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Section
July 20,
2023
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Comhole Tournament Raises Money for “Shop with a Hero”
photos/ Max Caylor
Mark Mitton of Community Bank in Jasper tossing for a great cause.
By Suellen Reitz
Community Thrift Store
The parking lot of the Community
Thrift Store was buzzing Saturday, as
part of the Christmas in July event
which raised money for “Shop with
a Hero,” where children in need shop
for Christmas presents with law en
forcement officers.
Approximately $4,000 dollars
was raised.
Thirty teams of comhole competi
tors held a friendly competition with
trophies for the top three winners.
Each team played at their declared
level of expertise, with handicaps
given to beginners and intermediate
players to even the chances. The
double elimination event had a total
Melissa Jordan of Community
Bank.
of 10 rounds lasting four hours be
fore the final names were declared as
champions.
First place was awarded to team
Forever Comhole from Flowery
Branch. Players Ethan Ceran and
Alex Ragsdale took home $500 for
their efforts. Second place went to
Team Presley, with Dalton Presley
from Jasper and Jody Parker from
Waleska earning $250. They gra
ciously gave $75 of that back to the
event charity recipient, “Shop With
A Hero.” Third place, and $125,
went to team Wrong Hole which was
made up of team members Brad
Blanton and Owen Moss, both resi
dents of Jasper.
Photos continued on Page 3B
Rotary Club President Sharon
Wofford.
Sports
Fanatic
By
Tommy
Gartrell
Columnist
“Avoiding the
Hammer”
On Friday of last week,
the NCAA Committee on
Infractions announced
sanctions against the Uni
versity of Tennessee foot
ball program, but the
Volunteers completely
avoided being “ham
mered” with penalties. In
fact, the school survives
with little more than a
fine.
The penalties include
an $8 million fine, loss of
28 scholarships, five years
probation and some re
strictions on recruiting
after the NCAA identified
over 200 recruiting viola
tions under former head
Summer Swim Team competes in District Competition
By Eli Galligan
Intern Reporter
intern@pickensprogress.com
Pickens competed along
side Gilmer, Calhoun, and
Catoosa Summer Swim
Teams at the 2023 Georgia
Recreation and Parks Associ
ation (GRPA) B/C District
Championships June 25th.
The competition was held at
Fort Oglethorpe, and featured
156 swimmers from the B/C
district. Pickens and Gilmer
summer swim teams will
head down to Appling Ga. for
a state competition in a few
weeks.
“All of these children
work very hard.” Said Pick
ens County Summer Swim
Team Coach, Deb Johnson.
Photos by Eli Galligan
Abigail Carrol, 7, competes in backstroke against a Cal
houn swimmer. Backstroke is the only competitive swim
ming style done with the body facing up towards the sky.
Lillie Grizzle competes in breastroke. Breastroke, also
known as “frog stroke, ” is performed with the body fac
ing downwards. The arms perform semi-circular move
ments while the legs perform a frog kick.
Brody Leake (3rd from left), 18, prepares to dive and
represent the Pickens Swim Team. He will be swim
ming at Piedmont College this fall.
Celebrating 10 Years
501(c)(3) Charitable Organization
Appalachian Mountain Scottish Rite Association’s
Charity
Golf T oumament
Benefiting
N f Jt Scottish Rite
JL Jl
Children’s- Hospital
Healthcare of Atlanta A
Thursday, August 24,2023
Lake Arrowhead Yacht & CC
486 Arrowridge • Waleska, GA 30183
Check-in begins at 7 a.m.
Shotgun start at 9 a.m.
Includes breakfast biscuits, fruit, juices, hot buffet lunch, awards & door prizes!
Early Sign-up Special
by July20,2023
$360per team
For information/sign up contact Earl Gaskins 706-692-6755 or
Sheri Crowe 770-894-2909 email scrowe@pickensprogress.com
Racing Across America
Race Recap -
2023 Crayon 301
By Alex Korowotny
Back racing at the Magic
Mile in the Granite State,
New Hampshire. This New
Hampshire race was sup
posed to be on Sunday, but
it was postponed to Monday
due to rain. So, did this race
continue the trend of races
that have been affected by
rain but were still really
good?
The race started with Bell
on pole. Truex passed him
for the lead on lap 2, show
ing early on that he was the
car to beat in this race. The
first caution came on lap 28
for Allmendinger spinning
out, which also counted as
the competition caution that
was going to come out two
laps later. A few cars took
two tires to gain track posi
tion, but Truex got the lead
back with ease shortly after
the restart and held onto the
lead to win Stage 1.
Stage 2 officially started
on lap 78, remaining green
for a long time allowing for
green flag pit stops. The
race came to a halt when
Jones spun out on lap 162.
During pit stops under cau
tion, people like Almirola,
Larson, and Logano took
two tires to have a chance at
winning Stage 2, but with
how good Truex was and
Almirola having a loose
right-rear tire, Truex took
back the lead and won Stage
2.
Stage 3 officially started
on lap 192, remaining green
for a while to where green-
flag pit stops took place
again. Truex once again kept
the lead after pit stops and
looked to cruise to the vic
tory until the caution flew
for Gragson hitting the turn
2 wall. Everyone came in to
pit for one final time except
Harvick and Austin Dillon.
Truex got by both Harvick
and Dillon just after the
restart and held on to win at
New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is a
tough track to race on and
make passes. At the same
time though, it can deliver
some great battling for posi
tion, and that is what hap
pened in this race. Every
restart that happened in this
race had amazing racing
happening throughout the
field with many two and
three-wide racing and pass-
Continued on Page 3B
football coach Jeremy
Pruitt (2018-2020).
Since UT already self-
imposed scholarship re
ductions over the past two
seasons, the sanctions
amount to only two fewer
scholarship players over
each of the next five sea
sons. Additionally, Pruitt
was “fired for cause”
which nullified any buy
out of his contract valued
at around $13 million.
Even with undisclosed
legal fees and the fine, the
university may actually be
money ahead in the end.
Vols fans are calling this
outcome a best case sce
nario for the institution be
cause a post-season ban
was avoided.
In the past, the NCAA
penalties for these kinds
of infractions would al
most certainly have in
cluded up to a two year
bowl game ban for Ten
nessee.
How would a bowl ban
be a just punishment when
all of the wrongdoers are
no longer employed by the
university?
As is always the case,
these investigations take
years and by the time they
are completed, everyone
who was actively involved
in the violations are gone
from the football program.
Punishing their replace
ments makes absolutely
no sense, so perhaps the
NCAA has grown wiser.
The guilty parties did
not escape punishment
though. In particular,
Pruitt received a six year
“show cause” penalty
which basically means
that he must serve a year
suspension if he is hired
by any NCAA institution
within six years. That
sanction likely ends his
career as a college coach
altogether. The 49 year old
is currently a defensive as
sistant in the NFL with the
New York Giants.