Newspaper Page Text
Houston Haiti)
FRIDAY,
NOVEMBER 3, 2006
The Home Journal's
SANDLOT
ON DECK
High school
Football
Today
■ Houston County at Valdosta,
8 p.m.
■ Colquitt at Warner Robins,
7.30 p.m.
■ Northside at Westside, 7:30
p.m.
■ Soujhland 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.
southcoastleague.com/tryouts.
The cost to tryout is S4O,
which can be paid by credit card,
check, or money order.
South Coast League uniform
p'ayer 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.
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 Clinlb
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
lunch for both day, prizes and
more. Visit the course to sign
up.
Postseason positioning at stake for Perry
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
It just wouldn’t be a good sub
divided football region if there
wasn’t a long list of playoff possibili-
ties going into the
last week before the
state play-in games.
Region 4-AAA
indeed has numer
ous scenarios on
who could finish
second, third or
fourth in each sub
region based on this
&
Northeast at
Perry, today, 7:30
p.m.
weekend’s results. The simplest one,
and the one that matters the most
for Perry High School, is the sec
ond-place battle in the south sub
region between the Panthers and
the improving Northeast-Macon
.... ... ,
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- ~ =—
ENI/Gary Harmon
Warner Robins’ Marc Kushinka races against Colquitt County’s Tyler Dismuke early in the Region 1-AAAAA race
Wednesday at Pearl Stephens Elementary School.
Demons win region
WR, HoCo girls and boys each qualify for state
By DON MONCRIEF
Journal Sports Editor
It’s a way overused term
but in Warner Robins’ case
it’s appropriate just one
more time to use it. “They
keep going and going.”
Case in point the Region
1-AAAAA cross coun
try championship held
Wednesday on the course
behind/on Pearl Stephens
Elementary School.
The team finished first
overall, clinched the region
title and qualified for state
in the process, and how did
they celebrate?
By running the course
again!
That’s Energizer bunny
material. And, it’s not like
they didn’t have any compe
tition during the race.
Case in point: Marc
Kushinka. The Demons’
front-runner all season
long, and who clinched the
overall “individual” title,
beat the closest competitor
by at least 100 yards.
But, heading down the
first hill (making three left
hand turns - which covered
approximately the same dis
tance as one and a half times
the outer edge of a football
- first) he was sixth.
By the time runners came
up the hill - covering about
300-400 more yards in the
process - he was second. He
passed the runner in first,
Colquitt County’s Tyler
Dismuke, about 200 yards
later while heading up a
Sports
"They are talented and
can put points on the
board.”
- Perry head football coach Andy Scott, on
Northeast
Raiders.
Perry and Northeast are both 3-1
in the sub-region, and in fact are
both 5-3 overall. The two teams
will meet tonight at Herb St. John
Stadium, and it’s a simple matter
that the winner finishes all alone
in second place and gets to host a
Class AAA state-tournament play-in
contest on Nov. 10.
In the north sub-region, Jackson
'• <;■■■■•s£? - ''®^£' - •HBBBtMU
ENI/Gary Harmon
Houston County’s Kiersten Wharton crosses the finish line in fourth.
long, sloped hill, but the
battle was far from over.
About 200 yards later he
was passed back - the two
runners about 50 yards
ahead of the pack by then.
Kushinka passed him
heading into the woods and
was passed back right as
they came out. He passed
Dismuke as they crossed the
finish line and then main
tained a short lead heading
back down the hill again.
This time as they came
up, however, Kushinka led
by 20 yards. The battle real
took over first place all by itself by
beating Spalding High last week
end. Spalding dropped to 3-1 and
in sole possession of second place,
but Mary Persons, despite a loss to
Henry County, stands in third at 2-2
going into tonight’s game with the
Spalding Jaguars. That means the
Bulldogs can take second place by
defeating the Jags.
So, in summary, the Perry-
Northeast winner will host the
Spalding-Mary Persons loser for the
right to be dne of 32 teams in the
state playoffs. The Perry-Northeast
loser would then go to either Griffin
or Forsyth with the same stakes on
the line.
One other note in the north sub
region is the battle for fourth place
and the right to play defending
ly was over by then because
he had that stretched to 50
in no time and continued to
build it from there.
Meanwhile, while that
battie was going, the
Demons’ Karl Burkhardt
and Houston County’s
Frankie Rios-Maldanado
were busy fighting over
third ... eventually. Rios-
Maldanado actually didn’t
come into the picture until
the second lap. During the
first lap, Burkhardt was
occupied trying to hold off
Valdosta’s Parker Childree
in another seesaw affair.
Burkhardt held the position,
was passed, passed back
and then managed to keep
a step ahead of Childree.
While that was going on,
Rios-Maldanado in fifth and
Colquitt County’s Carlos
Charles in sixth - those two
side by side most of the way
- began closing. Midway
through the second lap
they closed onto the heels
of the other two. By the
time that lap was over, how
ever, it was Burkhardt and
See %UALIFY, page xB
AAA champions Peach County in
Ft. Valley. Ola High, a new school,
won for the first time in football last
week 35-15 over Eagle’s Landing.
That, coupled with Henry’s win,
forged a three-way tie for fourth at
1-3. Henry County is playing Ola
tonight while Eagle’s Landing must
face Jackson at home.
The matchup of most concern here
remains Perry and Northeast. The
Panthers beat the Raiders last year
30-9 with seven interceptions. This
year, Northeast has beaten everyone
in the sub-region Perry has, plus the
Raiders own a non-region win, 21-7,
over Mary Persons.
“They are continually getting
better,” said Panther head coach
Andy Scott. “Coach (Bruce) Mullen
See STAKE, page xB
Richt gets a
small vote of
confidence
Next week, every
eligible and regis
tered American has
the right to go cast a bunch
of votes.
Some people vote for ‘the
man,’ who
ever they
feel is best
for the job
regardless
of party
affi 1 i a -
tion. Some
people vote
a straight
party tick
et, remain-
ing loyal to the D or the R.
Some people hate the whole
process and decide not to
vote at all.
Let me continue by saying
that I firmly believe in exer
cising this Constitutional
right, and not casting a vote
isn’t the best way to see the
process changed.
Let me now, before I start
losing everyone - including
my editor, make some con
nection for this to be clas
sified as a sports column.
Voting is something you, the
citizen, should care about.
There are things you could
care less about, and it’s quite
all right.
For me, it all has to do
with the 2006 Southeastern
Conference football cham
pionship. The University
of Georgia Bulldogs will
not be repeating as confer
ence champions this year,
therefore my interest in how
the league turns out just
dropped all the way beyond
floor level.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be
talking about the Bulldog
season with the lawsuit still
pending. But it looks like
Georgia will not be able to
make the proper restitution
for the damages this party is
seeking.
The action stems from the
unspeakable loss on Oct. 14
to Vanderbilt. Under the
Richt administration, that
just wasn’t supposed to hap
pen. Promises were made.
It’s like wedding vows were
betrayed.
Among the damages sought
were wins over Florida and
Auburn. Well, we know one
of those didn’t happen. So,
in order to save a lot of
court time, consider the suit
dropped.
No matter what form,
shape, size, color or lan
guage, Georgia is still losing
to Florida. The last couple of
years, though, have been so
close, and yet still so far, for
the Red & Black. We haven’t
really developed that hatred
for Urban Meyer, not like it
was for one of his predeces
sors, Steve Spurrier.
Did I detect a little ten-,
tativeness in the Gator
See VOTE, page lB
SECTION
B
Matthew Brown
Journal Sports Writer