About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2022)
SPORTS DawsonNewscom Wednesday, April 6, 2022 facebook.com/dawsonnews twitter.com/dawsonnews Season ends for DCHS soccer teams By:Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com For the Dawson County High School boys and girls soccer teams, the past season saw indi vidual and collective growth. The season came to its conclu sion on Friday, April 1, when Dawson County traveled to play Cherokee Bluff in the reg ular season finale. Coming into Friday’s match es, the boys and girls teams car ried season storylines that drew both similarities and contrasts. While the boys team headed into the match with an opportu nity to clinch the No. 4 seed in Region 7-AAA and a trip to the state playoffs, the girls team was looking for one last posi tive performance to end the season as they finished sixth in the region. Despite the difference in position, the two teams shared a similar road to improvement from the previous season. During the 2021 season, both teams struggled and had only three wins combined. But this season, strong leadership and team chemistry led to the boys team winning seven games and the girls team winning four. Led by vocal leaders Kenna LeBaron and Erick Sanchez, the two sides found themselves in better shape at the end of the season and have a foundation to build upon for the future. While the girls team would fall to region champions Cherokee Bluff 10-0 and the boys team lost 5-0, both coach es reflected on the progress made during the season. “We had great senior leader ship all year,” girls team head coach Chess Hamby said. “We were hoping to get in the play offs but that didn’t happen. Overall, we improved in the final region standings, so we were happy with that.” Hamby also mentioned that next year’s leaders would come from both experienced players and some of the younger See Soccer|3B Rio White Dawson County News Kenna LeBaron defends during the game against Cherokee Bluff. She was an important vocal leader of the team throughout the season. Tennis teams earn spots in State Tournament Kurtz sets DCHS pole vault record By: Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com By: Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com After putting in two days of hard work at the Region 7-AAA Tournament this week, the Dawson County boys and girls tennis teams earned places at the GHSA State Tournament. Both teams entered the region tournament as the No. 4 seed in Region 7, playing their first-round matches on Tuesday, March 30. The girls team began their Tuesday matches at 9 a.m. against White County at Lumpkin County while the boys began at 10 a.m. against West Hall at Yahoola Creek Park. Dawson County got out to a strong start, with the girls team winning all five matches against White County to advance to the semifinals later that day against North Hall. Across town, the boys team would win four of their five matches to set up a meeting with Cherokee Bluff in the semifinals. While both teams would lose in the semifi nals, they still had a chance to play on Wednesday in the third- place matches back at the Lumpkin County courts. On Wednesday morn ing, both Tigers teams faced Lumpkin County for a chance to be a No. 3 seed at the state tourna ment. The girls team began the long day of competi tion for Dawson County with tight matches that showed both teams’ desire to win. Junior Kayleigh Moon found herself down 3-5 in the first set before storm ing back to win 7-5. In that match, Moon used her strong finishing shots and adjusted her defen sive positioning to induce unforced errors from her opponent. following another tight set, Moon would prevail 7-5, 6-4. After Dawson County’s first doubles team lost their match, senior Blake Smith warded off her opponent 6-4, 6-3 to give the Lady Tigers two wins on the day. The two remaining matches would be close as well, with the doubles pairing of Wendy Castro and Amber Horton drop ping the first set before forcing a second-set tie breaker. The pair would lose the tiebreaker 7-3 and fall 4-6, 6-7. Sophomore Marlee Gaddis would play the most demanding match of the day, facing her oppo nent for well over three hours and exceeding the length of the boys match es, which started an hour after the girls. In a back-and-forth affair, Gaddis narrowly dropped the first set before winning the sec ond. Both players put everything they had in the match, with Gaddis ulti mately falling short 5-7, 6-4, 5-7. “Marlee played an incredible match, proba bly her most challenging yet,” girls team head coach Laura Ledbetter said. “She pushed through and persevered for over three hours. [She] does an incredible job staying calm and focused on each point.” The boys team faced challenging matches as well, with senior Zach friday playing a tight first set before eventually wearing his opponent down to win 6-4, 6-1. While his consistency at the baseline is his stron gest attribute, his willing ness to go to the net helped him this time around. Meanwhile, the doubles pairing of sophomores Grant Ledbetter and Connor Woody also won 6-4, 6-1. In the tightest match of the day, sophomore Chase Cofield faced and won a first-set tiebreaker and won a close second set to win 7-6, 7-5 and clinch the No.3 seed for the boys team. “Chase stepped up big with a win today,” boys head coach Logan Allen said. “He won the clinch ing match to make the state tournament last year and today he won the match to clinch the No. 3 seed. Today was a great performance but I really feel like he played very good both days.” With that win, the other two matches were called off but were also close at the time. The doubles pairing of seniors Connor Scroggins and Ben Swafford lost their first set and were down 1-5 in the second set before coming all the way back to win 7-5. Senior Lane Perry had lost his first set but was up 4-3 in the second when his match was called off. With those results, the girls team is the No. 4 seed from Region 7 while the boys team is the No. 3 seed. The first round of the State Tournament will be during the week of Monday, April 18. The girls team will face the winner of Region 5 while the boys will face that region’s runner-up. It has not yet been deter mined which teams those are. Rio White Dawson County News Junior Emily Kurtz has been leading the way for Dawson County's track and field team in the pole vault all season and just set a school record in that event. (The photo above is from a previous meet). Roper shoots career low to highlight busy week for DCHS golf By Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com Christian Roper shot a career-low of 33 to high light the first of three events that the Dawson County High School golf teams participated in last week. To open the week, the boys and girls teams went up against Habersham Central and North Lorsyth on Monday, March 28, at Chestatee Golf Club. It was here that Roper led the way for the Tigers with his 3-under 33 score. Not only was this a career-best for him, but he helped the team to its season-best four-player aggregate of 154. “I’m really proud of my guys,” boys team head coach Will Anglin said. “We haven’t been playing very well in previous weeks [but] I challenged them See Golf 13B Photos by Rio White Dawson County News Zach Friday prepares to hit a backhand shot against his West Hall opponent in his first round match. Junior pole vaulter Emily Kurtz set a new school record during the Dawson County track and field team's meet on Tuesday, March 29. She cleared a height of 8 feet 7 inches to set the mark. "Emily is an extremely dedicated athlete that works to be the best," head coach Arron Haynes said. "She is a prime example of hard work paying off [and] will not be satisfied staying at 8’7”.” Marlee Gaddis hits a shot during her three-hour match against her Lumpkin County opponent. Dawsonville’s Premier Collision Center Player Of The Week! Kurtz This weeks Player of the Week is Emily Kurtz, who set a school record in the pole vault with a height of 8 feet 7 inches. Sponsored by: Certified Collision Center 706-216-0992 We’ve Gone Green! “We will be here when you need us. ” II- M-F: 8:00 - 5:00 130 Industrial Park Rd, Dawsonville
