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Mountain City
Soccer holds award
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February 12, 2015
Dragon Soccer begins 2015 campaign
This week the Pickens High School soccer program will begin their 2015 season
with a game against Southeast High School this Thursday, February 12, at 5 p.m. at
Dragon Stadium. After a successful season last year, the Dragons look to continue to
improve and compete for the playoffs and a region title.
The boy’s team is balanced from front to back with a good combination of senior leader
ship and younger players. The boys are led by coaches Tony Flynn and Will Nix.
The girl’s team is loaded with young talent with many 9th and 10th grade players who are
representative of the growing interest in soccer in Pickens County. Led by new coaches Alan
Jent and Christi Hobgood, the girl’s side have their eye on returning to the playoffs for a
second straight season. The Dragons look forward to seeing you at Dragon Stadium and
thank you for your support.
PHS basketball teams headed to the
region tournament for a chance at state
The Dragonette and Dragon Basketball teams
had a week off to prepare for the 7-AAAA Re
gion Tournament at Southeast Whitfield High
School. The Dragonettes, under first year Head
Coach Donna Enis were 12-13 overall in the reg
ular season and 8-6 in Region play. They earned
the #3 seed and will face off against the #6 seed
Cartersville Hurricanes on Tuesday at 4:00 RM.
The Nettes split with the Hurricanes in their 2
meetings this season.
If the Dragonettes win Tuesday, they will play
the #2 Northwest Whitfield Bruins, who are
ranked #10 in the State, in the 2nd round of the
tournament. In addition, they will secure a spot
in the Basketball State Tournament! The Dragons
finished the regular season with an overall record
of 11-14 and a Region record of 3-11. For their
efforts, Coach Brad Steinhauer and the Dragons
received the #7 seed and will also face off against
the #2 seed Cartersville Hurricanes. In their pre
vious 2 meetings, the Dragons lost by 14 in De
cember, and by 3 in OT during their last meeting
in January. With the win, the Dragons will face
either #3 Northwest Whitfield or #6 Ridgeland
and will secure a State Tournament appearance
for only the 6th time in school history. If you are
able, come and support the Dragons and Drag
onettes as they look to extend their season! Good
Luck to PHS Basketball!
Talented varsity and JV baseball teams
need support from community
Scrimmage game this Friday - Valentine raffle drawing
Members of the Pickens High
School Dragon Baseball teams
are asking the commimity to sup
port their program by becoming
a corporate sponsor for the PHS
Diamond Club. Funds from the
sponsorships are used to main
tain the facilities, purchase uni
forms and equipment for both
varsity and junior varsity players
as well as field improvements
and maintenance.
Corporate sponsorships are
$275 for new sponsors and $250
for renewals. Sponsors get a 4X8
sign placed on the field in a
prominent location. “Without the
support of our corporate spon
sors, we could not field a com
petitive team,” said president of
the PHS Diamond Club John
Gossett. “The strength of our
team is backed by the support of
our generous sponsors.”
For more information or to
become a PHS baseball sponsor,
please contact Head Coach
Casey Bates at Pickens High at
706-253-1800 or John Gossett,
president of the PHS Diamond
Club, at 770-893-9854 or
jg7mag@aol.com
Check out the team’s website
at www.pickensbaseball.com
Just a
mouse
click
away
www.pickensprogress.com
U*S*A
Universal Sports Academy
101 Mountain Park Road, Jasper, GA 30143
Upcoming Events:
TEE BALL UNIVERSITY'
Every Tuesday in February 6:30 - 7:30
_Ages 4,5,6 ^$_30 per_player_
No School Camp on February 16
Baseball and Softball 9 am -1 pm
Ages 7-13 $30 per player
Spring Swing
Every Thursday in March 6:30 - 8:00 pm
Ages 10-13 $30 per player
To register Tor anyof The above camps and classes"go to our
website at www.universalsportsacademyinc.com
“Changing athletics in North Georgia one sport at a time”
Sports Fanatic
Dunking Greats?
By Tommy Gartrell
With the frigid weekend fore
cast calling for low temperatures
in the teens or less across our lo
cality, do you
plan to hiber
nate and
watch the
NBA All-Star
Weekend in
cluding the
Slam Dunk
Contest? The
dunks used to be the marquee
event of the entire weekend and
gained greater attention than the
All-Star basketball game itself.
This year, I have hardly even
heard of the four guys in the con
test. Are these players dunking
greats?
The league advertises the four
first-timers as “some of the
NBA’s most exciting and athletic
youthful talent on display.” The
field for Saturday night’s dunk
contest includes Minnesota Tim-
berwolves’ Zach LaVine, Mil
waukee Bucks’ Giannis
Antetokounmpo, Orlando
Magic’s Victor Oladipo and
Brooklyn Nets’ Mason Plumlee.
It is an alphabetic explosion of
unfamiliar names. Where are all
the superstars though? These
guys are barely NBA starters let
alone All-Star talent.
How did this assembly of less
than household names get into
one of the most famous contests
in professional sports? Legends
were made in this even. Names
like Julius “Dr. J” Erving, Do
minique Wilkins, Michael Jor
dan and Kobe Bryant won past
events, and now, it is reduced to
a quorum of no names.
The most recognized stars
and active legends of basketball
shun this event now. I would
love to see Kobe Bryant, Dwight
Howard, Blake Griffin and
Carmelo Anthony in the 2015
Slam Dunk Contest, but all of
these players are out with injury.
How about a field consisting of
James Harden, LeBron James,
Russell Westbrook, and Anthony
Davis? They lead the league in
scoring by averaging over 25
points per game.
The argument that not all
players are good at dunking the
ball is absurd; they are profes
sionals for goodness sake. At
lanta’s Anthony “Spud” Webb
won the 1986 Slam Dunk Con
test at only 5 feet, 7 inches of
height and 133 pounds, so I will
not buy a 6 foot pro who can not
dunk a basketball. Pickens High
School senior and soon to be
University of Minnesota football
standout Shannon Brooks is 6
feet tall and averages a couple of
slam dunks per game in high
school. He is only 18 years old
and we are discussing seasoned
NBA veterans.
Why are those names absent
from the dunk contest? It bog
gles my mind. Anyone with
knowledge of the sport and its
players’ huge shoe deals would
think that Nike, Adidas and Li
Ning push their shoes through
endorsement deals which com
pel their guys to enter the event.
Michael Jordan was widely
known as a great player as early
as 1982 at North Carolina but in
the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest,
“Air” Jordan became a house
hold name. Before all of the
championships and legendary
post season performances, he
thrilled the world with superhu
man flight and amazing dunks.
I truly have no explanation
for the absents of big name play
ers in this year’s slam dunk con
test, but we can tune into the
program and watch “dribble no
evil,” “pass no evil,” “rebound
no evil” and “shoot no evil” or
whatever their names are attempt
to be Jordan. I would prefer a
Mister Ed marathon or reruns of
Maude or an episode or two of
The Cisco Kid while listening to
the Best of Slim Whitman.
Milner and Massey advance to state
Josh Massey qualified for the state wrestling tournament in Macon.
Koby Milner placed 1st at last week’s sectionals. Milner
will be a #1 seed at state.
17-2, 11-0,4-3. Those are the
scores of the matches Koby Mil
ner wrestled before the finals of
the GHSA 4A West Sectional
Tournament on Friday and Satur
day. Each match represented an
other stepping stone on Milner’s
march toward a state title. Each
victory gave more credence to
the thought that Milner, now 36-
3 on the season, is the best 106
pound wrestler in AAAA.
Milner won his first match
over Jake Frost of Carrolton in
impressive fashion. He used a
variety of techniques to score a
17-2 technical fall. His next
match came later on Friday night
as he wrestled Cameron Hope of
Griffin. Griffin clearly had a
weight advantage on Milner but
Milner once again proved his
ability as he held Hope scoreless
and came away with the 11-0
victory. Milner’s semi-final
match on Saturday placed him
against Jake Lee of Sandy Creek,
who was undefeated heading
into the tournament. Many had
predicted that this match would
be the best match at 106 pounds
in the entire tournament and the
two did not disappoint. Milner
found himself down early but
stormed back to defeat Lee 4-3
and move on to the finals where
he would meet an old foe:
Domingo Reynoso of Gilmer.
61 seconds. That’s how long
it took Milner to defeat Reynoso
in their third match of the year.
After a scramble that lasted
nearly 40 seconds as both
wrestlers tried to gain control,
Milner locked Reynoso in a
standing cradle and settled in for
the pin. The win gave Milner 1 st
place in the sectionals and one of
two number one seeds at state.
“I wish I could take credit for
Koby, but that kid has worked
hard and all we have done as a
staff is nurture him along and
help when he needs help. No one
has worked harder. He can flat
out go and he has a laser focus on
that state title,” stated head coach
Grady Flanagan.
Also qualifying for state was
senior wrestler Josh Massey.
Massey’s road to the finals was
not as easy. His first round match
was against Dan Womstaff of
Pike County. “We had seen some
film on the Pike County kid and
we thought we had a good plan
for him. One thing you can never
tell from film is how strong a kid
is. Womstaff was really strong
and would have placed second if
he didn’t have to wrestle (Matt)
Waddell in the semis.” Womstaff
would pin Massey and eventu
ally finish 3rd. Massey would be
forced to wrestle under immense
pressure for the next two
matches. One more loss would
end his season and his career. In
his second match on Friday,
Massey wrestled Collin Hurst of
Thomas County Central. Hurst
came out very physical in an at
tempt to throw Massey off his
game but Massey answered back
with some of his own physicality
and eventually pinned Hurst to
advance to Saturday. On Satur
day, Massey faced Caleb Battles
of Perry. In a tough, hard-nosed
match, Massey ground out a win
5-4 to officially qualify for state.
All that was left was to wrestle
for seeding. After losing to Tyler
Storey of Bainbridge, Massey re
turned to defeat James Carroll of
Veterans to take 7th. “We could
not be prouder of Josh. He has
worked very hard this year and
had to endure some tough losses
along with very bad draws in
tournaments. If he had been on
the other side of the bracket, he
would likely have been 4th. He
is a young man who will surprise
someone at state.”
Failing in his bid to qualify
for state was senior John Hobert.
“John was a victim of wrestling
in 7-AAAA with three very
tough wrestlers in his weight
class, all going to state. Coming
in as the 4 seed from our area,
John had to wrestle a 1 seed from
another area. He had the kid on
his back at one point but he is a
one seed for a reason. That
young man went on to take 1 st in
the tournament. Losing that
match had a real effect on John
and I think that carried over to
the next match. He tried every
thing and just could not get the
young man from Bainbridge
turned for points. We are so
pleased with John and hated for
his Pickens career to end that
way. He was the leader of this
team and I don’t think anyone on
the team was emotionless when
he lost. He’s a great young man
and has a great future ahead of
him.” - Coach Flanagan
Massey and Milner will travel
to Macon for state on February
12-14. Should either of them
place, they will be Pickens’ first
state medalists since Aaron
Lohman in 2011. Should either
of them win, they would become
only the second state champion
in Pickens wrestling history. The
last won was Chad Wigington in
2005.