About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2022)
thesy lvaniatimes .com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, July 20, 2022 - Page 9 It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up -Babe Ruth SPORTS Around the horn PLAYOFFS, FOOTBALL BROADCASTS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETICS AT SYLVANLA HIGH SCHOOL WRASTLING TRIVIA Burton Kemp The beginning that keeps on giving - 15 days until the first regular season softball game, 12 until the Greenbrier scrimmage and 29 days until the first regular season football game, 22 until the Effingham County scrimmage. As mentioned elsewhere the summer practices for the winter sports are over. The sports of August and September, the so-called Fall Sports, are getting ready. I also say that nomenclature. Fall Sports, is not so accurate in many cases. By September 22, the autumnal equinox, softball will have gone through 19 regular season scheduled dates on the schedule with just six remaining. Football will have played 40% of its regular season schedule. I have not thrown this out yet, but I can guarantee you that I will again. Since softball is already guaranteed a state playoff spot on October 18-19, this is significant. The GHSA has given us a brand new softball playoff format. It shortens the playoff season by a week but takes away the opportunity for a region runner-up to host a playoff game. The first two rounds of the playoffs, formally spread out over two weeks, will now be accomplished in two days. If you are familiar with the NCAA softball and baseball regionals then you will easily understand this new format. The eight region champions will host a double elimination, four team tournament. Each tournament will represent one of the four team brackets in the traditional format. At each of the four team tournaments will be a region champion, region runner-up, region third seed, and region fourth seed. The champion will play the number four and the runner-up will play the number three. Then winners play and losers play etc. This will take place over two days. The winner of each tournament advances to Columbus on October 26-29. This is also how wrestling is set up except that wrestling is single elimination and is accomplished in one afternoon as it constitutes three matches maximum. As for the playoffs in most sports our Region 3 A D-l is paired with Region 4A D-l. That Region 4AD-1 includes five schools, most totally unfamiliar to local fans. Those schools are Crawford County, Heard County, Lamar County, Schley County, and Temple. In each of the four team softball regionals our 3A team will be matched the appropriate 4A team. As our 3A has but five football playing schools, the gridiron Gamecocks must realistically win just one game to make the playoffs (if someone goes 0-4) with two wins guaranteeing a spot (hard to see three teams going 2-2). The first region football game is not until October 14 when Bryan County is here for Homecoming. That night we will be looking to “set right” one of our most embarrassing losses ever that came a year ago. A question that has come up from a lot of folks is the status of Gamecocktv for the upcoming football season. We lost the only producer, Alex Collins, the remarkable production has ever had. If he cannot be replaced then we will have to find other avenues. One distinct possibility is to do what the GHSA wants everyone to do - become part of the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) Network. Doing this would guarantee a broadcast of at least all home games. The drawback is the $10.99/ month or $69.99/ year fee. That fee does get you access to all and sports, both regular season and playoffs, involving schools who are members of the NHFS Network. The Network also has exclusive rights to any member school’s home activities. That is why we were unable to broadcast from Pelham. The NFHS Network does furnish all equipment and Andy Tomlin and I will still be able to do play by play to accompany the broadcast. I will keep you in the loop on this matter. I was thinking about this not long ago and then somehow it came up in the Times office last week. Some folks know how much I love old time NWA and WCW wrastling (as opposed to wrestling). Can you answer the following? -Who said “I am the man of the hour, the man with the power, too sweet to ever be sour”? (Superstar Billy Graham does not count). -Who said “We snack on danger and dine on death”? -What manager always said following an interview “It has been a pleasure, naturally yours”? -The gimme now, “To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” -Not a quote but, name the original Four Horsemen. Burton Kemp Sports Editor Continuing with the first year of football, uniforms were pieced together. Jesse Griffin, whose father was the sheriff, had a complete uniform, including helmet, from Sears and Roebuck. Those uniform pants, and a pair belonging to Lamar “Fatty” Fields, who had attended Emory and had a unifomi in his closet, served as a pattern for mothers. They took khaki pants and sewed cotton, or a certain feminine product, in them for padding. Boys bought high top brogans and the shoe shop owned by George Greene made leather, screw on cleats for them. “The only thing furnished for us was the place to play and the cold showers, most of us did have shoulder pads,” said Rayford Williams. While almost everyone ended up with a pair of pants and an Orange and Black sweatshirt/jersey, there were but three helmets for the entire team. Fields’ uniform was complete save for a helmet. Griffin, with his Sears special, wore one. Hagan, the center, got one and whoever carried the ball got one. Naturally the team’s trick play was allowing someone to carry the ball who was not wearing a helmet. Lineman Rayford Williams said, “The first thing my opponent did was to hit me in the head with his knee.” So they went forth, the SHS No-Names, in search of foe. Running from a double wing offense and a 7-4 defense, the team made its debut on September 30, 1932 at the College Field in Statesboro. They lost to the Statesboro Blue Devils by a 38-0 margin. It was, however, interscholastic football. They did pick up three first downs, including one on a pass. The team recorded an 0-8 worksheet that year, scoring but one touchdown. Roberts Crockett scored those lone points on October 14 in a loss to Collins. Other opponents that season were Claxton, Millen (home and home), Swainsboro, ECI, and Waynesboro. It might be noteworthy that every school on the SHS schedule had been playing football for years. Statesboro every year since 1921, ECI and Swainsboro every year since 1919, Millen off and on since 1915, Waynesboro since 1914, and Claxton steady since 1924. Only Collins, since 1930, was fairly new to the sport. Home games that first year were played at the old fair grounds, now the old Cail Field. “We cut the grass with slings,” said Bob Howard. “It was yellow weeds with big stalks. We lined off the field, if it got lined off.” Rayford Williams remembered “There were no line markers, only out of bounds markers.” “It was just do the best you can,” said Elliot Hagan. “It is hard for anybody that wasn’t there to imagine how bad the times were. Thus that was why we didn’t have anything.” Lawton Greene recanted in a letter “In my mind I can see Jesse Griffin as he hit the line hard and was carried off the field. But he soon recovered and was back in the game. And Noble Boykin with his head back and his hair flying [no helmet] as he tried to run through the opposing line.” As was the case with the other sports at SHS during this time period, one of the major highlights of the season was the road trips. According to Bob Howard, sometimes the team got to one of these games the best way they could. Always a small boy who seldom played, Howard recounted getting to play the entire first half in Swainsboro because John C. Hollingsworth, Jim Moore and others did not get there until halftime. The team did get a bus trip to see the University of Georgia play that season. The bus broke down on the way home. Cheek called PART IV the operator, told her the names of all the boys, and she called their parents and told them they would not be home that night. While the Telephone reported on October 25 that “Sylvania Hi’s football team, no matter how weak it may seem, has hopes of winning games to come with teams that are equally as bum,” the players did not become discouraged. They said no one was critical of them and that the community stayed behind them. The Hi-Lights of Sylvania Hi said on October 14, “These good sports are fighting for you, so why not pull for them? They expect you to boast football, to go to their games and pull for them with all your strength. Go to their games and let them know you want them to win and are betting on them.” Even following a winless season, an overflow crowd came to the football banquet at the White House tea room on November 24. From that team Elliot Hagan and Roberts Crockett tried out for the football team at the University of Georgia the following fall. “We didn’t realize how little we really knew about football. The first few days, they’d pick a team to practice, usually we got sent to push things around,” stated Hagan. “We got tired of that and quit. We joined the band, so we still got to go to all the games.” Hagan went on to be elected President of the freshman class at UGA. John C. Hollingsworth, a senior on the team in 1932 who did not take his exams, was thus able to return to play in the fall of ’33. He received a scholarship to play at Georgia Military College. When he got there he practiced a couple of weeks and then went to Brewton Parker Institute. After getting kicked in the head that first season he played no more. AgroupofSCHS competitive cheerleaders work on their routine. Pictured are bases CeCe Robertson (L) and Lilly Doss (R) about to lift Payton Lee. Jada Dockery is the side spotter. Kerrigan Bogart's, the back spotter, legs are visible. Members of the SCHS Lady Gamecock softball team are about to begin unloading a portion of the 550 quarters of Powerade they received through a special program operated by Food Lion. Regular customers bought the quarts at a reduced price the week of July 4, designating them for the softball team. At the end of the week Food Lion. Uniformed members of the team will be bagging groceries on July 30 to thank the community for their support. CHECKOUT OUR NEWLOCAXION!! 613 West Ogeechee Street WE GOTCHA COVERED’
