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SPORTS, LEISURE & ENTERTAINMENT
Region and state titles
becoming habit at SFHS
By Stephen Underwood
Sports Editor
If you look at the past 12
fnonths in South Forsyth athlet
ics, you could hardly imagine
that any calendar year, or school
year, could be any better.
A year ago when the progress
of War Eagle athletics was
examined, an incredible winter
Season had just concluded
Where the South cheerleaders
had claimed their second
Straight Class AA state title,
while the War Eagle boys bas
ketball team had reached the
Final Four and the wrestling
team had placed fourth in AA.
Now in mid-March of 1999,
While the cheerleaders have just
“three-peated” and Matt Guion
haS just won a state wrestling
title, one still has to go all the
way back to last spring to real
ize just how amazing the run
has been under Principal Brenda
Colby and Athletic Director
Norris Vaughan.
By the time classes got out last
June, one could reflect on the
1997-98 school year and see
that the War Eagles had claimed
nine Region 7-AA (or Area)
titles, six of those being first
time deals.
Six of those came in the
spring, with both boys and girls
tennis and golf teams sweeping
the region, along with baseball
and'girls soccer.
And of those nine teams that
went to state (plus others that
didn’t win region titles), several
were there for the first time. For
an amazing stretch of about
three weeks, it seemed that
South Was winning a region title
every other day.
The exciting thing is that near
ly all of those teams have a
chance to do it again.
IVe want to be
world-class in
everything we d 0...
academics,
athletics, the arts.
99
'There’s nothing like having
your biggest program being suc
cessful and setting the pace. AD
and head football coach
Vaughan has seen to that.
“We.want to be world class in
everything we do,” he said at
the SFHS football banquet earli
er this year and states again.
“Academics, athletics and the
arts.”
His War Eagles may not have
won the region, but they were
second to strong 7-AA newcom
er'Cartersville and were able to
a state playoff game at War
Eagle Stadium for the first time.
The high point of the cam
paign came there in a romp over
Grady in the Class AA first
round, giving South a school
record nine victories and keep
ing them in the top 15 teams in
the state.
But there was other success in
fall sports, too. In cross-country,
Chris Deal became the highest
sver boys state finisher with a
sixth in the AA final.
Katie Stern also made her sec
ond straight finals for the girls.
In softball, South just missed
making state and had Beth
Lively chosen as a GACA All-
Star.
Jhis winter saw Guion
improve from runner-up at 152
pounds to the Class AA state
wrestling champ at 160, leading
coach John Alien’s team
through another fine campaign.
Both the boys and girls basket
ball teams were in the top four
in the region and made state, the
girls for the first time. Coach
Debbie Blake’s Lady Eagles fol
lowed with a first-round upset
of Gainesville - probably the
biggest win in school history
- bowing out.
TTien there were the cheerlead
ers. Despite the adjustment
necessitated by the resignation
of One great coach (Stacey
McDaniel) and the debut of
another (Denise Miles-Bixler),
the War Eagles were unbeaten
all winter long -a school first -
i •
and won a fourth straight region
title and a third consecutive
Class AA crown.
“Those girls are just so com
mitted to excellence,” said
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Vaughan. “That’s what we all
strive for.”
And the path to excellence was
See SOUTH, Page 6G
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That championship feeling._ Pho,os/Tom Brooks s,ephen Unae
... was celebrated by South Forsyth’s cheerleaders (above) just over a month ago when they won
their third straight Class AA state championship. Back in the fall, the War Eagle football team (left
photo, with Brian Fox tackling vs. Hart County, won a record nine games and won their first-round
playoff game to advance to the second round for the first time. $
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Sunday, March 28,1 MS -
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