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OPINION
THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, DEC. 26, 2019 - JAN. 1, 2020 • PAGE 5
DeKalb sports on top
DeKalb County schools have long
been known for their sports programs,
but the county’s dominance is much
bigger than a few Atlanta suburbs
being good at football and basketball.
It’s nearly every school in the county
dominating in one extracurricular
activity or another. Whether it’s
swimming and diving, bands, football,
baseball, golf, softball or basketball,
you can find some of Georgia’s best
high school sports programs in DeKalb
County.
Take December of 2019 for
example. Cedar Grove raced through
the playoffs before winning their
second straight GHSA football state
championship, which was their third
state championship in football in the last
four years.
Now flash back to the first half of
the year.
In the month of May, St. Pius
X Catholic won a girls’ soccer state
championship while Chamblee’s boys
tennis team and Marist’s girls tennis
teams both won state championships.
And that doesn’t even account for half
of the state titles that were brought home
to DeKalb County in 2019.
Dunwoody’s girls track team and
St. Pius X Catholic’s boys track team
both won state titles, while Chamblee’s
girls swimming team and St. Pius X
Catholic’s boys swimming team both
added to that with state championships
of their own.
Not to mention, Cedar Grove
defended its football state championship
from 2018 and completed their quest for
back-to-back state championships and
have now won three of the last four state
championships in football.
The level of the programs makes
itself clear every time a signing day rolls
around. On February’s National Signing
Day, more than 80 student athletes from
DeKalb County signed a letter of intent
with a university where they plan to
continue their student-athlete careers.
DeKalb County also made an
impact on 2019’s November and
December early signing period. In
November, Southwest DeKalb senior
guard Eugene Brown signed with Ohio
State to play basketball. Greenforest-
McCalep Christian Academy senior
guard Christian Fussell signed with
Middle Tennessee. Greenforest-
McCalep Christian Academy’s baseball
team had multiple high-level signings,
including the signing of one of the best
one of the country’s best players to
Duke. Drew Jordan (Rhodes), Jaxson
Sprull (Tougaloo College), Jaylen
Paden (Georgia Southern), Eddie
Galatas (North Georgia), Lukas Clark
(John Hopkins) and Jordan Walker
(Duke) round of that list.
Many DeKalb County alums have
gone on to dominate in college and even
at the professional level, showing that
it’s not just DeKalb County schools
doing well in their area and state.
In the 2019 NFL Draft, three former
DeKalb County players were selected in
the first six rounds.
Former Stephenson Jaguar Montez
Sweat was selected with the No. 26 pick
by the Washington Redksins, Southwest
DeKalb High School’s Abdurrahman
Ibn “Rock” Ya-Sin was drafted by the
Indianapolis Colts with the No. 34 pick
and Tucker High School alum YaQuis
“Duke” Shelley was drafted by the
Chicago Bears with the No. 205 pick.
At this point, DeKalb County
schools are making names for
themselves at every level of every sport.
Former Tucker and Columbia
basketball standout Bryce Brown broke
a G-League record for most made three-
pointers without a miss in December
as he went 11-11 from three and scored
43 points on 15-17 shooting for the
Maine Red Claws against the Delaware
Blue Coats, after setting multiple
Southeastern Conference and school
records at Auburn.
Speaking of Columbia High School
basketball, Columbia boys’ basketball
coach Dr. Phil McCrary won his 600th
game as a head con Feb. 6.
On that same note, St. Pius X
Catholic wrestling head coach Mike
Lancaster was selected as a member
of the Georgia Chapter of the National
Wrestling Hall of Fame.
All of this goes to show the
dominance that DeKalb County schools
are having. With Lithonia ranked as
one of the best basketball teams in the
state of Georgia, Druid Hills sophomore
guard Kyia Craft was an honorable
mention of the All-State girls basketball
team, Cedar Grove winning back-to-
back state titles in football, and multiple
DeKalb County sports teams just now
beginning to defend last year’s state
titles, it is obvious that DeKalb County
is not only one of the top counties in the
state in producing student-athletes but
that it is also still on the rise.
“One mile down...ELEVEN more to
go, ’’ scud a fist-pumping Betsy Eggers,
volunteer chair of the nonprofit,
Peachtree Creek Greenwav Inc. at the
opening of the new trail.
Since practically the dawn of
civilization, humanity has established
settlements and communities near
sources of drinking water. As
civilizations grew and population
density followed, human and other
waste also eventually made it into those
same water sources. Though waterfront
property often still remains golden, in
city after city, in North America and
elsewhere, fouled waterways, creeks,
rivers and lakes later prompted a move
away from the water and abandonment
of once pristine water bodies to
industrial use, navigation and further
decay.
The Clean Water Act helped to
reverse those trends in the United
States, helping to save Lake Lanier,
the Chattahoochee River and other
watersheds too numerous to mention,
but only in recent years in Georgia
have we been returning to the water’s
edge in cities like Macon, Columbus,
Augusta and now even the suburbs
of metro Atlanta. And though
Chattahoochee River-facing homes and
mansions are nothing new, expect the
next real estate gold rush to be along
the creeks and tributaries, and to be
hearing a lot more about Peachtree and
Nancy Creeks.
In a city just seven years old,
This bridge for no cars
‘One Man’s
Opinion’
BILL CRANE
bill.csicrane@gmail.com
against a plan created three-years ago,
the still nearly new city of Brookhaven
just completed a model one-mile
Peachtree Creek Greenway (PCG)
trail, the first of a planned 12 miles,
which will pop your eyes out when you
visit. Brookhaven, DeKalb County, the
PATH Foundation, Salvation Army,
Georgia Department of Transportation
and many others all came together
to complete this initial mile in one
year, from ground-breaking to trail
dedication.
The trail is lit, and as a result safer
for night-time use. Brookhaven Police
Department’s new headquarters will
literally sit on the trail near Briarwood
Road. Security cameras dot the 14-
foot trail, easily wide enough for
two-way traffic as well as multiple
bikes, strollers and pedestrians in
simultaneous use with some room to
spare. Much of the trail also sits in
FEMA flood plain along the creek
bed, so the National Weather Service
contributed a real-time weather and
water level sensor which sits atop
one of the road bridges crossing the
PCG and creek, allowing for real
time warnings of inclement weather,
potential flooding and time for local
authorities to close down the trail as
weather conditions warrant.
The next mile, in part funded
by a federal grant, will head south
from North Druid Hills Road at 1-85,
connecting to the South Fork Peachtree
Creek Trail, and then down underneath
the Georgia 400 interchange with
the downtown connector, eventually
connecting to Atlanta’s Beltline and
later still the Silver Comet Trail,
reaching as far as Anniston, Alabama.
And though it might have been
hard to envision this tranquil and
pristine stretch of creek a few hundred
yards away from the downtown
connector, that also required the
removal of more than a dozen tractor
trailer loads of tires, old cars, auto parts
and human waste of all kinds almost
entirely hauled out by volunteers. The
creek, woods and underside of
many interstate bridges were also a
refuge for several dozen homeless
residents. Rather than just sweep those
folks with nowhere to turn out and
off the path, Brookhaven city leaders
partnered with the Salvation Army
to provide them housing and other
assistance.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s
new campus in Brookhaven will
eventually have a direct connection
to the PCG, and though the nonprofit
does not pay property taxes, CHOAhas
pledged $40 million toward the long
term completion of the PCG trail. And
though there is no expectation that area
residents will give up their automobiles
tomorrow, the PCG does offer a route,
accessible from multiple points and
trail heads, to retail, restaurants and
places of employment parallel to a
couple of the metro region’s most
congested traffic corridors. As word
and use spread, it most certainly should
off-load some of that local traffic.
On PCG day one, returning with
my youngest child to the lit trail at
night, under a full moon, and with
Christmas lights twinkling in the
distance we encountered a mom, dad
and near newborn out for an evening
stroll. I couldn’t help but smile
thinking that the region just received
the Christmas gift of a hopefully
new family-safe space. As with
Atlanta’s Beltline, the PCG will likely
completely transform the area over
time. So, check it out, as the city of
Brookhaven now has a beautiful and
accessible brook running through it.
Bill Crane also serves as a political
analyst and commentator for Channel 2 s
Action News, WSB-AM News/Talk 750
and now 95.5 FM, as well as a columnist
for The Champion, DeKalb Free Press
and Georgia Trend. Crane is a DeKalb
native and business owner, living in
Scottdale. You can reach him or comment
on a column at bill.csicrane@gmail.com.
