimen sion. In a recent game with Peach County Thornton and Sikes fouled out, but the duo of Chris and William King came in and the squad eventually won the game. The squad was undersized but credit to both Thomas and Vickers have taught the entire squad the basics of boxing out to gel re bounds. Please see JAYVEE, Page 4B