Newspaper Page Text
Mnusion /@OTi£r Journal
WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 22, 2007
The Home Journal’s
SANDLOT
Li ~ a m!mm!rr m
CALENDAR
High school volleyball
Thursday
■ Northside at Perry, versus it and
Americus, 5 p.m.
Saturday
■ Houston County at North Cobb
tourney, teams an times to be deter
mined
High school softball
Today
■ Westfield at First Presbyterian
Day, 6 p.m.
Thursday
■ Colquitt at Houston County, 6
p.m.
■ Southwest at Perry, 5 p.m.
Friday
■ Houston County and Warner
Robins at Mill Creek tourney, teams
and times to be determined
Saturday
■ Houston County and Warner
Robins at Mill Creek tourney, teams
and times to be determined
High school cross country
Saturday
■ Warner Robins at Spalding Invite,
time to be determined
■ Westfield at Viking Invite at
Georgia Children’s Home in Macon,
time to be determined
IN BRIEF
HoCol booster club to
recognize Johnson
The Houston County High
School football booster club will
be hosting a reception for former
athletic director/head coach Doug
Johnson at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at
the school's cafeteria. This is a
drop-in reception and the public,
especially former Houston County
High players, are invited to attend.
WRHS cheer squad to
hold mini-camp
A cheerleading mini-camp for
children K-6 will be held Saturday
at Warner Robins High School. It
is slated to run from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
On the agenda: Skill development
in cheers, chants, motions, dance
and basic tumbling, as taught by
Warner Robins High School’s
cheerleaders.
The cost is S2O, which includes
lunch and an event T-shirt.
Participation in mini-camp, accord
ing to a release, extends invitation
to perform in the pre-game part of
the Demons vs. Central Gwinnett
game, Sept. 15.
For more information, call 478-
929-7877 or e-mail swade@hcbe.
net. A registration form is available
online at www.hcbe.net/pa/files/
and look for the .pdf file.
Landings to offer
Family Golf Day
The Landings will host Family
Golf Day Sunday at 3 p.m. The
format will be nine holes on Trestle
Nine. The cost is $lO for Juniors
and members and S2O for non
member adults. The cost includes
cart, green fee, prizes and dinner.
A special course will be set up for
children.
Sign up with the Learning
Center.
For more information, contact
PGA Professional Bill Goggin at
923-5222, Ext. 4 or via e-mail
at bill@goggingolf.com. Or visit,
www.goggingolf.com/.
Perry JL begins Fall
Ball registration
Perry Junior League Fall Ball
registration has begun and will con
tinue until Oct. 5. You can register
on line at www.perryjuniorleaue.
com or at the park under the pavil
ion on these dates: Sept. 22 and
Sept. 29 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Fall ball fees are $45 and the
organization is offering a special for
Fall/Spring Combo for $125.
For more information, Kelly
Tucker at pjlpresident@windstream.
net or via phone at 988-2618.
Crappie USA tourney
set for Lake Oconee
Crappie USA Inc., will return to
Lake Oconee in Georgia on Sept.
22. Anglers will be fishing for a
seven-fish limit of crappie, which
could net them a check along with
the opportunity to advance to the
regional event and the Cabela,s
Crappie USA Classic. This will be
crappie anglers first chance to qual
ify for the 2008 Cabela's Crappie
USA Classic.
You can enter the tournaments
by filling out and sending in an
entry form or by registering on their
website at www.crappieusa.com.
All late entries will be subject to a
$20.00 late fee.
For more information call 706-
485-7701 or visit their website at:
www.eatonton.com.
If - ••' ?I;a| - .M.
ft ifp?, ’
If B fl N B Jk
Journal/Don Moncrief
Forme' Northside standout and Brewton-Parker signee J.C. Cook looks at photos from his youth baseball
years.
Northside grad’s determination pays off
with Brewton-Parker scholarship
By DON MONCRIEF
Journal Sports Editor
It was a case of mistaken iden
tity.
Or at least it might have been
for Joshua Patrick Cook. At age 4,
he was one of five “Joshua’s” on the
Reds T-ball team.
The coach solved this potential cri
sis with a simple nickname: “J.C.”
That was 14 baseball-packed years
ago.
Today, he is still known more by
those initials but chances are it
wouldn’t matter how many Joshua’s
might be around.
You would recognize him in an
instant. He’s the one with the
Brewton-Parker hat on, that being
the college that recently signed him
to a baseball scholarship.
It sounds easy enough: Play base
ball. Excel at it and reap the ben
efits, but it hasn’t been nearly that
easy for this past season’s Northside
standout.
To start with, yes, the baseball part
was easy true enough. Even before
T-ball he was throwing, hitting and
playing in the backyard thanks to
his grandfather, Danis Richey, who is
by the way a former Warner Robins
National League president, and,
along with his mother, Cook said, has
never missed one of his ballgames.
He rose through the ranks of
the Warner Robins Recreation
Department and the WRNL, gained
a trophy here, a trophy there, played
on All-Star teams, travel teams and
even in a World Series once. In fact,
a shelf that lines one side of his
bedroom to the other is filled with
game balls received for outstanding
performances, and trophies dot the
landscape of his room.
He played first base, shortstop,
third base, catcher but mostly pitched.
Toombs to contend at senior tourney
Special to the Journal
Tom Toombs of Perry is
among the field of 144 list
ed to contend in the 21st
Annual Georgia Senior
Championship, slated to
take place today-Friday
at The Ford Plantation,
Richmond Hill.
The format is 18 holes of
stroke play with the field
to be cut to the low 70 and
ties after 36 holes.
Entries were open to
male amateur golfers age
55 and older as of August
22, who are GSGA mem
bers and Georgia residents.
The field was determined
by lowest USGA Handicap
Indexes.
Sports
One of a kind
He starts feeling this
pain like a knife."
-Danis Richey, on his grandson J.C. Cook
A good deal of what he learned, or
where he said he made his most gains
in regard to learning, began when he
was around 10 - and continued for
several years to follow - and came via
Tim Wahlmer, a coach that had spot
ted him when he was 8 or 9.
“He taught me fundamentals,”
Cook, whose mother was a Northside
graduate who brought him from
Atlanta to here when he was 2, said,
“(meaning) different types of situa
tions and how to handle them.
“There wasn’t a thing he didn’t
teach me at 11 or 12 that I didn’t
hear from Coach (Kevin) Kinsler (the
Eagle’s head baseball coach) when I
was 17 to 18. He prepared me.”
So prepared was he that entering
his sophomore year, he was penciled
in to be a starter. But, to backtrack a
bit, just prior to that was where the
statement “it hasn’t been nearly that
easy” came in.
You see he had a case of his own
mistaken identity. He had to discover
a bit of who he was all over again.
As Richey described it, he had his
own “personal” internal conflict -
“nothing to do with drugs or alcohol
or anything like that,” Richey said
- that caused him to be ineligible his
freshman year.
You’ll note later on in his story
there’s a reason Richey said Kinsler
told Cook - his senior year - he had
more heart than anyone he’s ever
known, and this was just the begin
ning of why.
Cook, who by then had four pitches
in his arsenal - fastball, curve, slider
The Georgia Senior
Championship began in
1955 and ran until 1971
before a 15-year hiatus
from 1972-86. Other than
the annual champions’
names, not much infor
mation is available on
the Championship’s early
years. The event was
revived in 1987 and has
since been contested at 17
different GSGA member
clubs in 14 cities. This
year marks the 21st annu
al Championship since its
return.
The champion is pre
sented with the Johnny
Skeadas Trophy,
See TOURNEY, page 6B
and changeup - refocused, “got his
grades up and his life back in order,”
Richey said, and took to the mound.
Just when it appeared smooth sail
ing all over again, however, two weeks
before the playoffs were to begin, “he
starts feeling this pain like a knife,”
Richey said. “It’s ironic to note,” he
added, “that he pitched through it.
“He came into the last game in the
sub-region against Henry County.
We were behind 6-1. He came in in
the second inning and pitched eight
innings. They got two earned runs
and we lost 9-8.” And, he and Cook
noted: They won state that year.
Cook and Richey, on the other
hand, knew something was wrong.
So, during the summer they visited
Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham,
Ala. - the same doctor who per
formed surgery on John Smoltz and
some others.
The verdict: A tear.
Andrews, Richey said, sewed it up
the next day but it took five months
before he could throw again. And
even then, when he did, he said the
ball traveled only 12-15 feet with no
velocity on it.
Further, the rehab hurt “bad
enough to make me cry” he said,
adding that sitting on the sideline
during practice - psychologically -
hurt almost as much.
He did manage to return a month
ahead of schedule but he was also still
far from 100 percent, Richey said.
That was his junior year. Heading
into his senior year, he was in “tip
top” shape,” Richey said. But, on
a sub-freezing night in an exhibi
tion game against Central of Athens
more problems develop. He opened
by walking two batters. Then he
struck out the next six. On the last,
however, something goes wrong with
his shoulder, Richey said.
See PA YS, page 6B
Music beat Redfish in 11 innings
From staff reports
Charlotte County might
be a last place
team - the
last place
team - but
you certainly
couldn’t prove
it by Macon.
The Redfish
Macon 5,
Charlotte
County 4
over the course of the first
two games in a three-game
series have given the Music
pretty much all they’ve
wanted. Following a one
run loss Sunday to Macon,
Charlotte County again lost
by that margin Monday, 5-4,
but this time in 11 innings.
The Redfish took the lead
with a run in the second. The
Music countered with three
in the fourth but Charlotte
County answered that with
three in the fifth. Macon
tied it at 4 in the seventh
before finally pushing a run
across in extra innings.
Both teams left seven men
South Coast League standings (as of Tuesday)
W L Pet. GB Streak Ist 10
Macon 24 12 .667 0.0 W 3 8-2
South Georgia 21 14 .600 2.5 L 1 4-6
Bradenton 20 17 .541 4.5 L 1 4-6
Anderson 20 18 .526 5.0 W 1 7-3
Aiken 17 20 .459 7.5 W 1 6-4
Charlotte County 8 29 .216 16.5 L 5 1-9
5B
Locals have
mixed results
at Callaway
From staff reports
Monday was a mixed bag of
results for local golfers contend
ing at the 10th Annual GSGA
Senior Women’s Championship
being held at Callaway Gardens
- Mountain View Course
- through Tuesday (results of
that day pending).
For starters, one who couldn’t
complain - or probably didn’t
- was Mary Riley of Perry.
She shot an 80 which put
her in a tied for fifth overall
in the Championship Flight as
well as fifth overall. She is
tied with Cheryl Grigg in the
Championship Flight and with
her and Darlene Werhnyak of
Lawrenceville in the Top 10.
Brenda Pictor of Marietta cur
rently leads both with 75.
Sissi Gann of Kathleen, on
the other hand, didn’t have the
kind of day Riley did. She shot
91, which left her in 10th place
in the Second Flight. The good
news is she is only six strokes
back of leaders Alice Richardson
of Alpharetta and Barbara
Blattner of Greensboro. Gwen
Young of Cochran is tied for
fifth in that flight with an 86.
Another Kathleen resident,
See RESULTS, page 6B
NS finishes
strong 3-2
at tourney
From staff reports
Northside was Up the Creek
this past weekend and “almost”
needed a pad
dle to get back
home again.
The Lady
Eagles con
tended at the
softball tour
nament of the
same name in
Sandy Creek.
They finished
with a 3-2
record and were
in the silver
bracket - along
with the host
and Whitewater
- at the end,
said head
coach Mitch
NORTHSIDE
LADY EAGLES
Up the Creek
Tourney
Trinity 2,
Northside 1;
Northside 8,
Pike County
0; Northgate
1, Northside 0;
Lady Eagles
3, Chapel Hill
0; Northside 2,
Sandy Creek 1
Horton, “but
we stopped playing because of
the weather.”
Of Northside’s games, it lost
a tough 2-1 decision to Trinity.
“We scored one run in the
fifth and they scored two runs
with two outs in the sixth
inning to win,” he said.
They rebounded to beat Pike
County 8-0 - on a two-hitter,
but lost another tough one fol
lowing. That was a 1-0 loss
to Northgate, which scored
See STRONG, page 6B
on base but the Redfish out
hit the Music 10-9. They
also used six pitchers in
an attempt to get the win.
Macon used three, the latter
of those - Will Krout - pitch
ing the last five innings and
getting the win.
See MUSIC, page 6B