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Tuesday, May 4,2021 arnesville.com Barnesville, Ga. 30204 HERE’S THE SCOOP One cart system for B'ville garbage pickup with recycling changes SEE PAGE 3A LC vs. Bremen Elite 8 doubleheader Wednesday WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com The Lamar County soccer program has a chance to es tablish itself as a powerhouse Wednesday when Bremen comes to town for a rare Elite 8 playoff doubleheader at the LC soccer stadium. Both the Blue Devils and Lady Devils come in as the #1 ranked Class AA teams in Georgia. Action begins with the girls match at 5:30 p.m. The Lady Trojans are ranked #7. The Trojans remained un ranked as of Monday morning. The Lady Devils clobbered Elbert County 11-0 in the first round of the playoffs then blew out Fannin County 9-1 in the Sweet 16. The Lady Trojans advanced with a 5-1 win over # 8 Thom- asville here last Wednesday. The visiting Lady Dogs got a goal in the first five minutes off a Lamar defensive lapse before the Lady Trojans roared back. Freshman Samiya Smith had two goals and drew a foul in the box that led to LC’s first goal, a PK successfully con verted by fellow freshman Cara Bishop. Deshunna Bowles and Alaina Cato added single goals for Lamar (13-3). Coach Wayne Calvert’s team is on an 11- game winning streak during SEE DOUBLEHEADER 1B Bluffton man arrested in 1-75 road rage incident gets 25 years WALTER GEIGER news@barnesville.com A Bluffton, SC man who shot out his own windshield during a holiday road rage incident on 1-75 was sen tenced last week to 25 years in prison by Judge Bill Fears. Lamar depu ties were dis patched to a traffic accident on Memorial Day 2019 in which shots were reportedly fired. Dep. Cynthia Patten found a wrecked 2002 Honda Civic. The driver, Richard Charles Brown, admitted he had a gun but said it was in a book bag in his trunk. Brown said a white SUV had cut him off in traffic and he shined a flashlight at it. In the meantime, Dep. Blake Redding found the SUV. The driver, Jerrod Echols, admit ted he accidentally cut off the Honda. Echols said Brown pulled up beside him and pointed a gun at him so he rammed the Honda which went off the roadway. Echols’ twin daughters were in the SUV at the time. The investigation revealed Brown had fired four shots through the windshield of the Honda at Echols’ vehicle. Brown, 35, waited until a jury was selected before enter ing guilty pleas to aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. PHOTOS: WALTER GEIGER LC, Bremen collide Wednesday Both the Trojans and Lady Trojans prevailed in Sweet 16 matches last week and battle Bremen in an Elite 8 doubleheader here Wednesday. Both Bremen teams are ranked #1. LC’s Deshunna Bowles (17) collided with the Thomasvile keeper (left) in a 5-1 win last week while Lamar’s Joe Davies (10) was thwarted by the Fitzgerald keeper in a 3-2 Sweet 16 win (right). BROWN April Mason named Career Woman of the Year. SEE PAGE 2A Subscribe. Your name goes on the label in this box Val and Sal have been friendly rivals all through school years Valedictorian Ryla Traylor and Salutatorian Saffron Abreu. KAV S. PEDR0TTI kayspedrotti@gmail.com They have different person alities, different backgrounds, different aspirations - but vale dictorian Ryla Nicole Traylor and salutatorian Saffron Soleil Abreu are close friends and fierce competitors simultane ously for academic achieve ments. Both are brilliant, hard workers and concerned with the fate of the world; both have younger brothers; both were in Girl Scouts and other groups together. “Being valedictorian is definitely an honor. The hardest part of getting here was beating Saffron,” Ryla said, whereupon both girls burst out laughing. “Me too,” said Saffron. “1 tried to keep up as we went along. But 1 am glad now 1 don’t have to make a speech.” Ryla said she does not like speech-making either, but un derstands those things are part of the well-rounded person she is now and will be even more so as she enters the biology and pre-med program at Tennessee State University in July. She will follow the Meharry Medical/ Dental Accelerated Pathway, which will partly support col lege expenses. There are “summer intern ships” in the program, she said, and if she does well on the MCAT (the equivalent of SAT for medical school) she will have a spot there. The only doubt about a career in the medical field is “which kind of surgery I want to do, sports or general orthopedics.” Her interest in that career has not wavered since her father, Ryran Traylor, “took me to work with him when I was young and he worked in the medical field.” Ryran now is a GSC instructor, as is Ryla’s mother, Dr. Jessica Traylor. Ryla also has signed to play softball at the Division 1 rated college. Her softball stats at Lamar County High are note worthy; in addition to being named to second-team All State in 2020, she had the highest GPA on the team in 2018 and 2019. On the day of the inter view, she was still waiting for all the stitches to come out of her lower lip, which got split by a softball. Ryla also has a job at Chic- Fil-A in Thomaston and has been part of the Gordon State College Honors Council since 2019. She made the Dean’s Merit List at GSC for 2019 and 2020. She has a unique view on conflicts in the country at pres ent; she said, “A lot of people are good at pointing out what’s wrong and needs to be correct ed, but very few are willing to be part of the solutions. I don’t even like to talk about situa tions that are wrong until 1 have figured out in my own mind ways that could help.” Both Ryla and Saffron like to be with friends and family, but each feels a deep need for solitude sometimes, to “decom press” from hectic schedules. Saffron is this year’s STAR stu dent at LCHS, and said she is so driven for perfection and doing SEE VAL AND SAL 2A ©2021 THE HERALD GAZETTE, BARNESVILLE, LAMAR COUNTY, GA 30204, 770.358.NEWS