About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2022)
thesy lvaniatimes .com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - Page 9 SPORTS ■ ^ GAMECOCKS ADVANCE TO TENNIS SEMIFINALS LADY GAMECOCKS FALL With an impressive 4-1 win over Region 6A champion Trion last Thursday, the Screven County High School tennis Gamecocks of Kyle Reynolds continued their march toward, hopefully, a second straight state championship match. This week the Roosters may get a chance to avenge their 2021 state championship loss to Seminole County as they will host the winner of the match between the Region 1 champion Indians against the Region 8A champion Lake Oconee Academy Titans that was played on Monday. State championship matches are on Saturday, May 14 at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College. The win im proved SCHS to 13-9 on the season. Coming in with shutout wins over Baconton Charter from Region 1A and Marion County from Region 5 A things started quickly for the Roosters when number two singles and junior Thomas Milner improved his season long record to 16-6 with a very impressive 6-2, 6-2 win over Jack Weaver. At number one junior Attison Lee soon thereafter fell to James Willing ham 2-6, 4-6. In post game comments the Bulldogs’ top player seemed confident of victory. It was not going to happen. The loss dropped Lee to 10-9 Improving to 12-5 on the season, number three Mason Forehand (12-5), a junior, put the Gamecocks in the driver’s seat with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Gavin Gillespie and a win by one of the two doubles teams was all that was necessary. The top team of senior River Reyn- TO TRION IN QUARTERFINALS Able to pull out but one win, the 3A champion SCHS Lady Gamecocks of Kyle Reynolds fell to visiting Region 6A champion Trion’s Lady Bulldogs by a 4-1 margin on the brand new Screven County High School courts last Thursday. With the loss the Red and White com pleted their season at 14-8 with their 19th trip to at least the state quarterfinals this century. The program has also won 13 region championships over the same span. The Red and White got off to a quick lead when junior Emma Webb came off with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Maggie Ragland at number one. The lefty, playing at number one from the begin ning to the end of the season, finished at 13-5 and gave the team its most consistent number one performance in nearly a decade going back to Jancy Durrence’s 18-5 in 2015 and Sydnee Weaver’s 15-8 in 2011. At the time Webb came off the number one doubles were about to split sets and three singles and two doubles had yet to come on. Sophomore Lyla Johnson’s 4-6, 3-6 loss to Blythe Rabbe evened the count at 1-1. Johnson’s loss gave her a 13-7 season long record at number two singles. At that point one doubles was late in the third set, number two doubles was down 5-2 in their first set, and third singles was already down a set. Soon the season long top doubles of senior Madison Scott and sopho- At number two singles senior Zach Thompson (left) and junior Jeremiah Stuart defeated Trion’s Tanish Pa- tel/Greyson Patty 3-6, 7-5, 10-3 to put the icing on the cake for SCHS in their 4-1 quarterfinal win over Trion at the new SCHS courts, (photo by Dana Doss) Right: The regular number one doubles team of senior River Reynolds (left) and sophomore John Boswell congratulate themselves after their 7-5, 6-3 win over Isaac Stewart/Cole Cavin gave the Gamecocks their third win and a spot in the state semifinals this week, (photo by Dana Doss) Junior Emma Webb charges the net in her 6-4, 6-2 win over Trion’s Maggie Ragland. Webb's win, which improved her record to 13-5 on the season, gave the Lady Gamecocks a 1-0 lead in their state quarterfinal match last week. It turned out to be the only win for SCHS- photo by Dana Doss Burton Kemp We are reaching the time of year when the sports news is growing short. Last week was the last baseball story. This week is the last soc cer and girls tennis story. For boys tennis there is at least one more but hopefully two. There will be two more track stories. Then things really get slim. Spring foot ball started Monday, there is only so much to say about it. Cheerleading tryouts began Monday. Softball will have tryouts sometime in the next couple of weeks. Whatever happens this week is your last chance to see an SCHS athletic event on the SCHS campus un til the first home softball game in August. No matter what the Gamecock tennis team does this week, and I Around the horn Getting Really, Really Late in the Sports Season feel very good about what they may do, they will not be home with a win. The state title matchups are all in Rome on May 14. The courts at Berry College are beautiful but they are over 250 miles away. You have to be going to Rome to go to Rome. As for our courts, the first season on the brand new Screven County High School courts has been very successful and the reviews have all been great. The courts are a great venue for the most successful pro gram at the high school. As to the most success ful program at SCHS, let’s look at some numbers and you draw your own conclu sion. The current format of team tennis started in 1990. Since that year the girls have won 21 region championships and the boys 17. Cheerleading, the clos est rival, started the current competitive format in 1993- 94 and they have won 17 re gion titles (two while being the lone participant in the region- but they still count). Football has 12 since 1950 while baseball has 11 since 1950. Girls cross country has 10 this century. Softball has seven (four slow pitch 1980-2000 and three fast pitch). Boys’ track has five and girls’ track three. Wres tling has four traditional area titles and three area du als titles (an area title is the same as a region title). Girls’ basketball, golf, and soc cer have two each. Finally boys’ basketball and boys’ cross country have one each. Softball (1992) and football (2002) have the lone state titles. Softball also has a state runner finish (1989) as does football (1994). Girls’ tennis has three state runner- up finishes (2001, 2004, and 2017) while boys’ tennis has two (1993 and 2021). Base ball has a pair of state run ner-up finishes (1952 and 1953). Golf claimed state mnner-up status in 1966 and 1970. Finally the cheerlead ers had a state runner-up fin ish in 2017. If I have omit ted any, please let me know for that means I do not have it on my list- same with re gion championships. Over the past ten years, back to the 2012-13 school year, cross country can claim the most successful program. In the past ten years the region champi onship count shows cross country with nine, girls’ ten nis with eight, boys’ tennis and cheerleading with six, all of the wrestling titles mentioned are within the pe riod as are the two for soc cer. Football has four. Boys track, girls track, and girls’ basketball have one each. That is over 40 region titles in a ten year period. Awe some ! One measure of success brings us back to GADA Directors Cup standings for 3A that I started throwing out last week. This is a mea sure of athletic success this current school year. SCHS still leads 3A at 335 to Met- ter’s 299. ECI was second last week but they dropped all the way to sixth. The SCHS boys dropped from second to sixth. Metter still leads at 197 but SCHS is still at 94. The girls padded their lead with soccer points added. Now the lead is 241 to ECI 149. Both the boys and girls have tennis points coming. A pair of soccer disap pointments last week, one that came at the beginning of the week and one at the end of the week. First on Monday our Lady Game cocks went to Atlanta and fell very hard to Atlanta Classical. Of course the hope was that the defending state champions would go on and repeat and then we could say we lost to the state champs. Well Classical will not be repeating. They got beat by Region 8 champion Social Circle 3-1 last Thurs day. Now Social Circle will play Commerce, the Region 8 runner-up, for the state title. The teams split their regular season meetings. Our Region 3A contin ued its dominant run over Region 1A in yet another sport. In baseball playoffs this past weekend it was #1 Metter over Pelham 17-2 and 11-0, #2 Claxton over Seminole County 16-6 and 8-1, #3 Bryan County over Pataula Charter 20-0 and 7-6, and #4 ECI over Ba conton Charter 3-1 and 6-2. In bracketed sports this ath letic year 3A swept 1A in baseball, softball, and soc cer; took three of four in football, as well as girls and boys tennis, and split in bas ketball. In baseball’s second round all 3A teams save Claxton will pair off with a team from Region 7. Final note- in Thomaston today the GHSA Executive Committee has a meeting. The only major thing on the agenda appears to be add ing a second private school member to the Board of Trustees. Imagine that. EMBROIDERY - CUSTOM ARTWORK 613 West Otjeechee Street. Sylvan a. Georgia 30467 rock5tar_g raphics&yahoocom
