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Moustmi Bailg Tjmmtal SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2006 The Home Journal s SANDLOT ON DECK High school Basketball Today ■ Westfield at Mount de Sales, 2 p.m. ■ Houston County at Perry, 6 p.m. High school wrestling Today ■ 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 Today ■ Warner Robins at PACE Invitational in Atlanta, 5 p.m. ■ Perry at Coffee County Trojan Invitational, 8:30 a.m. IN BRIEF Warner Robins Rec to hold Christmas camp The Warner Robins Recreation Department is regis tering boys and girls ages 7-12 for Holly Days Christmas Camp to be held Dec. 21 through Jan. 4, 2007 (Christmas holidays for Houston County Schools), Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. except Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, 2007. Each day. accord ing to a release, will be full of games, songs and seasonal crafts. Bring sack lunch each day; drinks and snack will be provided. Experienced camp counselors, campers are well supervised. structured program. The cost for the entire program is $75 for city residents; sllO for county residents and $l4O for out-of-county. Call the department at 478- 929-6946 for more information. YMCA offers special sign-up promotion The YMCA is currently offer ing a special promotion where they are giving away one free month of gym membership to all new members. The family fitness center offers: gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, fit kidz, dance, parent’s night out and mother’s morning out and much more. A family member ship consists of an SBS joiner’s fee plus the first month of S4B. Under the promotion, you pay SBS and your first month of ser vice is free. The offer will expire Dec. 31. Perry Youth Wrestling Club sets registration The Perry Youth Wrestling Club will be hold registration Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Perry High School multi-purpose building. 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 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. Winter Players Pass available for golfers A Winter Players Pass is now available for purchase at three northern state park golf locations. It’s valid for play at Arrowhead Pointe at Lake Richard B. Russell in Elberton, The Creek at Hard Labor in Rutledge and Highland Walk at Victoria Bryant in Royston. The card provides the holder with unlimited green fees at the three courses for three months and costs SIOO. The pass is available in lim ited quantities and for a limited time. It's valid from December until February 2007. The pass can be purchased at any of the participating courses, online at www.GeorgiaGolf.com or by calling toll free 1-800-982-3691. Local runners stay strong HOI All-Houston County CROSS COUNTRY By DON MONCRIEF Journal Sports Editor What can you say about cross country in Houston County other than it had another consistently strong year. Region winners, local runners seen leading the pack at every venue and individual and team state quali fying efforts were as always, the norm. That said, here is the Houston Daily Journal All-Houston County cross country team for 2006: Houston Daily Journal All-Houston County team Coach of the Year ■ David Erpelding, Warner Robins Girls Runner of the Year ■ Brittney Stewart, Warner Robins First team ■ Danielle Atkins, Warner Robins ■ Brittney Hill, Warner Robins MWMwEBBgt ~ it n 7 •> w n f Vdfewiuinrm» \ \ nppk. ■mHMmw <mmmi NMMMMHMHMMb- . Jr ■f* 2T V l oHg cl Demonettes boast 6 returners By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer Talent. Experience. Potential. All are apt descriptions of what Tom Mobley has on his roster of Warner Robins High School girls basketball players. But a funny thing happened to the Demonettes on the way to the GHSA state tournament last year, namely the region tournament, where Warner Robins’ sparkling regular-season record didn’t auto matically lead to a spot in the field of 32. Sports ■ Megan Breitbach, Houston County ■ Kiersten Wharton, Houston County ■ Janay Wilson, Northside ■ Elizabeth Lambert, Northside ■ Mallory Eubanks, Westfield ■ Leigh James-Artigas, Westfield Boys Runner of the Year ■ Marc Kushinka, Warner Robins First team ■ Karl Burkhardt, Warner Robins ■ Jeffrey Nakayama, Warner Robins ■ Matthew Drapeau, Warner Robins ■ Trevor Whelan, Warner Robins ■ Madison Holland, Warner Robins ■ Nicholas Felder, Perry ■ Devin Simpson, Perry ■ Jacob Parnell, Westfield ■ Hunter Wojohn, Westfield Girls Brittney Stewart School: Warner Robins Year: Senior Position: Team’s No. 1 runner Impact: Finished her career for the Demonettes with seven school records this year and 13 total. She won nine races See RUNNERS,page zB SEASON PREVIEW WARNER ROBINS Mobley and his players don’t have to worry about a crowded sub-divid ed region, but they do have to feel some concerns about playing up to the 5A level and in a region with more than a few teams that know about contending on the basketball See RETURNERS, page 5B HoCo, Westside split match-ups By DON MONCRIEF Journal Sports Editor It was a mixed bag for Houston County’s basket- Houston County boys 58, Westside 55; Lady Semlnoles 47, Lady Bears 45 but rescheduled due to the Bears’ football playoff game, Houston County’s bovs won but the girls didn’t. The Bears edged the Seminoles 58-55 but the Lady Bears came up a bas ket - to at least force over time - short 47-45. As far as the girls, NS girls face some rebuilding By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer It’s hard to put a label on what kind of off-season it was for Cassandra Wilson and Northside High girls basketball. As time passed through the spring, summer and fall, Wilson experienced more personnel changes than she expected. While her main emphasis is to maintain Northside’s two-year string of reaching the Elite Eight round of the GHSA tournament, she also acknowledges that there is some rebuilding work to be done. ball squads Thursday as they traveled and played at Westside in Macon. In a match-up that was slated for Friday Heart, height Westfield host ed the Heart of Georgia Cheerleading Competition Thursday. Check out Tuesday’s Houston Daily Journal for more (results and more pictures). TOP: Ashley Griffin com petes and wins Cheerleader of the Year honors. LEFT: The Lady Hornets perform. ENI/Gary Harmon SEASON PREVIEW NORTHSIDE “I really thought this year was just going to be a continuation of what we had last year,” said Wilson. “During the summer we had a good showing. But not only have I lost kids from graduation, but I lost two players from the summer I See REBUILDING, page $B SECTION B Houston County led the first three quarters, just not by much. The score was 18-16 after one, 25- 24 at the break and 34- 33 heading into the final quarter. “The two game factors for us,” said girls head coach Sid Baxley, “was allowing too many second-chance points and not protecting the ball offensively. “We had too many turn overs.” That kind of tarnished the double-digit night Tonia Williams. She finished with 19 points. Janesa Johnson for the Lady Bears had 9. Shaniqua Pauldo, the for mer Warner Robins player from a couple of years back, had 20 and Jelisa Caldwell also had 13 for the Lady Seminoles. As far as the boys, See SPLIT, page SB My idea is a 2-for-1 proposal It’s amazing the things you can dream up on a long holiday road trip. Tommy Tuberville, Auburn head football coach, has this year taken on the role of sort of the spokesman for how great Southeastern Conference football is as compared to all the wanna-bes out there in other parts of the country. I’m wait ing for the day he makes these types . ’MU Matthew Brown Journal Sports Writer of suggestions: • All other conferences in Division I-A should move down to I-AA. • Since a list of the seven wonders of the modern world (as opposed to the old list of the ancient world) is being composed, SEC foot ball should be ranked right at the top. I went back into that familiar place in my mind, the sports laboratory, and dusted off some of the bea kers and burners for anoth er’experiment. I threw together these statements, plus others I have made about college football and comments other commentators have made about the greatness of the SEC. You would not imagine what popped out. What I have devised here is the ultimate proposition, one that will finally separate SEC football into the class by itself all of the analysts feel it so deserves. So Commissioner See BROWN, page zB