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Houston ©mly TJmmtal FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2006 The Home Journal's SANDLOT ON DECK High school Football Today ■ Warner Robins at Camden County, 7:30 p.m. ■ Brunswick at Northside, 7:30 p.m. Saturday ■ Houston County at M.L. King, 7:30 p.m. High school Basketball Today ■ Houston County at Glynn Academy, time to be determined Saturday ■ Houston County at Bradwell Institute, time to be determined IN BRIEF Perry Youth Wrestling Club sets registration The Perry Youth Wrestling Club will be hold registration Dec. 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the Perry High School multi-purpose build ing. All students ages 5-14 are eligible. The cost is S2O which includes a club T-shirt. Also, each wrestler will be required to purchase a USA wrestling card on-line prior to the first practice. The card is $35. Cards can be purchased at Team Georgia Wrestling at the website www.themat.com. The club will also be selling wrestling singlets for S3O for the ones who want to com pete at the local tourngments. The club will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays (practice begins Dec. 5). Any day that school is closed due to inclement weather or winter holidays, there will be no practice. For further informa tion, call Coach Randy Moss at 988-6291. Also, the club will hold a golf tournament fund-raiser Dec. 16 at Perry Country Club and the Perry Takedown Classic Wrestling Tournament will be held Feb. 10. Waterford to hold Junior Golf Clinic Waterford Golf Course will hold a Junior Golf Clinic Monday- Tuesday. 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. Westfield squad to compete in tourneys Westfield’s competition cheerleading squad will com pete Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. in the Heart of Georgia Cheerleading Competition. Westfield is also hosting the event which will be held in the Westfield gymnasium. Also, The Georgia Independent School Association state cheerlead ing competition is Dec. 9 at 10 a.m. at Tattnall Square Academy. Westfield hopes to repeat as state champs (it is the defending champs for the past two years). 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 tele vised live on GPB, along with all 10 semifinal games from the Georgia Dome Dec. 8-9. Landings to hold golf tournament Landings Golf Course will hold a two-person scramble Sunday at 2 p.m. The cost is $5 for members and $lO for non members. You can also make your own team or be paired with someone. Gift certificates will be awarded as prizes. Sign up is not necessary. For more information, contact Bill Goggin at 923-5222, Ext. 4 or via e-mail at bill@goggingolf.com. Beans proving to be quite the road warrior By MA TTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Houston County High is indeed trying to make 2006 a dream sea son in football. After the No. 4 seed from Region 1- AAAAA bested the Region 4-AAAAA fMMUpn champion Newman High Cougars 35- Hointon County 21 on the road last at M.L. King, weekend, the Bears Saturday, 7:30 now se t their sights P m - on M.L. King as the next obstacle in the GHSA playoff march. But again, as the last team from its region to qualify for the postsea son, Houston County must go on the road. The meeting with the 9-1 M.L. King Lions, the No. 2 seed of 2- AAAA, is Saturday in Dekalb County. The road, though, has been quite Demons, Wildcats to butt heads ■ I m . ■***■■■" ■■■*< - <.#* '-*o* ENI Gary Harmon Warner Robins’ Jeremy Grant (20) goes head-to-head with a Mundy’s Mill defender as Demons quarterback Mark Wright Jr., looks on, Saturday in McConnell-Talbert Stadium. Prospects look good for Lady Bear repeat SEASON PREVIEW HOUSTON COUNTY By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer When a high school team wins a region sports cham pionship, it stands to reason that seniors had the most to do with it. That means the following year will be one of rebuilding and/or reshuf fling of the lineup. Not so with Houston County High and its girls basketball crown won in 2006. Yes, Sid Baxley had three contributing seniors, two of whom signed papers to play college basketball. But with the 2006-2007 campaign fast approach ing, experience abounds in the Bear Den, including the valuable experience of get ting through the Region 1- AAAAA with the first-place trophy. In fact, Baxley should have Sports Travel to M.L. King knowing they’re undefeated out of town kind for the 7-4 Bears, a team that has not lost away from McConnell- Talbert Stadium all year. M.L. King, on the other hand, hasn’t lost but one time, that being a 17-6 defeat at the hands of Stephenson High. It’s a loss, though, that determined the 2- AAAAA championship. Since then, M.L. King has had four games and has given up just 16 points. Its last two games were shutouts, includ ing a 28-0 first-round blanking of Bradwell Institute. “It’s probably the fastest foot ball team we’ve seen all year,” said Houston County head coach Doug Johnson, who highlighted four juniors, running back Cordellaro Jones (No. 2), receiver/defensive four starters on the court, but one of those, Hannah Channell, is right now sit ting out while recovering from a knee operation back in the spring. The coach also has most of his bench back, which makes the prospects for a repeat in the region look pretty good. Candice Clark was the leader of the 2006 Lady Bears, but she signed to play at Brewton-Parker College. Lauren Campbell was part of a deep front court, and Syliva Tammenin provided depth at guard. That was the senior class, and while they were all quality play ers, they didn’t leave Baxley with any big holes to fill. “It seems like we’ve gotten better by leaps and bounds,” he said. Senior Brittany Torain started every game last year and every game as a sopho more at point guard. Baxley said she is probably the best outside shooter for Houston County, plus she handles the basketball well and hustles on defense. back Daniel McKayhan (No. 4), receiver Lyndon Leslie (No. 20) and receiver Sean Smith (No. 6) as espe cially fast. “They’ve been in the playoffs several times, so they’ve been around it. “We’re going to have to play real well. We’re going to have to over come our speed to catch up to their speed. Our kids are going to have to play smart.” In looking at the 2-AAAAA region as a whole, Johnson said Stephenson has had a good team for several years and M.L. King reached the state semifinals in the Georgia Dome two years ago. “It’s another road game for us, which has been good td us so far,” said Johnson. “I hope our kids stay ^ r? ' 1 n JH .4 Jr ‘«Mll HHbJf ENI Gary Harmon A Houston County player goes after a rebound during practice at the school Thursday. The rest of the return ing starters are juniors, Tonia Williams and Janesa Johnson. “Tonia was our MVP last year,” said Baxley. “She’s a big girl, but she handles the ball like a guard. She’s going to score a lot, get a lot of rebounds and block a lot of shots. “Janesa for the last year and a half has been our best defensive player. She can also score and handle the ball. Physically, she’s very strong.” Baxley has some other senior players, Bethany Crenshaw and Tiara Bivins, in competition for start ing jobs. Cierra Boyd and Channel Crosskey are other players who were a part of the squad last year and whom Baxley is confident in focus. I don’t like the Saturday game, which would be a little tougher than a Friday night, but that’s just what we have to do. “For our kids we have to control the football like we’ve been doing and not give up the big play. They have a big-play offense.” And wouldn’t you know it, but it’s another one of those wide spread out offensive attacks for Houston County to defend. That’s the way it was at Newnan and in two region games against Colquitt County and Tift County. “They will go get under center some and run the football,” said Johnson. “We feel like they are going to try to spread the field and See ROAI), page iB By MA TTIIE W BRO WN Journal Sports Writer Warner Robins High foot ball has gone to the ends of the state and back two times JL« *5 Warner Robins at Camden County, today, 7:30 p.m. fresh off a GHSA Class AAAAA first round vic tory against Mundy’s Mill at home this past Saturday, must go all the way to the southeast corner of Georgia on Friday for second round action against the fleet-foot ed and No. 3-ranked Camden County High Wildcats. While most of the 5A classi fication resides in and above Atlanta, a lot of the power in football for the class is in Camden County and Warner Robins’ Region 1-AAAAA. Camden owns a 5A state title from 2003, while this year there is only one blemish on a 10-1 record. That blemish is all because of one point to a loss against a team not even from Georgia. Aiken High of South Carolina beat the Wildcats 20-19 on Sept. 15. In eight games See HEADS, page zB to contribute big this year. “We weren’t predicted to win the region last year,” said Baxley. “We had to go down to Tifton and win those three games in a row. It was a tough road. We were exhausted after the region championship game. But we knew we had it in us. “Now we know we can make that road a little See PROSPECTS, page iB SECTION B already in 2006. What’s one more trip just short of the Sunshine State? The 7-4 Demons,