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Houston TJmmtal FRIDAY/SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10/11, 2006 The Home Journal’s SANPLOT ON DECK 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 westbound 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 traffic 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 scheduled for 3 p.m. The class AAAAA and AAAA finals will continue to be tele vised live on GPB, along with all 10 semifinal games from the Georgia Dome Dec. 8-9. |o, k B jL I KmJ ll m M Br AMHHuI SfiEr - * Ai... v *■ ENI/Gary Harmon Hoy Thurman shows off the trophy he was awarded as Air Force Material Command’s athlete of the year. He will now compete for Air Force Athlete of the Year. Robins AFB athlete earns AFMC honors By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Hoy Thurman, a tech ser geant stationed at Robins Ar Force Base, just goes where he’s supposed to go. The 20-year veteran of the United States Ar Force knew where he had to be at 1600 hours Wednesday, but Two Demonettes sign letters ah. || Journal Matthew Brown Demonettes Kittery Maine, left, and Cherie White cut the cake during their signing at the school Wednesday. Sports he didn’t know why. Thurman, a part of the 116t,h Arcraft Maintenance Squadron at Robins Ar Force Base, would find out he was receiving the 2006 Ar Force Material Command Athlete of the Year Award, which puts him in line for the Ar Force Athlete of the Year honor, which will be named next week in Las Vegas. Thurman’s main athletic claim to fame is in track and field. The native of Indianapolis has been a part of the Ar Force track and field team since 1992, competing in world championship events held in Belgium, See ATHLETE, page jB By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Sorry, coaches, you can stop call ing Tom Mobley about his two Warner Robins High Demonette college basketball prospects. On Wednesday, the first day for the early signing period of 2006- 2007 graduating college hoops recruits, Warner Robins seniors Cherie White and Kittery Maine signed national letters of intent with a pair of NCAA Division I institutions. White chose to join Eastern Kentucky of the Ohio Valley Conference while Maine has her sights on attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Mobley said, while his two play ers made early commitments and picked good schools and basketball programs, he is still getting calls from other colleges about White and Maine. Both jumped from being start ers on Warner Robins’ Elite Eight softball team to the basketball gym to start practice for the upcoming prep season. With the college decision all over and done with, they can focus on the start of the new campaign on Nov. 18 at the Ladies Night Out tournament in Griffin. See LETTERS, page iB HoCo leads list of county's best All-Houston County VOLLEYBALL By DON MONCRIEF Journal Sports Editor How best to describe volleyball in Houston County? It came into its own. Nowhere was that better demon strated than at Houston County High School. The Lady Bears were the first to begin volleyball - a year ahead of Warner Robins and two ahead of Northside and Perry - here so it was perhaps only fitting they should set the bar for the future. Houston County finished the year .38-11, the best record in school history. They won the County Championship (and the county junior varsity championship) - taking it from Warner Robins, which in turn had won it last year - went 8-1 in Area 2-AAAAA and finished Area runner up. Twenty-five of Houston County’s matches were against teams that made the playoffs in their classification. The Lady Bears’ record against those schools was 15-10. They were 23-1 against non-playoff teams. The Lady Bears also made their first appearance in the state playoffs and made it to the Sweet 16. All that isn’t a slight against Warner Robins, Northside or Perry. In the case of the first two, both had new coaches. Plus, as Houston County head volleyball coach Tony Jones would tell you - and said on record at least once this year - all three made tremendous strides as the year went on. In the case of the Lady Panthers, that was also trans lated into a showing at the state tournament. Yes, volleyball thrived in Houston County this season - the only thing missing for the Lady Bears personally, Jones felt, was a lack of recognition in the polls - thus this All-Houston County team could stand toe-to-toe with any and every team in the state. All-Houston County Player of the Year Morgan Hollars, Houston County All-Houston County First Team ■ Devon Preston, Houston County ■ Catherine Goodman, Houston County ■ Sam Moncada, Houston County ■ Jennifer Doebereiner, Houston County ■ Catherine Causey, Warner Robins ■ Deanna LeShoure, Warner Robins ■ Courtney Hintz, Warner Robins ■ Brittany Barnes, Northside ■ Ashley West, Perry All-Houston County Second Team ■ Leah Justin, Houston County ■ Nicole Williams, Houston County ■ Dhwani Patel, Houston County ■ Brittany Pierce, Houston County ■ Katie Hotchkiss, Warner Robins ■ Lindsay Tucker, Perry Al-Houston County Player of the Year ■ Morgan Hollars Grade: Junior School: Houston County Position: Setter Impact: Recorded 87 aces (third on team in that cat egory) and 30 kills and had 656 assists (team leader) and 21 blocks. She has, according to head coach Tony Jones, knowledge, experience, work ethic, drive and determina tion. She was a key member in leading the Lady Bears to a 38-7 record - best in school history - to include win ning the County Championship, finishing 8-1 in Aea 2- AAAAA and Aea runners-up as well as making it to the Sweet 16 round in the state tournament. Other: She was selected the University of Florida Team Camp Conference Most Valuable Player and named to the 2006 Aea 2-AAAAA Al-Aea team. Coach’s corner: “Last year I said, ‘Morgan eats, breaths, lives volleyball. Morgan gives 100 percent no matter what,”’ Jones said. “If we had a team with Morgan’s drive and determination we would bring the state championship to HCHS. “She has only become more determined and a more balanced player; this year we added an offensive scheme that allowed Morgan to work and prosper. The results are in her numbers.” All-Houston County First Team ■ Devon Preston Grade: Sophomore School: Houston County Position: Outside hitter Impact: She recorded 162 aces (team leader in that category), 44 kills and had 4 blocks, 16 assists and 25 digs. She was a key member in leading the Lady Bears to a 38-7 record - best in school history - to include win ning the County Championship, finishing 8-1 in Area 2- AAAAA and Area runners-up as well as making it to the Sweet 16 round in the state tournament. “Devon wants to get better every day,” Jones said. “She pushes her teammates and coaches to get better. As a result we were a better team every match we played.” Other: She is on the state’s All-Time Leader’s List: Season total aces - ranked third; season aces/game 1.51 aces/game 162/107 games served - ranked seventh. Coach’s corner: “I knew that Devon had grown from last year when we were at camp,” Jones said. “She See BEST, page iB SECTION B