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The Braselton News
Contact the sports department:
Phone: 706-367-5233
Fax: 706-367-9355
brandon@mainstreetnews.com
IB
Wednesday,
November 28, 2007
Wrestling
Wrestling
Hawks start
season Friday
The Mill Creek Hawks varsity
wrestling team is set to get their
2007-2008 season underway this
week, as they’ll take part in the
Comet Classic at South Gwinnett
on Friday.
The Hawks come into the season
looking to improve on last year’s
4-8 record. Last year saw the
hawks take eighth place finishes
in the Brookwood Invitational,
the Fayette City Invitational,
and the Coal Mountain Classic.
The team took 13th at Gwinnett
County, and seventh at the Area
VII meet.
Hawks head wrestling coach
David Landis says he has several
returning starters on the team this
year, including five area placers.
Among those returning are Mill
Creek junior Josh Harrison, who
placed first at area and fourth
at state, junior Billy Anderton,
who placed second at area,
junior Augustus Appling, who
placed fifth at area, senior Chris
Porcheddu, who placed sixth at
area, junior Nick Voss, and senior
Aaron Dumond.
Landis says he also has several
other players for the Mill Creek
faithful to keep their eyes on this
year that he feels will make an
impact on the season, including
senior Taylor Lacy, junior Ryan
Gasaway, junior Max Wright,
junior John Holland, and senior
Cameron Fowler.
“We now have some experi
enced guys coming up through
the youth program, which will
help the program,” Landis said.
“We have about 70 guys out and
most of our varsity guys, after
paying their dues, have experi
ence which will make us more
competitive.
“This is our 4th year and we
now have some guys with varsity
experience. That will hopefully
give leadership and direction to
the younger kids.”
As to how his team will do in
the season opener, Landis said it’s
a wait and see situation.
“It is too early to tell, because
we have not had the big guys out
but this week,” Landis said. “Also,
not all of the guys are at the best
weight class yet. Given that info, I
hope to be in the top half.”
The Comet Classic is scheduled
to get underway at 5 p.m. Friday
afternoon at South Gwinnett High
School in Snellville.
Swimming
Hawks swim
team at GAC,
Collins Hill Sat.
Girls' Basketball
Lady Hawks continue winning ways
Mill Creek plays host to
South Forsyth on Friday
BY BRANDON REED
The Mill Creek Lady Hawks have been strong right out of the gate.
They showed that with back-to-back wins against Brookwood and St.
Pius in the Parkview Tip-Off Classic, then sealed the deal by defeating
Wesleyan 72-58 last Tuesday night to take the tournament title.
For the Lady Hawks, it’s a good start to what’s expected to be a suc
cessful season.
The Lady Hawks moved ahead of the Lady Wolves in the second quar
ter, and never looked back.
“The Wesleyan game was a good win for us,” said girls’ head bas
ketball coach Ashley Phillips. “They are a very good team and it was a
tough game from start to finish. We were able to create a few turnovers
early in the game to build a lead, and we held on with solid play through
the second half. Tia Williams had an outstanding performance, but really
the whole team played well.”
Porsha Porter scored 23 points en route to the victory, going 10 for
10 from the foul line, while Mill Creek junior Tia Williams recorded 17
points. Sophomore Moneshia Simmons had 13 points, and senior Megan
Basile scored 10.
The Lady Hawks extended their win streak Tuesday night with a 67-55
victory over the Peachtree Ridge Lions. Game stats were unavailable at
press time.
Going into Tuesday’s game, Peachtree Ridge had an overall 2-1
record. Last year, they lost their early season match-up with Mill Creek
51-40.
“(The) game against Peachtree Ridge is our first region go, so it is
very important for us to get off to a good start in our region schedule,”
Phillips said prior to Tuesday night’s game.
The Lady Hawks will host their first home game on Friday, as they’ll
face off against the South Forsyth War Eagles on Friday. Last year, Mill
Creek defeated South Forsyth in an early season game 61-39.
Game time Friday is set for 6 p.m.
HEADS UP
Mill Creek’s Jasmine Sublett (30) looks for an opening down the court during last weekend’s Parkview
Tip-Off Classic. The Lady Hawks went undefeated to win the tournament. Photo by Brandon Reed
MOVING ON
Travis Bollier moves up the court during the Hawk’s opening game
in the Parkview tip-off classic. Photo by Brandon Reed
Bovs’ Basketball
Mill Creek drops opening games
Hawks to host South Forsyth War Eagles Fri. night
BY BRANDON REED
It’s been a rough start to the sea
son for the Mill Creek Hawks boys’
basketball team, but they feel they’ll
see a change in fortune soon.
After suffering a 70-40 loss to
Riverdale in the opener of the
Parkview Tip-Off Classic last week
end, the Hawks lost in their second
match-up of the tournament, this
time to Sandy Creek 61-25.
“Sandy Creek is very talented
and very athletic,” said head boys’
basketball coach Phil Bollier. “We
had trouble organizing under pres
sure, and turned the ball over too
often.”
Bollier said one of the things
working against the team in the
opening two games was the absence
of players that were also members
of the Mill Creek football team.
“We were still without our foot
ball players, which means that
three of our varsity starters from
last year, and three of our projected
starters from this year were not
available to play in that game,” he
said. “What we did was play some
of our younger guys, our JV guys.”
The Hawks hoped to see their
luck change with the return of those
players last Tuesday, as Mill Creek
faced off against St. Pius. The team
did make a stronger stand, but still
suffered a loss, this time 55-49 in
overtime.
“We had our football players then,
it obviously made a difference,”
Bollier said. “We played a lot bet
ter, and did not turn it over. We still
had too many turnovers. We’re not
to the point to where we’re satis
fied with the way we played. We
need to eliminate our turnovers.
We’ve done a better job of that in
practice over Thanksgiving. We got
outrteam back together.”
Despite the losses, Bollier said
considering the circumstances, he
thought his team did well.
“That St. Pius game was without
any practice as a unit, so I thought
we played pretty well for those cir
cumstances,” he said. “We’ve got
our things in order now.”
But the Hawks’ fortunes didn’t
turn on Tuesday, as they lost to the
Peachtree Ridge Lions 75-61.
“We played much more orga
nized, played with more intensity,
and did more things correctly,”
Bollier said. “The game got away
from us a little bit in the second
quarter, and we battled back, had
the ball. We were down by six late
in the third quarter, and just didn’t
execute the way we needed to for
the finish.”
“We still need to improve on our
turnovers for baskets for our oppo
nents,” he added. “It’s an area that
we just need to improve on.”
Game stats were unavailable at
press time.
The Hawks will play their home
opener of the season Friday night,
against the War Eagles of South
Forsyth.
Tip off Friday is scheduled for
7:30 p.m.
GHSA
Georgia High School Association ironing out reclassification details
The Mill Creek Hawks swim
and dive team’s Nov. 30 meet
at Greater Atlanta Christian has
been moved to Saturday, Dec. 1
due to state football playoffs. The
rescheduled meet at GAC will be
held at 10 a.m. in Norcross.
Saturday night, the Hawks
will take part in their scheduled
meet against Collins Hill at the
Mountain Park Pool in Stone
Mountain. The meet is scheduled
to get underway at 6:30 p.m.
Mill Creek enters these two
meets off a successful season
opener against Parkview on Nov.
17. At that meet, the Hawks
defeated the Panthers with a
combined team score of 327 to
294. The girls scored 177 points
to Parkview’s 132, while the
boys outscored Parkview as well,
162-150. Mill Creek won 14 of
24 events against the Panthers.
BY ALLEN LUTON
When the Georgia High School
Association’s reclassification com
mittee meets on Thursday, schools
across the state are expected to
begin to find out what region they
will be placed in for the next two
years beginning with the 2008-09
school year.
For local schools in Jackson
County that means learning about
the finer details of just how much
the reclassification process will
affect their athletic departments.
Mill Creek High School in
Hoschton is not expected to be
affected by any changes.
However, Jackson County
Comprehensive High School is
slated to change classifications, as
it will be moving down one class
from Class AAAA to Class AAA
next year. However, when the pre
liminary reclassification figures
were released earlier this month,
JCCHS was kept in the state’s sec
ond highest classification (AAAA),
which was a big surprise to school
officials. But, that was due to an
error in the GHSA’s figuring of its
projected enrollment that has since
been corrected following an appeal
by the school. It was one of seven
reclassification appeals approved
last week by the GHSA. The cor
rect enrollment of 1,020 for next
year places JCCHS among the top
half of Class AAA, based on size.
“We were anticipating (moving
down to Class AAA) all along,”
JCCHS athletic director Fancaster
said.
Now that the school is correctly
placed in Class AAA, it waits
to hear what region it will fall
into, which is something that still
remains a definite question.
“We don’t know exactly where
we’re going to be,” Fancaster said.
“It looks like we’ll be in (Region)
8-AAA, that’s historically where
we’ve been, but there are rumors
that 7-AAA would be split up and
some of them might come into
8-AAA, (but) nobody knows until
after that meeting on Thursday.”
Region 7-AAA is currently made
up of schools in the Gainesville and
Hall County area, while 8-AAA is
made up of Northeast Georgia’s
other AAA schools located south
and east of Gainesville on down
into the Athens area.
In the case of Jefferson High
School, which has grown substan
tially in recent years, it will be
moving up one classification to
Class AA next year. Just how the
region alignment process works
out, will have a big impact on its
sports and how JHS will be able to
schedule over the next two years.
Jefferson is expected to have 636
students next year, which based on
size, would place it in the bottom
third of Class AA. Depending on
how many teams are in its region,
Jefferson may or may not be able
to schedule longtime arch-rival
Commerce in football and perhaps
other sports. That said, with more
Class AA schools in the area, mov
ing up will likely make scheduling
games against schools closer to
home a bit easier.
As for what takes place on the
field, Jefferson athletic director
Tim Corbett said the impact on
See GHSA on page 2B