Newspaper Page Text
Houston djmmuil
WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 29, 2006
The Home Journal's
SANDLOT
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ON DECK
High school
Football
Friday
■ AAAAA quarterfinals: Houston
County at Roswell, 7:30 p.m.
■ AAAAA quarterfinals: Warner
Robins at Norcross, 7:30 p.m.
■ AAAA quarterfinals:
Habersham Central at Northside.
7:30 p.m.
High school
Basketball
Friday
■ Houston County at Westside.
7 p.m.
■ Northside at Warner Robins,
4 p.m. (Rescheduled for Jan.
27, 2007)
Saturday
■ Westfield at Mount de Sales,
2 p.m.
■ Houston County at Perry, 6
p.m.
High school wrestling
Friday
■ Perry at Southern Slam duals
(through Saturday), teams and
times to be determined
Saturday
■ Perry at Southern Slam duals.»
teams and times to be deter
mined
■ Northside and teams to be
determined at Bear Duals at
Houston County, 9 a.m.
High school swimming
Saturday
■ Warner Robins at PACE
Invitational in Atlanta, 5 p.m.
■ Perry at Coffee County Trojan
Invitational, 8:30 a.m.
IN BRIEF
Demon playoff tickets go
on sale today
Playoff tickets for Warner
Robins' quarterfinal matchup at
Norcross go on sale today. All
tickets are general admission
and are $lO. Tickets will be
available today at 7 p.m. in
the school cafeteria and will
continue to be sold beginning
Wednesday morning at school
in the front office. Ticket sales
will continue through Friday at
2 p.m.
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 tournaments.
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.
COMING
]
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Northside Lady Eagle
signs
Northside's Janay Wilson
signed a letter of intent Monday
at the school to continue her
education/basketball career
at Savannah College of Art &
Design.
For the complete story, see
Thursday's Houston Daily
Journal.
Eagles win coin toss, right to host Habersham Central
By MA TTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
Tossing the coin isn’t such
a bad thing after all.
Northside High football
keeps on winning and win
ning in the postseason, even
in a call of heads or tails.
With the coin fall
ing in Northside’s favor,
Habersham Central High
must leave its northeast
Georgia mountain perch on
Friday and take a trip to
■' W Jm -i I I C
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ENI Gary Harmon
Eagle defenders, among them Isaac Wilson (9) bring down a Brunswick runner Friday in McConnell-Talbert Stadium.
Northside will host Habersham Central Friday.
Perry girls enter season with new coach
SEASON
PREVIEW
PERRY
By M i TTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
Perry High welcomes a
new basketball coach for
the 2006-2007 season along
with a new region align
ment, but there aren’t too
many new faces wearing the
Lady Panther uniform.
The new coach is Katherine
Bradley, formerly of Metter
High School and a native of
Macon. She replaces Deidre
Williams who left to take
another job and takes over
a program that had one lone
senior on the roster at the
end of the 2006 season but
also had a group and sopho
mores and juniors that grew
and grew to the point of
putting a scare into some of
the region’s top powers in
the girls game.
See COACH, page zB
Panthers lose experience but left with plenty of talent
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
Perry High School bas
ketball for 2006-2007, may
have the best and deep
est assortment of talent in
coach Brett Hardy’s coach
ing tenure.
What it won’t be, though,
is his most experienced
group of Panthers. Not in
late November, anyway.
Perry High is coming off a
runner-up season in Region
4-AAA, but Hardy had to
Sports
Heads, tails
McConnell-
Talbert
Stadium for
quarterfinal
action in the
GHSA Class
AAAA tour
nament.
Just like
Habersham
Central at
Northside, Friday,
7:30 p.m.
the Eagles’ second-round
opponent last weekend,
Brunswick High, this sea
son Habersham Central is
enjoying its first playoff sue-
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ENI/Gary Harmon
A pair of Lady Panthers scramble for a loose ball during practice at the school
Monday.
part with a solid senior class
that contributed big points,
rebounds and assists both
in the starting lineup and
off the bench. Just to name
a few, Montay West could be
counted on for long-range
shooting, the elder Casey
Hayward could be count
ed on for ball distribution,
Taurean Smith could
be counted on to handle
the dirty work inside, and
Courtney Hawkins could be
counted on for scoring at
any spot on the court.
"They have one, a junior wide
receiver/kick returner, who's already
been offered a scholarship hy Georgia,
Georgia Tech, Clemson and a lot of
those guys."
- Northside head football coach Conrad Nix
cess in football in the 21st.
Century. The 10-2 Raiders
This time around, the
senior class comes out to a
grand total of two. Only one
of those two, Eric Askew,
played a considerable
amount of varsity time in
the past three years. Chris
Willis, Hardy’s other senior,
has done his share of work
in practice and earned a
shot at the starting lineup.
“Other than that, we’re
young, and we’re going to let
guys play,” said Hardy. “We
have five sophomores, four
juniors and two seniors.
have played for the last
several years in Region 8-
“I think, talent-wise, this
is a better group because we
have more height and guys
who can do ’some things
that other guys could do
in the past. But now we
have more athleticism and
more height to help us on
the glass. It’s all going to
boil down to how hard they
want to play.
“That was the special
thing about (Perry’s last
three teams) is that they
played extremely hard
See PANTHERS, page zB
SECTION
B
AAAA (sub-divided for the
first time in 2006), and right
now they are riding a nine
game winning streak that
includes four shutouts and a
standout 28-21 win against
Clarke Central.
Habersham Central did
just barely squeak past the
first round against Cherokee,
28-26, but came back last
week to blitz Mays High 35-
7. The Raiders will come to
Warner Robins averaging 29
points a game on offense.
All of this comes after
years of Habersham Central
basically being a non-fac
tor in the AAAA scene. The
Raiders went 6-5 last year,
losing to Dalton in the first
round 17-14. In the two sea
sons before that this pro
gram went a combined 7-13.
Northside head coach
Conrad Nix, after mak
ing the successful coin
toss call to get this game
at McConnell-Talbert, had a
chance to learn more about
Habersham Central in a
couple of days that most in
Houston County probably
know in their entire life
times.
“They have one, a junior
wide receiver/kick returner,
who’s already been offered
a scholarship by Georgia,
Georgia Tech, Clemson and
a lot of those guys,” he said.
“Anytime a junior gets an
offer you know he’s not only
a good student, but a really
good player. He’s a game
changer, makes plays in a
hurry. Obviously we’re very
concerned about that.
“They do a good job with
their offensive schemes and
packages. Their offensive
linemen stay on their feet.
They don’t fall around on
the ground.
See EAGLES, page iB
Given the
choice, I’d
take Vick
Just after New Orleans
scored its last touch
down - with a little
more than two minutes left
to play - I received a call
from my good buddy Joe
Sersey.
I call
him “good
buddy”
despite a
million rea
sons not to.
I guess it
falls under
the heading
of: When
you don’t
Don Moncrief
Journal Sports Editor
have many friends (mean
ing people who actually like
me), you can’t afford to be
choosy.
Anyway, it was as expect
ed.
“I just wanted to call and
gloat,” he said. (I haven’t
had a chance to write a
response but he and I have
been debating his last col
umn regarding the Falcons
- more specifically, Michael
Vick.)
“I told you Vick would
never lead the franchise to
a Super Bowl,” he added,
knowing quite well my
hair - the one faithful (like
me) strand - was already
standing on end by then. To
say anything negative, he
knew, would bring the Alge
Crumpler out of me.
“You mean other quarter
backs could lead their team
to a Super Bowl when their
receivers drop passes, and
not just passes but ‘critical’
See MONCRIEF, page zB