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Mousicnt ilailjj TJountal WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2006 The Home Journal's SANDLOT TlfNWtl'rWV ON DECK Youth Volleyball Thursday ■ Warner Robins Recreation Department volleyball champi onship, teams and times to be determined High school Football Friday ■ Region 4-AAAA play-in game: Mount Zion at Northside. 7:30 p.m. ■ Region 4-AAA play-in game: Spalding at Perry, 7:30 p.m. ■ Westfield at Sherwood, 8 p.m. ■ Warner Robins at Lowndes, 7:30 p.m. Saturday ■ Coffee County at Houston County. 7:30 p.m. High school Cross country Saturday ■ Houston County. Warner Robins, Northside and Perry at state meet in Carrollton, 9 a.m. IN BRIEF South Coast League to hold tryout camp The South Coast League of Professional Baseball today announced that its inaugural tryout camp will be Saturday 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 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. Bradenton recently joined Charlotte County, Fla., Albany, Macon and Aiken, S.C. as the fifth member of the SCL. Directions from 1-75: 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. 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 lunch for both day, prizes and more. Visit the course to sign up. Prep Sports + to air cheerleader competition Prep Sports + announced it will air the GHSA State Cheerleading Championship Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. and Nov. 19 at 12:30 p.m. on Georgia Public Broadcasting. The championships take place Friday-Saturday atthe Columbus Civic Center. AAA state championship to be televised The GHSA announced recently the AAA State Football Championship will be televised live Dec. 16 on Comcast Sports Southeast. CSS is available in 5.5 million homes across the Southeast. The game is sched uled for 3 p.m. The class AAAAA and AAAA finals will continue to be televised live on GPB, along with all 10 semifinal games from the Georgia Dome Dec. 8-9. Panthers' Taylor brings an ’old school' approach By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Even in the year 2006, there remains room for old school, throwback football. Robby Taylor, Perry High School line backer, has heard those words used to describe the way he goes about his business while playing defense for the Panthers. If being a throwback means being reliable in the clutch, then it describes Taylor to a T. Last Friday, when Perry earned a much-needed 38-20 sub-region win m r y j :■ J TAYLOR against Northeast-Macon at home, it was a Taylor interception that stalled a drive by the Raiders in the fourth quarter. If being old school means dedication to team no matter what, then consider Taylor an old-school football player. Whether he’s 100 percent or not, this senior is in full gear on the practice field every day ready to learn something. Taylor has his eyes on several tar gets these days, not just who happens to See TAYLOR,page zB Perry preps for Spalding By MA TTHEWBRO WN Journal Sports Writer The winner of a GHSA state football championship may have to win five games in the tour nament, but for teams that come from a region like 4-AAA, the playoffs in reality last & Spalding at Perry, Friday, 7:30 p.m. six weeks long. Perry High School ended up in the realigned 4-AAA region that contains 12 teams. That requires sub divisions in the Georgia High School Association, and it puts the top four teams in each sub-division in a play in round to qualify for the big state playoff bracket. That week of do-or-die has arrived for the Panthers, which finished second in the south-region at 4-1, 6-3 overall. The second-place showing keeps Perry at home and at Herb St. John Stadium for a fourth week in a row, and the opposition, the third place team from the north sub-region, is a familiar foe to head coach Andy Scott, but with an unfamiliar look. Spalding High lost last Friday to Mary Persons High 19-18 in a game that could have meant second place for the Spalding Jaguars See PREPS, page iB gjgHl Sn - "BeVbH J B j|i • 'iM3BB| lil ■ fa bR * Hr L/-%- -- V “ The Westfield Schools recognized senior athletes involved in fall sports at Marvin Arrington Stadium during halftime of the Hornets’ football game Friday. Senior athletes on the softball, cross country, cheerleading and football teams, along with their parents, were honored. They were: John Blount, Ryan Campbell, Matt Collins, Ryan Kinsley, Austin Madruga, Nash Murph, Daniel Payne, Greg Pearson, Jeremy Rowland, Tanner Williams, Zach Young, Morgan Irby, Jackie Izzard, Ashley Shuford, Ashley Griffin, Zack Hamsley and Kaitlin Chasteen. Pictured are the Campbell, Kinsley, Murph, Pearson and family members. Sports * ; \ - T** * f: ENI/Gary Harmon Perry’s Robby Taylor (49) helps take out a Northeast runner during the Panthers’ win Friday. , «-* w -mtk me ¥ / —■ ENI/Gary Harmon Perry quarterback Casey Hayward hands off Friday in Perry. Senior Night SECTION B Rodriguez, Ivory put team first Last Friday I watched Marques Ivory carve up the Westside defense during Northside’s 27-7 win. • I realized that Ivory had come into his own at quar terback and that Jacobi Rodriguez is the ultimate team player. Last season, Rodriguez spent most of the time at quarterback. This season i •s>. i f ■■ Joe Sersey Journal Correspondent he is one of the premier receiv ers in AAAA. Last season, because he was behind the center, he was “The Man.” Look at his stats and he’s still “The Man.” This season, not including the Westside game, Rodriguez has caught 27 balls for 497 yards and six touchdowns. He caught four passes Friday night for more than 100 yards and added another touchdown. That means that Rodriguez may have' given up one posi tion, but he stars at another. He is averaging almost 20 yards a catch, which means he can get downfield and get open. More than that, Rodrigue;? has good hands. I saw him adjust his speed, stay focused on the ball and battle a defend er to make a catch in the sec ond half. The kid can play receiver, no small achievement considering Rodriguez didn’t play the posi tion last year. But his ability on the field isn’t what impresses me the most. In this age of me first athletes, Jacobi Rodriguez put the team first. That makes him a great player and better per son. Rodriguez is a junior with one more season to play. Because he was willing to change positions, he may have helped himself to a college scholarship, but more importantly, Rodriguez helped his team. This is the best Eagles team I can remember. Granted, Rodriguez isn’t the only weapon. Nick Bass can get open and make tough catch es and Tijuan Green proved against Westside that he can run inside or outside and be successful. I While I was watching Friday’s game, I was struck by Ivory’* poise. Twice he escaped th* Seminoles’ rush and touch passes downfield to wide-- open receivers. \ Ivory had a breakout See TEAM, page zB