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Hcmu' if (EJjeJmmtm SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2006 OUR SANPLOT ON DECK Today Major League Baseball ■ Cincinnati at Atlanta, 7:05 p.m., TBS BRAVES CORNER Braves 8, Reds 7 ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta’s relievers had their biggest blowup of the season Thursday night but Cincinnati’s displaced closer wound up taking the loss in a matchup of struggling bullpens. Jeff Francoeur’s two-out sin gle in the 10th inning drove in Chipper Jones with the winning run as the Braves recovered from a ninth-inning collapse to beat the Reds 8-7. Francoeur’s hit came off Todd Coffey (34), whose stint as Reds closer apparently ended with the Reds’ trade with Seattle for vet eran closer Eddie Guardado on Thursday. Guardado is expected to join the team Friday. Coffey followed David Weathers in the closer’s role. The Reds relievers have a 5.28 ERA, 10 losses and 13 blown saves. Despite rallying with five runs in the ninth, the Reds lost their sixth straight. Ken Ray (1-0) earned the win, pitching around two walks in the top of the 10th. Jorge Sosa suf fered the staff’s 17th blown save in 35 chances as the Braves couldn’t hold a 7-2 lead in the ninth. IN BRIEF Youth center sets registration The Robins Air Force Base Youth Center’s sports registration will be held July 15. Parents may resister from 1-6 p.m. on that day and from 3-6 p.m. the following Monday-Friday. Youth may register for cheer leading ages 5-12, NFL flag foot ball ages 5-10, tackle football ages 11-12 and fall soccer ages 5-16. Registration will continue until teams are full. Also, the center is currently accepting applications for volunteer cheerleading/foot ball/soccer coaches. No experience is required. Training will be provided though the youth center. Apply in person at Robins Youth Center or call Ron Hayes at 926-2110. Cross country series dates set Warner Robins High School head cross country coach David Erpelding is hosting the Sixth Annual Middle Georgia Cross Country Summer Series at Pearl Stephens Elementary School in Warner Robins. The races - two have already been held - are open to everyone and the following race is left: July 20: 5000 Meters. The race is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. on the Thursdays listed above. Awards will be given for the top five in each age group male and female. 14-and-under, 15-19 and 20 and over. Runners register on race day. Contact Erpelding at 328-3208 or via e-mail at Erpelding@bellsouth. net for more information. The entry fee is $5. ’ HLCC to host clinic, more Houston Lake Country Club will be holding a Junior Golf Clinic Tuesday-Thursday, 9:30-11 a.m. all three days. Each clinic is lim ited to the first 50 golfers to sign up. The cost is SIOO for members and $l2O for nonmentbers. The club will also have a Junior Club Championship July 27. Call the Pro Shop at 218-5252 to sign up or for more informa tion. In addition, the 25th Annual Ron Stafford Invitational Two-man Best Ball tournament sponsored by Coca-Cola will be held July 22 and 23 at the course. Sign up is in the pro shop. WR Rec to hold registrations The Warner Robins Recreation Department will begin football and cheerleading registration July 15 from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Registration will be held at the WRRD located at 800 Watson Boulevard. The fees are as follows: Cheerleading - City of Warner Robins, $75; county, $100; out of county, $l2O. Football: City, SSO; county, $103; out of county $177. Call 929-1916 for more. Ayer sets sights on second world title 'vjfillf A ' * *35 -H m I I. W j 111,11 hi ,1- - - yj HHJ/Matthew Brown Perry Horseshoe Pitchers Club member Buddy Ayer tosses during the club’s final Spring season meeting Monday at Rozar Park. Then again... Parents get failing grade on Youth Sports Report Card By MATTHEW BROWN HHJ Sports Writer The last thing anyone attending school wants to see is a report card with bad grades. It’s even worse when you have to show this card to your parents. Recently, though, a national coalition called the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance issued a report card of its own ... aimed at Bears' Brunson signs with Mercyhurst NE By MATTHEW BROWN HHJ Sports Writer Jamal Brunson has shown that it’s never too late to give up on the dream of college athletics. The Houston County High School gradu ate and former standout on the basketball court of the Bear Den signed a national letter-of-intent on Thursday to play college hoops at Mercyhurst North East, a junior college program located in Pennsylvania. This is a bit of a blind situation for Brunson, for he won’t make his first visit to the Mercyhurst North East campus until August. His recruiting was done through an e-mail from the college’s head basketball coach, a mailing of game tapes and an offer and commitment over the phone. “The coach told me I had an opportunity See SIGNS, page 2B Sports parents ... and the grades weren’t that good. CTSA includes the NCAA, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association among its mem bers. Through a panel of experts in the area of youth sports, the coalition came up with the first-ever National Youth Sports Report Card. What was discovered, on a nationwide basis, is that par ents are more interested in — s, ——*■ —— 'We try to monitor the program. If you do it right, you can weed out the problems and get rid of the bad apples. W 0 do have parents who take it too seriously/ - Warner Robins athletic director Martha Ann Lumpkin seeing their kids win games and work their way towards By DON MONCRIEF HHJ Sports Editor Buddy Ayer is returning to the scene of the crime - the site of his first attempt at capturing a world title in horseshoes. Ayer will be contending at the World Horseshoe Pitching Tournament Monday-Wednesday in Gillette, Wyoming. The first time he was there back in 1996, “I pitched OK, just not good enough to win,” he said. He ended up in a three-way tie for fifth and based on ringer percentages, fell to seventh overall. last year I had two pretty good days and one bad. You can't do that It's whoever pitches the best for three straight days/ - Perry Horseshoe Pitchers Club member Buddy Ayer college scholarships than on emphasizing the lessons SECTION B Fellow Perry Horseshoe; Pitcher’s Club teammate; Rick Thompson, on the other hand, fared much better. He > - it was also his first try at; a world title - captured his first world title there. Thompson, however, will not be making the trip this year. Neither will Shorty Johnson although he’s already paid his entrance fee. “He’s going to have knee surgery (replacement) instead,” Ayer explained. “On both of them. He was going to go but they got See AYER, page 2B sports can teach towards liv ing a good and productive life. Part of the problem is specialization, according to Martha Ann Lumpkin, athletic director of the Warner Robins Recreation Department. She said when she was growing up, kids played one sport at a time depending on the season. See CARD, page 3B Former Houston County High basketball player Jamal Brunson is seated sign ing his schol arship with Mercyhurst North East in Pennsylvania. With him are Bears head coach Greg Nix, his broth ers Shawn and Quency Brunson, his mother Sandra Brunson and grandmother Earline Mace. HHJ/Matthew Brown