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Barrow Journal Chris Bridges, Sports Editor 770-867-6397, phone 678-425-1435, FAX cbridges @barrowjoumal.com Asking Santa for some sports- related presents ach year it seems there are many people in need of many gifts. In the sports world that’s certainly always the case. Professional ath letes need a case of reality as most have long ago lost their grasp on reality and no have any idea what it is like to be the average working man or woman who sacrifices to buy a ticket to a game these days. That's why when the calendar reaches this point I always turn to Santa who no doubt is busy, but perhaps has a trick or two remaining up his sleeve — or is that in his bag? With that in mind, I ask the jolly man in the red suit if he could deliver the fol lowing as we look to close the door on another sports year: •For the Atlanta Falcons: an award for NFL Story of the Year. Who would have thought the Birds would even be in the position to be talking about the postseason, let alone punching their ticket with Sunday's win against the Vikings. First-year mentor Mike Smith should win Coach of the Year honors hand down for what he has done with the franchise. It’s amaz ing how he saved this train wreck. •For Georgia Tech and Atlanta Falcons announcer Wes Durham: the ability to con tinue being the best play-by-play man in the business today. •For the Atlanta Falcon team of Durham and Dave Archer: many more seasons of air ing Falcon games on the radio. These two make a great duo. •For the powers-that-be at our state’s largest newspaper: the real ization that many readers, myself included, like to see high school football results in the Saturday morning print version rather than looking at them online. Of course, at the rate this paper has been going, I’m not sure it can be called “our state’s largest newspaper’’ any more. •For the Atlanta Flawks: continued success in the 2008-09 season. •For all Coaches in Stands at area high schools who think they know more than the actual head coach: a clue and a life. •For the two Atlanta-based sports talk radio stations: more power so I can hear them once the sun goes down. •For all coaches in the Barrow County School System: a big thank you for the countless hours you give to the student-athletes. •For WIMO general manager Scott Pinner: a new pair of com fortable shoes. This man is on the go so much he needs them. •For Monday Night Football: a return to the glory days of Floward Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith. •For Division I-A col lege football: a playoff, a long overdue needed item. •For Jerry Glanville: a trip to the playoffs next fall with his Portland State football team, •For Apalachee principal David McGee and Winder- Barrow principal A1 Darby: a one-on-one game of basketball for these two former coaches. •For Apalachee football coach Shane Davis: a return trip to the state playoffs in 2009. •For Florida quarterback Tim Tebow: a return to the Gators for his senior season. •For readers of the Barrow Journal sports section: a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for you and your family. chris bridges First & Ten Chris Bridges is sports editor of the Barrow Journal. E-mail comments about this column to cbridges @ barrowjournal. com. HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING AHS grapplers continue to show improvement BY CHRIS BRIDGES First-year Apalachee High School wres tling coach Jim Stoudenmire knew it would take a little time for his squad to get things on track this season. Once his team got a solid footing, how ever, the coach felt there was a chance to do some successful things. It appears the Mat Wildcats are beginning to reach that stage. Apalachee finished sixth overall at the Morgan County Christmas Classic this past weekend with two team members winning their respective weight classes. “We are coming along,” Stoudenmire said. “Several of our weight classes are filled by younger wrestlers. When that is the case you are going to win some and lose some. We are trying to pick up all the mat experience we can. We are certainly making strides. We are just young. It will be a little while before we are where we want to be.” Austin Shepard (125) and Zak Moore (130) both won their weight classes at Morgan County this weekend. See AHS wrestling on page 3B ON THE MAT Chris Newman and the AHS wrestling squad will continue working dur ing the holi days. Photo by Lyn Sengupta BASKETBALL SPOTLIGHT: APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL LADY WILDCATS SUCCESSFUL WEEK Kelsey Montgomery and the Apalachee High School Lady Wildcats earned wins in two of three games last week for coach Michael Parks. Photo by Jessica Brown Workpatience begin to pay dividends for Lady Wildcats BY CHRIS BRIDGES ichael Parks certainly earns credit for think ing outside the box. The Apalachee High School Lady Wildcats basketball coach has had to deal with both the ups and downs to this point in the 2008-09 season. However, he hasn’t given up and hasn’t stopped thinking up creative ways to help his team improve. Whether it’s scrimmaging against the junior varsity boys or making his offense better against a pres sure defense by making the odds eight against five. Parks is constantly looking for ways to help his team improve. For the young coach, it’s all about getting better with each game and taking steps toward improving the program overall. Last week the Lady Wildcats got a taste of success as they defeated region foe Monroe Area and then defeated Commerce in a span of five days. For the Apalachee team, the wins were much enjoyed degrees of success. “It feels good to see some results,” Parks said. “The Commerce game was easily our best of the year. We were putting a lot of pressure on the basketball. Everyone played and everyone did well. They went to a 2-3 zone eventually and we just ran our offense. It was only when we got out of sync that we looked sloppy.” Freshman Lacresha Mayweather scored 14 points against Commerce while Kelsey Montgomery added 10. Kaitlyn Medlem added eight rebounds. The Lady Wildcats raced out to a 15-0 lead against the host Lady Tigers on their way to the win. See Success on page 3B BASKETBALL Doggs suffer close losses last week BY CHRIS BRIDGES A week of close losses con tinued Saturday for the Winder- Barrow High School boys bas ketball team. The Bulldoggs dropped a 67-64 contest to Griffin in an opening-round game of the DeKalb County holiday tour nament played at Southwest DeKalb High School. In a back- and-forth contest which saw both teams lead by as many as seven points, WBHS could not get over the hump and would eventually fall by three points. Jodd Maxey and Shun Thurmond both scored 19 for coach Eli Connell’s team but the points were not quite enough. See Doggs on page 3B MIDDLE SCHOOL WBMS boys begin season with 7-0 mark BY CHRIS BRIDGES The Winder-Barrow Middle School Bullpups basketball team has already made an impression during the 2008-09 season. Coach Corey Sims' team is 7-0, including two preseason wins and defeated Russell Middle School and Westside Middle School for the Best of Barrow championship. “Overall, things are going well and we look forward to getting better,” Sims said. “We have a lot of athletic ability, but most importantly I have a great group of young men.” Already this year the WBMS boys have posted wins against East Jackson, West Jackson, Russell, Oglethorpe and Westside in regular season contests along with wins over Russell and Westside in the Battle of Barrow tournament. Team members include Ron Pettis, Malik Evans, Toddric Barnes, Hunter Lynn, Colton Wheler, Andre Cain, Tyree Tanner, Dre’ King, Jacob Maddox, Travis Demeritte, EJ. Henry, Markesio Anderson, Kaih Clson, Chad Platt and Skier Low. Alana Farmer, Deon Sturdivant and Brent Murphy assist Sims with the team. HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING Apalachee swimmers lower times during recent meet BY CHRIS BRIDGES The Apalachee High School varsity swim teams posted top 10 finishes at a recent meet held at the University of Georgia. For the AHS boys, the 400 freestyle relay team finished fifth in 4:20.0 Team members included Patrick McConnell, Aaron Paridise, Donte Williams and Sam Allen. The 200 freestyle relay team of Williams, McConnell, Paridise and Timur Centindag was seventh in 1:49.2 The 200 yard medley relay team of Williams, Paridise, Felipe Vanegas and McConnell was 10th in 2:13.6. Individually, McConnell was fourth in the 50-yard free in 24.88. For the Lady Wildcats, the 200 medley team of Amanda Laufer, Brittany Laufer, Kristin Baldridge and Shannon McConnell was 12th in 2:22.7 while the 200 free relay team of McConnell, Brittany Laufer, Amanda Laufer and Baldrige was eighth in 2:06.5. Overall the boys were ninth with 96 points while the girls were 10th with 36. “All of swimmers lowered their times,” AHS coach John Slater said.