About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2022)
thesylvaniatimes.com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, April 6, 2022 - Page 9 SCHS TENNIS TEAMS REPEAT AS REGION 3A CHAMPIONS GAMECOCKS TAKE THE MEASiDll ©IF HO 34 LADY GAMECOCKS OUTLAST CLAXT \ 3-1 Taking barely an hour the SCHS Gamecock tennis team of Kyle Reynolds rolled past ECI 3-0 to make it back to back Region 3A tennis titles. Pushed back a day by rain, the Red and White claimed their title on their brand new home courts on April Fool’s Day. The two wins moved the record for the Red and White to 10-7 after a 2-6 start against some extremely tough competition. Statesboro will be the host for the final regular season match on April 12 with the state tournament starting the next week. By April 21 that first round of state must be completed. SCHS will host the Region 1A number four team. In last season’s brackets the region did not have a fourth place team. In the championship match ECI was at tempting to reverse a 5-0 defeat they suf fered on their home courts on March 22. To hopefully obtain their goal the Bulldogs presented an almost entirely new lineup. Only their number one singles player, who took SCHS number one Attison Lee to three sets in Twin City, was the same. The re sult, however, was exactly the same. The Gamecocks won with Thomas Milner (6- 3, 6-3), Mason Forehand (6-0, 7-5), and River Reynolds/John Boswell (6-3, 6-4) finishing. Lee won his first set 7-6 (5) and had not started his second set while Zach Thompson/ Jeremiah Stuart were up 6-4, 4-3 when both were pulled. Their morning semifinal presented less than a challenge to the Gamecocks as they rolled past the Tigers 3-0 and were up a set and a 3-0 second set in the other two. In play the team lost a total of two games. The three shutout wins went to Lee, Milner, and Thompson/Stuart while Forehand was 6-0, 3-0 before being pulled and Reynolds/ Boswell were 6-2, 3-0 when pulled. SCHS was most certainly on its way to a 5-0 win. For the season the Gamecock starting line up has Lee at 7-7, Milner at 12-5, Forehand at 10-3, Reynolds/Boswell at 10-4, and Thompson/Stuart at 7-5. For the boys the region championship was the 17th for the program since the current format was set up in 1990. A season ago the team started slowly, eventually advancing to the state championship match before being ousted from the playoffs. i Surviving some early scares in the championship match, the Screven County Lady Gamecocks of Kyle Reynolds claimed their second consecutive Region 3 A champi onship with a 3-1 victory over the homestanding Claxton Lady Tigers last Wednes day. The pair of wins from the day lifted the team’s overall record to 11-6 and gave them seven consecutive wins over 3 A opponents on the season The title was the girls programs’ 21st since 1990 and the origins of the current format of team tennis. The championship bout between the home team and the Lady Gamecocks was a rematch of the March 23rd match on the locals’ courts won by SCHS 3-2. Prior to the tournament Claxton switched their two and three singles hoping to get their extra win over Lyla Johnson at number two singles. They didn’t. In the finals Claxton picked up the first win as Emma Rose Griner fell 2-6, 0-6. The doubles team of Katheryn Davis/ Samantha Forehand evened the count at 1 -1 with a 6-0, 6-2 win. At that point SCHS was up a set in two matches and down a set in the other. Madison Scott/ Garyn Howard came off with a 6-2, 6-2 win. At number one Emma Webb lost her first set 6-7 (6) while Johnson won hers 6-3. Johnson fell behind early in her second set to create anxious moments but rebounded to win the second set 6-4. At that point Webb was pulled 5-5 in the sec ond set. SCHS faced Metter in the region semifi nals in the morning. The match was over very, very quickly as Metter’s team of Lady Tigers carried no swat at all. In the five matches MHS won just five games. Webb, Griner, and the team of Davis/ Forehand each lost one game in their two sets while Scott/Howard lost a game in each set, and Johnson pitched a shutout. With a final regular season match up on April 12 in Statesboro, the Lady Game cocks will start the state playoffs the following week and that match must be com pleted by April 21. They will host the fourth seeded team from Region 1. Records for the lineup show Webb at 10-6, Johnson at 12-5, Griner 5-5, Scott/Howard at 11-6, and the Davis/ Forehand at 10-3. Winning the Region 3 A Boys Championship on April 1 with a win over ECI were Tucker Thomas, Landon Forehand, Kade Chandler, Thomas Milner, Zach Thompson, River Reynolds with the trophy, Jeremiah Stuart, Attison Lee, Mason Forehand, John Boswell, Bo Doss, Josh Patel Winning the Region 3 A Girls Championship on March 30 were Katheryn Davis, Samantha Forehand, Emma Webb, Emma Rose Griner, Garyn Howard, Madison Scott holding the trophy, Jayla Lovett, Lyla Johnson, Lilia Burch, Emma Polk, Kerrigan Bogart. Around the horn Spring break slow down is upon us Burton Kemp Just as a year ago and just like any knowledge able Gamecock and Re gion 3A fan predicted, the SCHS athletic pro gram brought home three region champion ships over the past two weeks. First soccer, then girls’ tennis, and then boys’ tennis all did what they were supposed to do. Three teams with the proverbial bulls-eye on their back lived up to their expectations. And though the soccer team took a surprising late hit, they all did it quite eas ily But after the excitement of last week, the bore dom that is this week of spring break has begun. There is no tennis, no soccer, no track, and no middle school athletics this week. There was a scheduled baseball game here yesterday and another one tomorrow at Claxton and nothing else. Even with the end of the break, things will move more slowly. Ten nis has a regular season match scheduled for Monday and that finish es their regular season and the playoffs begin. Baseball will have two weeks of regular sea son remaining and track is supposed to have a home meet on the 14th. Put the 18th on your cal endar for that is the next time soccer will play at Kelly Memorial Stadium and it will be the second round of state play. For football fans hop ing for a rebound, spring practice is fast approaching. Accord ing to Head Coach Ron Duncan practice will start on Monday, May 2. Beyond that virtually no plans are finalized. One thing is for sure there are a lot of holes that he and his staff must fill and spring ineligibility is going to make that a lot tougher. Two years of COVID-inflated grades caught up with a lot of student-athletes in Janu ary. Hopefully those af fected are hard at work for this semester. Student comes first in student- athlete. This fall Effing ham County will be here for the annual scrim mage on August 12 and GSIC (Georgia School for Innovation and Clas sics) will be here for the season lidlifter the following week. There are six home games this season. One of my big questions- will there be a Gamecocktv this year? We lost our producer and no one has stepped up as of yet. If you are a soccer fan beyond SCHS, you know that last week the US Men clinched a spot in the World Cup. They did it with a 2-0 loss to homestanding Costa Rica. All they had to do was not lose by six goals. The USMNT got to that point with a 5-1 win over Panama. Amazing how hard we have to work to beat the teams from these small countries (See my oft- quoted Kornheiser’s Soccer Population The ory which never, ever works for us). The men’s world cup begins in November in Qatar. We did not qualify for the last World Cup. All the while the USWNT has won the last two World Cups. I failed to mention it a few weeks ago, but the women did win a court battle a few weeks ago to get equal pay as the men. They never, ever should have had to go to court to get it. Let’s quickly check on our collegiate soft- ball players. Karleigh Crews is still the back up catcher at Brewton Parker. The Lady Bar ons are an up and com ing program after some really down years. Way up in Lynchburg VA Kara Canetto, a senior with another year of eligibility, is hitting a solid .280 for t h e Liberty Lady Flames. LU is currently 9-0 in Atlantic Sun play and 25-12 overall. Ten of their losses have come to Power-5 conference teams. Last in a truly Around the Horn column with nothing major to talk about at all, major league baseball starts tomorrow. A huge question is- has your life been a) better without baseball b) devoid of meaning without baseball c) no different because I don’t watch baseball anyway d) some com bination of a and c. I will watch when I can but I personally, my life has been no differ ent without baseball on television. 613 West Ogeeehee Street. Sylvan a, Georgia 3D4G7 rockstar_g raphicsftyahoo.com SHIRTS • SIGNS - HATS - STICKER! EMBROIDERY - CUSTOM ARTWORK
