Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Houston djmmuil WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2006 The Home Journal's SANDLOT flH'Pfflwniiw"" 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 ] fHBMir v-M’i ■ 9 ftj I 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 Wf ■■ JBB gg mS y * . y dm W fl 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- '/C/WOk i ( 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