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Utrusimt Paily FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 The Home Journal’s SANDLOT * WBWWWWT"" ON DECK High school Softball Saturday ■ Valdosta at Warner Robins. 11 a.m. High school Cross country Saturday ■ Westfield at Tiftarea, 9 a.m. High school Volleyball Saturday ■ Houston County at Raider Rally at Southeast Whitfield, 8 a.m. High school Football Today ■ Beach at Warner Robins, 7:30 p.m. ■ Northside at Jones County, 7:30 p.m. ■ Houston County at Parkview, 7:30 p.m. ■ Westfield at Brentwood, 7:30 p.m. ■ Jackson at Perry, 7:30 p.m. IN BRIEF Registration begins for Upward Basketball Registration has begun for the 2006-2007 Upward Basketball season. The cost per child is $65. After Saturday, the cost goes up to $75. Where you sign up and register is where you practice and play the games. You may register at the follow ing locations in Warner Robins: Second Baptist at 2504 Moody Rd (923-7101), Friendship Baptist at 1322 Feagin Mill Rd. (953-9509) or Shirley Hills Baptist at 615 Corder Rd. (923- 5571). Museum to host Georgia Invitational golf tourney The 17th Annual Museum of Aviation Foundation Georgia Invitational Golf Tournament will be held Sept. 28-29 at the Pine Oaks Golf Club at Robins Air Force Base. The two-day tournament, according to the release, is the largest outing in Middle Georgia and is made up of three sepa rate rounds - one that Thursday and two Friday - with separate prizes for each round. The total value of prizes and giveaways is more than $30,000. Foursomes will compete in a “scramble” handicapped format. Tee times are noon on Thursday and 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday. Golfers receive a commemo rative golf shirt, a Thursday night traditional “Plantation Supper,” luncheon buffets and a barbe cue awards dinner. The single player fee is $250. Sponsors and players can sign up by call ing the Museum of Aviation at 478-923-6600 or emailing june. lowe@museumofaviation.org or marylynn.harrison@museumofa viation.org. Perry’s boys track team to sell Fair tickets The Perry High School boys track team will be holding a fund-raiser. The group will be selling a three-day student pass (ages 1W8) for the Georgia Nationa Fair. The tickets are for gate admission and cost $lO (a savings of $8). The pass is good for Oct. IQ -12. Tickets can be purchased at the Perry High School front office. The last day to buy will be Sept. 29. Money raised will help buy uniforms and equipment for the team. Contact Cassandra Dixon at 988-6299 for more. Houston County YMCA to hold spruce-up day The Houston County YMCA has set a spruce-up day for Sept. 30. During that time will get together to update the inte rior of the building. The time will be from 7:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and the organization is looking for 50 volunteers to help out. A continental breakfast will also be provided. The facility is located on the corner of Moody Road and State Road 96. Call 922-2566 for more infor mation. HoCo volleyball squad adds 2 more wins Beat Perry, Mary Persons Special to the Journal Rodney Dangerfield could relate. Houston County’s volley- ball team, according to head coach Tony Jones, has the most wins in the state in the AAAAAclas sification. Following a victory over Perry and Mary Persons Tuesday at home, the Lady Bears are now 24-5 (7-1 in Area 2-AAAAA). Do you think that would earn them some respect in regard to a spot in the > E lady/^ *t Match 1 - Mary Persons 25, Houston County 22; Houston County 25, Mary Persons 16; Houston County 26, Mary Persons 24 Match 2 - Houston County 25, Perry 9; Houston County 25, Perry 16 rankings? No. Mary Persons hasn’t had that problem. They, accord ipg to Jones, have been in the top 10 more times than Rodrigues catches on quick at wide receiver By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Jacobi Rodrigues is doing his best to make the football coaches at Northside High School look like geniuses. A quarterback who has great running tendencies and ath letic instincts should have no problem playing wide receiv er in his senior season. Three games, 15 catches and three touchdowns later, Rodrigues is getting this catching the football instead of throwing it thing down just fine. “I’m enjoying it,” he said. “We’re passing it to me when we need to, getting good plays and moving the ball down the field.” As a junior in 2005, Rodrigues was Conrad Nix’s starting quarterback for a team that went 14-1, the one loss coming in the Class AAAA state champi onship game. He was 76- for-145 passing with 1,247 yards and eight touchdowns. There were also five passes intercepted. On the ground, Rodrigues was just as potent a threat with eight rushing touch downs and 301 net yards. Not that the Eagle offense was in dire need of a change in the offseason, but Nix still seized on an opportu nity to get more athletes on the field. Enter junior Marques Ivory, an imposing figure who already imposed on his coaches his ability to play the leadership position on offense. Rodrigues had no prob lem whatsoever going to the other end of the passing game. The results so far have been 230 receiving yards The football state of Georgia will long remember Russell According to some armchair analysts I often pay some attention to, Georgia’s cur rent streak of shutouts will con tinue through the rest of this month against Colorado and Mississippi. I wouldn’t mind if it lasted all the way to the first weekend of December. The 18-0 win at South Carolina and the 34-0 blanking of Alabama- Birmingham was, in my mind and in the minds of many others in the Bulldog Nation, an ongoing tribute to the legacy of The Bald Eagle. Sports none. Yet Houston County has beaten them twice now. The first time, earlier in the season, was the first time in Lady Bears history, the sec ond, Tuesday, was to prove the first was no fluke. The Lady Bulldogs didn’t think so, mind you. They were probably thinking revenge and a 25-22 win in the first game more than likely added fuel to that fire. But, Houston County ral lied to win the next game 25- 16 and then won the third and deciding match 26-24. “Once again,” Jones said, “solid defense put them in contention. And then down the stretch our front row had some very key blocks and kills.” Prior to that, the Lady Bears beat Perry 25-9 and 25-16. “The Lady Bears played well and earned the victory through spot serving and superior defense,” Jones said of that matchup. “Nicole Williams has had the hot hand on serves as of late. In game two she served for 11 points - two of them aces.” See WINS, page iB \ 1 B K- m Jjgr ' Ijtfo**** ■by yBF , BkS' ,nyk Si Wm!' M - ■ ENI/Gary Harmon Northside’s Jacobi Rodrigues takes a snap during the preseason against Perry. A quarterback turned wide receiver, he so far has caught 15 passes and scored three touchdowns. and one touchdown catch in each of Northside’s three winning efforts. He has an average of 76.7 yards per game, mainly due to a 140- yard performance in week 1 against Houston County, It’s been a while coming, but here’s another “God bless the soul of ...” Football in the state of Georgia will long remember the contributions and the personality of Erk Russell. I admit that I was not a heavy follower of Georgia football as a child, and the name Erk Russell didn’t enter my own per- i ! & JL BB iM k f k ' 'SWSmUI • » and 15.3 per reception. “I’m just helping my team win,” said Rodrigues. “It’s a lot of running, but you have to do it in order to win.” As noted earlier, Rodrigues did his fair share of run sonal household until he established the program at Georgia Southern University in the mid-1980s and started winning one I-AA national championship after another. Yes, how funny was it that Georgia Southern was going to play Furman, out of South Carolina, in Tacoma, Wash.? As the new Eagle dynasty grew, I eventually learned about Russell’s prior tenure as defensive coordinator at Georgia. He made the Junkyard Dawgs world famous, and he didn’t mind splitting his own hairs (what Matthew Brown Journal Sports Writer ning as a quarterback, but a receiver is running off the ball on every snap. While his running has picked up, his responsibility load dropped dramatically. A quarterback, after all, is responsible for SECTION B what all 10 guys are sup posed to do on every play. “When you play quarter back, you’re supposed to know it,” said Rodrigues. “A receiver more or less is See CATCHES, page iB little he had) on one of his own play ers’ helmet. So do I have an Erk Russell story to share? Why yes I do. I attended my first Georgia Southern football preseason media day at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro in 1993. Most of the interviews took place outside in the courtyard of the Lumpkin Building. Of course the field and the stadium seats are right there, and I couldn’t help but notice, with all the activity going on, See BROWN, page iB Houston County’s Catherine Goodman and Nicole Williams go up for a block dur ing the Lady Bears’ game against Perry Tuesday. ENI/Gary Harmon