Newspaper Page Text
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Houston Unity
THURSDAY,
NOVEMBER 2, 2006
The Home Journal's
SANDLOT
'wiwwi'Nim’
ON DECK
High school
Football
Friday
■ Houston County at Valdosta.
8 p.m.
■ Colquitt at Warner Robins,
7:30 p.m.
■ Northside at Westside, 7:30
p.m.
■ Southland at Westfield, 8
p.m.
■ Northeast at Perry, 7:30 p.m.
Youth
Football
Saturday
Optimist Bowl at
McConnell- Talbert
Stadium
■ 8:55 a.m. - Welcome and
invocation
■ 9 a.m. - Mighty Mite introduc
tion
■ 9:10 a.m. - Mighty Mite con
solation game
■ 10:15 a.m. - Mighty Mite
championship game
■ 11:25 a.m. - Mite introduction
■ 11:35 a.m. - Mite consolation
game
■ 12:55 p.m. - Mite champion
ship game
■ 2:25 p.m. - Midget introduc
tion
■ 2:35 p.m. - Midget consola
tion game
■ 4:10 p.m. - Midget champion
ship game
IN BRIEF
South Coast League to
hold tryout camp
The South Coast League of
Professional Baseball today
announced that its inaugural try
out camp will be held Nov. 11 in
Bradenton. Fla.
The camp will be held at
Robert C. Wynn Field on the
campus of Manatee Community
College, home of the South
Coast League's Bradenton Juice.
All participants are required to
pre-register for the tryout. To pre
register, go to http://www.south
coastleague.com/tryouts.
The cost to tryout is S4O,
which can be paid by credit card,
check, or money order. South
Coast League uniform player
contracts - including the Macon
Music, which is part of the league
- will be offered on the day of the
camp to qualified participants.
In order to participate in the
camp, players must have prior
professional baseball playing
experience or have played at
least two years of college base
ball within the last three years.
Directions from I-75: Take Exit
217 (old No. 41). This is a west
bound exit onto State Road 70.
Take SR-70 to 34th Street West
(about eight miles). Turn left at
the traffic signal at 34th Street
West. Go south through the traf
fic signal at 57th Avenue West
and the field is on your left.
Bradenton recently joined
Charlotte County, FL, Albany,
GA, Macon, GA and Aiken, SC
as the fifth member of the SCL.
The South Coast League will be
a six-team based independent
professional baseball league
located in the Southeastern U.S.
Habitat to hold softball
tourney fund-raiser
The Houston County Habitat
for Humanity will hold a softball
tournament Monday, proceeds
of which are to go toward the
Houston County Habitat for
Humanity. The cost is S3OO per
team - teams must have at least
nine people with a maximum
of 15.
Trophies will be awarded and
the first pitch is slated to be
thrown at 9 a.m. Call 218-5545
or e-mail kcripe@flintemc.com
for more information.
Waterford to hold Junior
Golf Clinic
Waterford Golf Course will
hold a Junior Golf Clinic Nov.
20-21. Times are: 10-11:15 for
ages 5-10; 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. for
those ages 11 and up.
The cost is SSO which includes
Valdosta's standing offers little comfort to Bears
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
In most regions or divi
sions in sports, seeing the
last-place
team in
the stand
ings as the
next oppo
nent would
be cause
for a little
relaxed feel-
A
Houston County
at Valdosta,
Friday, 7:30 p.m.
ing. Not too many times,
though, is that last-place
club Valdosta High School’s
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ENI Gary Harmon
Northside’s Jake Harris holds Michael Gonzales in a head lock during the Eagles' practice Monday at the school.
That day marked the first day the Georgia High School Association allowed schools to practice as a team.
Westside final region hurdle for Northside
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
Northside’s football
Eagles want to feel pretty
secure in
the fact
they will
host a
Region 4-
AAAA play
in game
Nov. 10 at
McConnell-
Talbert
Northside at
Westside, Friday,
7:30 p.m.
Stadium.
At the same time, there’s
maintaining a zero on the
right side of the win-loss
record. Just as nice would
be to make a fourth-place
team journey down from
south suburban Atlanta on
a late-autumn evening and
attempt to end a long win
ning streak.
Therefore, it wouldn’t be
a stretch to call Northside’s
game Friday at Westside-
Macon a playoff game. In
fact, it is in many ways
a championship game. For
one, the 8-0 Eagles are try
ing to secure the No. 1 seed
in the Region 4-AAAA B sub
region against a Seminole
team with just one loss of
its own in the division.
Westside’s only loss in
any game in 2006 came
against Baldwin 27-24.
That’s the same Baldwin
team Northside beat in
Milledgeville three weeks
ago. That’s been the only
loss for the Braves, which
will be favored to win
again this week against
Dutchtown.
“It’s certainly a big, big
ball game,” said Northside
head coach Conrad Nix
about facing Westside and
his former Warner Robins
Sports
football Wildcats.
After losing last weekend
in rainy conditions to Coffee
County High, Valdosta was
officially eliminated from
the Region 1-AAAAA play
off race with an 0-5 record.
The 2006 season, the first
for new head coach Rick
Tomberlin, will come to an
end after Friday’s game with
the Houston County High
Bears, which will be trying
to claw back into the mix of
state-tournament qualifiers.
With a win on Friday,
Houston County, now 2-2 in
Wrestling begins
High coaching rival, Bob
Davis. “It’s one that keeps
our undefeated streak alive,
all the ramifications as
far as sub-region play and
being No. 1 going into the
state playoffs. It’s just an
important ball game, and
a big ball game for them,
too.”
It is a Seminole club that
can spoil a lot of Northside’s
plans. What stands out the
most is a scoring average
of 40.6 points per game. In
contests held in September,
Westside scored 58 against
Savannah High and 56
against Upson-Lee.
“They are a very physi
cal football team,” said
Nix. “They probably do the
best job of anybody we’ve
played of running the foot
ball inside outside. They do
a good job of throwing the
Contributed Billy Walter
Northside’s assistant Kevin Kinsler talks to the defense during a break in action
against Baldwin Oct. 13. The Eagles will travel to Westside Friday.
"They could lust as easily be
undefeated as they are 1-8.1 know that
kind of sounds crazy, but a bounce or
two here or there... they just haven't
had a break."
- Houston County head football coach Doug Johnson
the region, can tie idle Coffee
County for fourth place at 3-
2. So there’s a lot to gain for
the upstart Bears and abso-
football. That’s not their
forte, but they run the foot
ball so well.
“I was a little bit sur
prised of how well they ran
it inside and outside, too. A
lot of times you can gear out
for the inside stuff and not
worry about it getting out
side much. Or vice versa.
“Their linebackers are
very athletic, and their
defensive backs are very
athletic. We will have to do
a good job of maintaining,
moving the football and get
ting some first downs.”
About that Seminole
offense, Nix said it’s not
a one-dimensional running
attack in terms of person
nel. Davis is using a lot
of sophomores in the back
field, while the senior of the
bunch is No. 3, Fernando
Pitts.
lutely nothing to lose for the
always-proud Wildcats.
“They’ve just had a lot of
tough luck this year,” said
“Everybody has one guy
who usually runs it a bit
more,” he said. “They have
two or three guys who run
the ball really well. We
will just have to play our
positions. If we don’t play
good, don’t take care of our
responsibilities ... they have
some big guys (on the line),
two big tackles.”
With a high scoring
offense, Westside does com
pliment it with a defense
that has given up 13 or
fewer points in five of its
eight games.
“They stunt a lot,” said
Nix. “They bring the line
backers, play a lot of man
coverage. They do a lot of
movement. We are going to
have to control our blocks
and prevent them from com
ing free on those stunts.
See HURDLE, page iB
SECTION
B
Houston head coach Doug
Johnson on the Wildcats.
“They could just as easily be
undefeated as they are 1-8.
I know that kind of sounds
crazy, but a bounce or two
here or there ... they just
haven’t had a break.”
With the exception of a
two-touchdown loss to
Coffee, the difference in
every Valdosta loss this year
has been one score.
The Wildcats and the
Coffee Trojans were tied
0-0 in the final quarter,
See COMFORT, page iB
Demons
gun for
rebound
By MA TTHE W BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
It may come as no sur
prise, but no football team
has a firm lock on first place
in Region
1-AAAAA
with two
games to go
in the regu
lar season.
In fact,
first place
has a three-
Colquitt at
Warner Robins,
Friday, 7:30
p.m.
way tie
between Warner Robins
High, Tift County and
Lowndes High, all at 3-1
in the league. That’s not
going to last long, though, as
Tift plays host to Lowndes
this weekend while Warner
Robins must contend with
the Colquitt County High air
show on Friday at McConnell
Talbert Stadium.
Colquitt County, once
the No. 1 ranked team in
Class AAAAA, has slipped
down to next-to-last in the
region at 1-3 and is des
perately in need of a win
to stay in the state-tourna
ment hunt. Warner Robins
had first place all to itself at
3-0 before Saturday’s road
loss to Tift County 17-10.
The Demons go from one
spread offense to another in
these back-to-back contests.
But where Tift County has a
respectable running attack
in its shotgun sets, Colquitt
County’s passing game can
make a coach totally realign
his defensive game plan.
The Packers from Moultrie
owns the top passing offense
in the region. On the defen
sive side, Colquitt sits at the
bottom in total defense and
rushing defense, but is actu
ally No. 1 in fewest passing
yards allowed. That’s a tes
tament to the skill athletes
in the Colquitt secondary
like Vance Cuff - already
committed to sign with the
University of Georgia as
a cornerback - and Orion
Ponder.
But it all comes down
to that offense, which has
sometimes been likened to a
two-minute drill.
“They are four- or five
wide just about every play,”
said Demons head coach
Bryan Way. “Sometimes they
are only three-wide with two
backs. But they have great
athletes at the skill posi
tion. They have receivers
See REBOUND, page iB
"Hopefully we
learned what
not to do (at lift
County). It Is a
little bit similar."
- Warner Robins head football
coach Bryan Way