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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2021
CROSS COUNTRY SEASON OUTLOOKS
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 7B
Apalachee boys and girls
Coaches: Jennifer Fancher, head coach;
Shea Barger, assistant coach.
Returning starters, other key runners:
Junior sophomore Averie Akin and sopho
mores Katie Harper and Hailey Tedder return
to lead the girls’ team. Akin was the team’s
top runner a year ago as a sophomore but was
forced to miss the GHSA Region 8-AAAAA
championship meet due to a COVID-related
quarantine and thus missed out on qualify
ing for the state meet. Fancher said a pair of
newcomers, freshmen Anna Carter and Hai
ley Parzanese are showing “great potential.”
Meanwhile, the boys’ team returns all of its
varsity runners, with brothers senior Austin
Sigman and junior Luke Sigman leading the
pack. Junior Liam Graham and sophomore
Jacob Galamo are in their first year running
cross country, but Fancher said they are
showing “a lot of promise.”
Team strengths and areas most in need
of improvement: “Our area of strength is
a lot of our team ran track (last spring) and
dropped time really well,” Fancher said. “Our
runners have really invested in training year-
round and put a lot of hard work in this sum
mer. This group was small last year, so they
have become really close to one another and
that has allowed for a true team atmosphere
to exist. As for areas of improvement, we
need to drop our splits. We have some very
talented runners, but in order to score well
we need them crossing the finish line clos
er together. We have to work harder for the
pack mentality when race day comes.”
Region outlook: After COVID quaran
tines kept the teams from having everyone
available for the region championship meet
last year, Apalachee is hoping for better luck
this season. Apalachee has its first meet Sat
urday, Aug. 21, at home, and Fancher said
by then they should have times to compare
to other region opponents. “We didn’t lose
many of our top runners, so I know we still
have a highly competitive team in the re
gion,” she said.
Season outlook: “This season we plan
to focus on our goal of making it to state,”
Fancher said. “We have more freshmen this
year than last so we have to work on run
ning with a younger team and teaching them
how to run smart as well as fast. With Coach
Barger returning, we have a great coaching
staff to push and challenge each of our run
ners to reach their full potential. Last year
was a disappointing ending so we just want
to finish strong. I am very excited to see
what each of these kids can do as they are
pushed further and harder than ever before.
The best part is they have really bonded as
a team so they will hold each other account
able.”
Winder-Barrow boys and girls
Coach: Kristi Cason (formerly
Krisi Burgamy)
Returning starters, other key
runners: Seniors Christopher Ru
bio, Brian Gaddy and Noah Boyd
and juniors Daniel Laird and Kyle
Kehoe all return among the top
seven for a WBHS boys’ team that
won its first region title in over a de
cade and finished 11th in the GHSA
Class 6A meet. Junior Isaac Sanders
is another returner on the boys’ side,
with senior Erik Rodriguez and ju
niors Jacob Smith and Jeremy Herr
looking to stick in the main lineup.
On the girls’ side, talented junior
Matilee Rogers returns after finish
ing second in the region meet and
16th at state as a sophomore. Senior
Rebecca Nicholson, junior Mari-
sol Vaca and sophomores Brianna
Boyle and Victoria Guzman also re
turn from a team that qualified for
the state meet.
Team strengths and areas most
in need of improvement: The boys'
team excelled at running together
in a pack, and that strategy paid off
big-time in the Region 8-AAAAAA
meet, where the Bulldoggs had four
top-10 finishers to run away with
the team title on their home course.
With five of the top seven back, the
boys should be well-positioned for
a repeat.
Season outlook: Cason, who is
in her second year as the program’s
head coach, said that in addition to
aiming for another region champi
onship, the experienced boys’ team
will be pushing for a top-five finish
at state. The teams got the 2021 sea
son off to a solid start Saturday, Aug.
14, as the boys finished third out of
11 teams and the girls fourth out of
eight teams in the Athens Running
Company Season Opener at Lamar
Murphy Park in Jefferson. Rubio
paced the boys’ team with a sev
enth-place overall finish (17:33.07),
while Gaddy (17:45.23), Laird
(17.47.96) and Kehoe (18:38.90) all
ran in the top 20. Rogers was eighth
overall in the girls’ race (21:56.23),
while Nicholson (24:39.77) finished
in the top 20. Both WBHS teams
will be back in action Saturday,
Aug. 21, in the Northeast Georgia
Championships at Athens Christian
School, starting at 8 a.m.
VOLLEYBALL ROUNDUP
Apalachee takes fourth in Queen of the Court tournament
Apalachee volleyball coach
Joey Alfonso called the first day
of the season Saturday, Aug. 14,
an overall success for a team filled
with younger, mostly inexperi
enced players at the varsity level.
The Wildcats went 2-2 at the
annual daylong Northeast Georgia
Queen of the Court tournament,
which they hosted.
Apalachee won its pod to get
into the Gold Medal champion
ship round by defeating Monroe
Area 2-0 (25-10, 25-10) and the
blanking Archer (25-23, 25-15).
In the semifinals, the Wildcats fell
to a veteran Dacula team (21-25,
14-25) and then fell to Loganville
in the consolation match (22-25,
8-25).
“We had a good weekend for us
being so young,” Alfonso said.
Junior outside hitter Kathryn
Massey, Apalachee’s most expe
rienced returning player, led the
Wildcats on the day, going 13-of-
14 on serves with 14 kills. Senior
setter Anna Keller was 27-of-29
serving with four aces and 16
assists, while sophomore setter
Megan Crocker went 29-of-30
with 10 aces, six kills and nine
assists. Freshman outside hitter
Alyssa Evans was 18-of-20 with
four aces, nine kills and a pair of
blocks; junior libero Dayla Tay
lor was 25-of-26 with two aces,
two kills and led the team in digs
on the day, while sophomores
Jyrah Hughey, Tatyana Dennis
and Lily Webb each had five
blocks apiece.
Apalachee was scheduled to
travel to Athens Christian on
Tuesday, Aug. 17, to play match
es against the Eagles and John
son and will be back in action
Saturday, Aug. 21, for a slate of
matches at a daylong playdate at
Monroe Area.
Meanwhile, Winder-Barrow
went 1-2 on the day at the Queen
of the Court tournament on Satur
day, starting off with a 2-0 loss to
Parkview (18-25, 20-25) before
shutting out Mountain View (25-
23, 25-16) in pool play.
The Bulldoggs (5-6) capped the
day with a 2-1 loss against Prince
Avenue Christian (23-25. 25-22.
9-15).
The Bulldoggs were sched
uled to be back in action Thurs
day, Aug. 19, at Morgan County,
with a pair of matches against the
Bulldogs and Oconee County.
BCA STARTS 3-0
In other local volleyball action,
Bethlehem Christian Academy
went 3-0 to start its season last
week.
In a pair of matches at Cedar
Shoals on Aug. 10, the Knights
got past Lake Oconee Academy
(25-14. 14-25,15-9) and then took
down the Jaguars in straight sets
(25-3, 25-10). BCA followed that
performance up with a 3-1 win at
home Thursday, Aug. 12, against
Putnam County (25-13,25-19. 21-
25, 25-4).
Kate Broom had six kills, two
aces and two blocks to lead BCA
in the Lake Oconee win, while
Amy Davison had six aces, Grace
Fort had three kills and two aces,
Shae Britt had three aces, Sydney
Harrison had two kills, a block and
an ace, and Anna Claire Adolph-
son had four kills.
Against Cedar Shoals, Davison
had seven kills and six aces, Mer-
rit Meaders had six aces, Adolph-
son had four aces, Zoey Prather
and Daley Browning had three
aces apiece, and Ellie Jones fin
ished with two aces.
Davison again led the way
against Putnam County, finishing
with 13 aces and eight kills, while
Broom had 11 aces and four kills.
Adolpshon had 10 kills and three
aces. Meaders had five aces, and
Harrison had five kills.
BCA was scheduled to take on
Prince Avenue Christian and East
Jackson in matches at Prince Av
enue on Tuesday and will partici
pate in the Monroe Area playdate
on Saturday.
Memories of Sanford Stadium
A few days ago, I spent time in solitude
in the lower level of the South stands at the
east end of Sanford Stadium. I chose that
section for a reason. It was where I sat when
I enrolled at Georgia in the late ‘50s.
In those years, the student section was
located in the South stands. Season ticket
sales were such that there was plenty of
room to seat the students on the
same side of the held with the
most active and passionate sea
son ticket buyers.
That was a time when Georgia
was pratfalling in football. The
program was in disarray. The
AOs, except for the war years,
were memorable, but the ‘50s
were, for the most part, forget
table. However, 1957 turned out
to be a very good year, a year in
which the Bulldogs won but three
games. One of those games was
a 7-0 shutout of Georgia Tech to
break a drought of eight straight
loses to the Yellow Jackets.
The entire state swooned to this mile
stone victory. It was the start of a four-
game winning streak in the ancient rivalry.
The ‘Dogs would experience a hiccup un
der Johnny Griffith, but when Vince Dooley
arrived in 1964, Georgia would dominate
the all-important state rivalry and then flirt
with national prominence in succeeding
years. Now on Kirby Smart’s watch, a case
could be made that Georgia’s best years lie
ahead. Even in the face of the ravages of a
pandemic and the uncertainty of the college
football landscape.
A little less than a hundred years ago, the
situation was eerily similar. The “Roaring
Twenties,” were preceded by the first World
War and an influenza pandemic (1918).
Georgia football was “frustrated,” before
that time, mainly because the Bulldogs had
a ramshackle baseball stadium which was
where the football team played its games.
The biggest game — with Georgia Tech
— was annually played on Grant Field in
Atlanta for the bigger gate. The Bulldogs
didn’t do so badly in those years (1900-
1928), posting a 7-10-2 record in the series,
but when Tech upset the 1927 Rose Bowl
bound Bulldogs 12-0, in the rain and mud,
Dr. Steadman V. Sanford vowed
to build the biggest and prettiest
stadium “in the Southland.”
With the help of 300 Bulldog
partisans, he succeeded. Those
loyalists signed bank notes for
one thousand dollars each which
enabled UGA to build a showcase
stadium, capacity 30,000, hosting
mighty Yale in the dedicatory
game Oct. 12, 1929. which Geor
gia won 15-0.
Seventeen days later, the stock
market crashed and not a single
one of those bank notes were
called. This, I have often con
cluded, was Georgia’s signature fund rais
ing effort. Dr. Sanford’s name should be re
vered as long as football is played between
those hallowed hedges.
A quarter century later, the showcase
facility had become unsightly, wooden
bleachers at each end of the original con
crete stands were in disrepair and unsightly
light poles, put in place for Georgia to play
night games, tarnished Sanford’s once pris
tine image.
When Joel Eaves hired Vince Dooley in
1964, a facility upgrade began. First it was
a concept but reality would remind us of
Georgia’s limitless potential. Eaves had the
light poles removed. The wooden bleach
ers on the hillsides went away, too. Eaves
announced that Georgia would enhance its
home schedule. His only exception was to
leave the Florida game in place in Jackson
ville, but he demanded changes there that
were noticeably different such as numbers
and location in the distribution of tickets
and that the city find a motel that would
meet Georgia’s team objectives. (This side
note: Historically, the city of Jacksonville
took the Bulldogs for granted, often giving
UGA the back of its hand until Eaves said
he would force a home and home arrange
ment for the game if he had to.)
As I sat in Sanford Stadium recently, vi
sions of the aforementioned developments
are a reminder of the fact that the corona-
virus compromised Georgia football, but
should not cripple the program. Think how
daunting it had to be in 1929 a couple of
weeks after the Yale game with the econo
my in a tailspin.
Dan Magill, the indefatigable titan of the
notion that Georgia’s strength was in its
people, its alumni support. He always pro
claimed, “We are the majority party.” His
preachments often fell on deaf ears, but the
Eaves-Dooley era acquiesced to that view
without any testimony or breast beating.
Sound, fundamental fiscal underpinning
and winning became a powerful force.
This is why the commitment of the Geor
gia people should never be underestimat
ed. Winning comes first, which is why the
Dooley years were critical to the current
foundation which is as good as that of any
university in the country.
It makes a difference that Georgia is the
state university. I remember Darrell Roy
al, the ultra-successful Texas coach com
menting about taking the Washington job
in 1956. He admitted he didn’t know that
much about Washington except he knew
that the school was the state university. He
later told Mack Brown when Brown was
at Tulane, that Brown would never make it
with the Green Wave, suggesting he cast his
lot with a school with “’The’ in front of its
name, because that is the only way you’re
going to make it.”
I wasn’t aware of college football mores,
histories or trends when I enrolled in Ath
ens but would come to realize the signifi
cance of an institution being the state uni
versity. With the passing of time, it would
become crystal clear as to what Georgia’s
potential was.
The reality of that circumstance is giddily
obvious today. Georgia and its legion of fol
lowers EXPECT the Bulldogs to annually
compete for national championships.
Kirby Smart’s leadership abilities are
key. He is a sound fundamental football
coach and indefatigable recruiter. There is
another element which makes him unique
— he has vision.
Greatness cannot come about without vi
sion. Although Clemson is only 79 miles to
the east, I know little about the school’s in
side story in its rise to football prominence
on the national scene — but it is obvious
that at some point Clemson chose to think
big. There was a president who told the ath
letic director, who stuck by the coach, Dabo
Swinney, to go for it. The “rest of the story”
confirms that Clemson got it right.
It is pure folly to anticipate and/or predict
a national championship. You won’t find the
current Bulldog head coach guilty of such,
but he believes that by building a program
which can compete for one an annual basis,
that that formula should bring one about.
In his first year, it was easy to conclude
that he had the “right stuff’ with regard to
winning a national championship.
The view here is that while no one can
wax clairvoyantly when it comes to fore
casting championships, the University of
Georgia has the right man for the job of
achieving that objective.
Loran Smith is a syndicated columnist
around the state and University of Geor
gia sports radio commentator. He can be
reached at loransmith@sports.uga.edu.
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