About The Advance. (Vidalia, Ga.) 2003-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 2021)
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS MCHS OFF All game broadcasts streamed live at www.southeastgeorgiatoday.com RTCA VS. Pinewood 7:30 in Lyons Listen to on NewsTalk 970 AM 105.3 FM - WVOP TCHS VS. Dodge County 7:30 in Eastman VHS OFF Treutlen vs. Lanier Co. 7:30 in Soperton Listen to on 101.7 FMWYUM VHA vs. Sherwood Christian 7:30 in Albany Wheeler vs. Telfair Co. 7:30 in Alamo August 18, 2021 ®lft Aiuiante Section B Loran Smith Sanford Memories A few days ago, I spent time in solitude in the lower level of the South stands at the east end of Sanford Sta dium. I chose that section for a rea son. It was where I sat when I enrolled at Georgia in the late fifties. In those years, the student sec tion was located in the South stands. Season ticket sales were such that there was plenty of room to seat the students on the same side of the field with the most active and passionate season ticket buyers. That was a time when Georgia was pratfalling in football. The program was in disarray. The forties, except for the war years, were memorable, but the fifties were, for the most part, for gettable. However, 1957 turned out to be a very good year, a year in which the Bulldogs won but three games. One of those games was a 7-0 shutout of Georgia Tech to break a drought of eight straight loses to the Yellow Jack ets. The entire state swooned to this milestone victory. It was the start of a four-game winning streak in the an cient rivalry. The ‘Dogs would expe rience a hiccup under Johnny Griffith, but when Vince Dooley arrived in 1964, Georgia would dominate the all-important state rivalry and then flirt with national prominence in suc ceeding years. Now on Kirby Smart’s watch, a case could be made that Georgia’s best years lie ahead. Even in the face of the ravages of a pan demic and the uncertainty of the col lege football landscape. A little less than a hundred years ago, the situation was eerily similar. The “Roaring Twenties,” were pre ceded by the first World War and an influenza pandemic (1918). Georgia football was “frustrated,” before that time, mainly because the Bulldogs had a ramshackle baseball stadium which was where the football team played its games. The biggest game—with Georgia Tech—was an nually played on Grant Field in At lanta for the bigger gate. The Bull dogs didn’t do so badly in those years (1900-1928), posting a 7-10-2 record in the series, but when Tech upset the 1927 Rose Bowl bound Bulldogs 12-0, in the rain and mud, Dr. Steadman V. Sanford vowed to build the biggest and prettiest stadium “in the South land.” With the help of 300 Bulldog par tisans, he succeeded. Those loyalists signed bank notes for one thousand dollars each which enabled UGA to build a showcase stadium, capacity 30,000, hosting mighty Yale in the dedicatory game Oct. 12, 1929, which Georgia won 15-0. Seventeen days later, the stock market crashed and not a single one of those bank notes were called. This, I have often concluded, was Georgia’s signature fund raising effort. Dr. San ford’s name should be revered as long as football is played between those hallowed hedges. A quarter century later, the show- Please see Loran page 11B h *> e By Loran Smith The PAYH Bike Riders in the center along with family, and PAYH staff and ride support, 16th Annual Paul Anderson Youth Home Bike Ride Held In Paul Anderson's Hometown Of Toccoa Paul Anderson Youth Home, a fully accredited and licensed home of fering a second chance to young men in crisis, began its 60th-anniversary celebration this year with its 16th An nual Bike Ride. Over the course of five days, five residents of the home trav eled a total of more than 300 miles by bicycle on routes through and around Paul Anderson’s hometown of Toccoa, Georgia, 90 miles northeast of At lanta. The event is part fundraiser, and donations to sponsor riders can still be made at payhbikeride.com. These young men rode in the rural northeast of the state, passing into South Caro lina, and traveling around Tallulah Gorge State Park, the Chattahoochee- Oconee National Forest, and small Georgia towns Wiley, Lula and Lake- mont. The event also recalled and com memorated a foundational moment in the history of Paul Anderson Youth Home. At its founding in 1961, the former Olympic gold-medal winner Anderson hopped on a bicycle and rode from Vidalia, Georgia, 1,200 miles to Omaha, Nebraska. He did this for the same reasons the five boys did it this year, to raise funds and raise awareness of the mission to give trou bled young men a second chance through Christ. Now 60 years later, the Paul Anderson Youth Home cele brates more than 1,400 lives changed through a process of recovery, restora tion, and redemption. "It is only fitting that we held this year's ride in Paul’s hometown of Toc coa, Ga., as we continue to commemo rate that original ride," said Glenda Anderson, co-founder of PAYH. "Our prayer is that this is a transformative experience for each of the five young men. This ride is their chance to dem onstrate how far they’ve come physi cally, mentally, and spiritually - and to prove to themselves that with hard work, they can do anything." Since the riders are students of PAYH, each young man’s struggle to overcome emotional problems, bad decisions, and spiritual challenges is symbolized in the physical fortitude to travel such distances. Anderson, a world-class athlete, stressed physical fitness as one component of honoring God. The endurance needed to achieve these distances, in turn, honors his les sons of how exercising the body is as important as exercising the mind, fill ing it with positivity and prayer. Hayden Williamson with her coaches Julie Spivey (L), and Ann Michelle Toole (R). Williamson Named All-State Cheerleader RTCA Is Now 4-0 By Mike Branch Sports Editor sports 7 advance@gmail.com The Lady Crusaders softball team of Robert Toombs Christian Academy took on Citizens’ Christian Academy last Tuesday and got the win as they improved to 4-0 on the season. Mere dith Durden got the win for RTCA in the circle and recorded 11 strikeouts in the game. RTCA picked up a run in the bot tom of the first inning with Elbe Gra ham working the bases. She stole two bases and then came in to score on a throwing error by CCA. That put RTCA on top 1-0. The Crusaders added three more runs in the third inning when Durden drilled a bases loaded double to put RTCA up 4-0. In the top of the fourth inning CCA was able to work three runs across the plate to close the lead to 4-3. RTCA bounced back in the bot tom of the fourth with the big hit of the inning by Marli McCrannie for a triple. RTCA plated seven runs in that Please see RTCA page 10B By Mike Branch Sports Editor sports 1 advance@gmail.com Two Vidalia High School Indian competi tion cheerleaders were in vited to compete for the GCCA All-State Team. Hayden Williamson and Megan Morris are two VHS seniors that were se lected into the GCCA Cheerleader of the Year Top 30. Both completed the application process and were eligible to compete. Morris was unable to complete the routine por tion due to an ankle in jury she is recovering Please see VHS page 2B SOFTBALL MCHS vs. Telfair Co. Thur. 5:30 p.m. (A) RTCA vs. Twiggs Thur. 5:30 p.m. (H) TCHS vs. Washington Co., Swainsboro Wed. 6:00 p.m. (H); Thur. 6:00 p.m. (A) VHS vs. Jeff Davis Thur. 6:00 p.m. (A) Treutlen vs. Wheeler Co. Thur. 5:00 p.m. (H) Wheeler vs. Dublin Thur. 5:30 p.m. (A)
