About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2022)
SPORTS DawsonNewscom Wednesday, June 29, 2022 facebook.com/dawsonnews twitter.com/dawsonnews Dawson football schedule finalized Zach Holtzclaw holds the all-time passing yards and touchdown records for the DCHS football team. Jacob Smith Dawson County News Tigers continue rivalry with N. Hall By Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com The northeast Georgia high school sports outlet Blitz Sports recently announced its latest Hall of Fame class, with five Dawson County athletes making the list. Included in this year’s class were two recent graduates and three Tigers from previous gradu ating classes. The most recent DCHS athletes enshrined into the Blitz HOF were former quarterback Zach Holtzclaw and track and field star Ethan Smith. Two other football players were on the list, including class of 2019 safety Logan Barnes and class of 2013 wide receiver Bruce Clark. Rounding out the recognized Tigers was class of 2019 soccer standout Rachel Rajczak. Holtzclaw finished his career with the all-time passing yards and passing touchdown records for DCHS, amassing 7,299 pass ing yards and 76 passing touch downs. He was also the 2021 Region 7-3A Player of the Year. “It means a lot continuing the tradition of Dawson players in the Blitz Hall of Fame,” Holtzclaw said. “I’m honored and blessed to continue that tradition.” Smith was one of the most suc cessful track and field athletes on a team with historic success. He holds the school record for the 800-meter and was the anchor leg of the record-setting 4x400 and 4x800 teams. He won a total five region titles in his career and had three top-5 finishes at the state competition. Barnes holds the school record for most tackles with 304. A two- time All-Region and All-State selection, he went on to play for Wofford for his collegiate career. Clark was instrumental in the Tigers’ success in the early part of the 2010s, becoming the star target of quarterback Tyler Dominy. Clark finished his DCHS career with 2,200 receiv ing yards and 30 touchdowns before playing college football at Shorter. Rajczak totaled over 100 goal involvements in her four years with the Tigers, racking up 67 goals and 46 assists. A four-time All-Region and two-time All- State selection, she set a school record with 15 assists her sopho more season. Hitting the links with a spin Photos by Erica Jones Disc golfers enjoy the new "Shiners 9" course at Main Street Park in Dawsonville. Disc golf comes to Dawsonville this summer By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com This summer, the City of Dawsonville is adding yet another exciting new activity to Main Street Park: a nine-hole disc golf course. The course, dubbed the “Shiners 9”, winds through Main Street Park, beginning and end- ing near the park entrance behind City Hall. Currently, the course consists of bas kets and tee pads marked off with flags, and the city will soon be pouring concrete tee pads and adding signs for each hole. Disc golf is a sport in which plastic discs are thrown into a series of metal baskets, and much like traditional golf the goal is to complete each hole with the fewest number of throws possi ble. The sport has gained popularity over the past several years, and while there are disc golf cours es in neighboring coun ties like Lumpkin and Lorsyth the “Shiners 9” is the first course to be installed in Dawson County. “Lor anybody who plays disc golf, it’s like any course that you hear about that’s close by — everybody goes to play it,” City Clerk Beverly Banister said. Banister, who disc golfs with her husband, was instrumental in the installation of the course at Main Street Park. Together with other vol unteers, the pair have put time and effort into help ing design and fine-tune the new course. “One of the teachers over at the junior high is really passionate as well and he was the one who actually laid out his ideas of where the baskets could go and then we just walked it and fine- tuned it and everything,” Banister said. “It’s so much fun; it’s something I’ve done for a while so I was kind of advocating for it here.” While the installation of the concrete tee pads and signs is still in prog ress, that hasn’t hindered disc golfers from enjoy ing the new course, City Manager Bob Bolz said. “We’ve had a ton of people playing; it is tre mendously popular and it’s something else to do at the city,” Bolz said. “It’s really just getting started but we’ve already got a whole lot of people playing it. We’ve had people come in and play from all over the county and other counties.” The signs that will be installed at each tee pad will include the hole See Disc |3B Former Tigers standout Sapp part of Ole Miss CWS title team By Rio White riowhite@dawsonnews.com On Sunday, June 26, former Dawson County baseball standout Hudson Sapp got to be a part of history, as the Ole Miss baseball team won its first national championship in program history after win ning the College World Series. The son of recently-retired Tigers head coach Dwayne Sapp, Hudson is currently a redshirt fresh man on the Rebels and plays in the outfield. With the high-caliber roster around him, Sapp has seen limited playing time but has been able to learn from his teammates who helped build the team’s success. His offensive highlight of the season was a two- run double he hit against Auburn earlier this season, while his defensive highlight was a diving catch in the outfield against Memphis. Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics DCHS alum Hudson Sapp was a member of the College World Series-winning Ole Miss base ball team. Lake dweller, diver talk about importance of dock clearing By Ashlyn Yule DCN Regional Staff As the summer sun begins to rise over Lake Lanier, folks who live on the lake, often called ‘dwellers,’ start to take to the water to boat, swim and float. While boat safety is important for everyone on the lake, there are certain risks that dwellers are privy to: What’s under your dock? Lake Lanier Recovery Divers, a group of divers that recover lost items in Lake Lanier, has been diving around and below dwellers’ docks, clearing them of any debris, furni ture or trash that could harm someone jumping off the dock. Allison Zafft, a resident of Gwinnett County in the Buford Dam area, has been getting her dock cleared by Lake Lanier Recovery Divers for “probably about five or six years.” Zafft said she and her husband have two chil dren that like to swim; they took lessons when they were younger, and they are now competitive swimmers. “Water safety was always important to us,” Zafft said. “And now, after living on the lake, we just thought [getting our dock cleared] was necessary as the kids got older and wanted to jump off the dock and go swimming in the lake.” Richard Pickering, a diver with Lake Lanier Recovery Divers, said he has been helping the Zafft family maintain good “dock integrity” by inspecting below the dock and retrieving any haz ards, some more danger ous than others. One evening, Zafft said she and her family were out for dinner when a storm hit. They watched through the dock cameras as they lost furniture to the wind and waves on Lake Lanier. Zafft said she and her family were out for din ner when a storm hit. They watched through their dock cameras as they lost furniture to the See Dock|3B Player Of The Week! Hudson Sapp The player of the week is DCHS alum Hudson Sapp, who was part of the Ole Miss baseball teams national championship squad. DUNKIN DONUTS DAHLONEGA Industrial Park Rd. We’ve Gone Green! M-F: 8:00 - 5:00 “We will be here when you need us. ” 130 Industrial Park Rd, Dawsonville Dawsonville’s Premier Collision Center
