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Woods 'n Water— 2B
Perry sports
Brian |
JmLj Lawson
Sports editor
Musings on
hoops, picks
and money
A few scattered odds and ends that
seem appropriate to fill in this
space this week:
•The Perry High basketball teams
having to delay their season a week
to accomodate Macon County is
one of the stranger administra
tive/athletic circumstances I've
heard of.
Macon County is in the midst of
an undefeated football season and
they're still making a run in the
playoffs. Apparently, somebody
with some pull at Macon County
asked their basketball coach to ap
proach Perry about changing the
date of their Dec. 1 season opener.
One of the strange aspects of this
request is the fact that Macon
County is going to play a basket
ball game against Dodge County
Saturday. One of their apparent ra
tionales for the delay with Perry
was their best player and two other
likely starters arc still playing foot
ball. But now they’re going ahead
with the exact same team they
would have had Tuesday night.
Coach Carl Thomas reluctantly
agreed to go along with their re
quest when he found away to bene
fit his team's schedule at the end of
the season. But he isn't happy
about it and his team has been prac
ticing for six weeks without a
game.
The players have been ready to
play for two weeks, I'm sure they're
sick of guarding each other and
most other teams in the state have
already begun playing.
It may work out, the Panthers
may end up honed to a sharp edge
and in great shape or it may lake
them a couple of games to get
adjusted to playing another team.
That's the biggest problem they've
been presented with, the original
schedule gave them 10 days and two
games to get ready for the region
opener against Dodge County.
Now, the Panthers face their first
region game with only one live
contest under their belt.
•At Westfield's games against
FPD Tuesday night, both teams
came out flat and fought their way
back into the game. The difference
was the Lady Hornets shut down
FPD in the fourth quarter and the
Hornets didn't.
The Hornets rallied from behind
several times and looked to be in a
position to win, but three straight
turnovers killed them down the
stretch.
When their fast break was work
ing it was a lot of fun to watch.
Their players sec the floor, pass the
ball well and are all unselfish.
Cater Pierce emptied his bench
again as promised and the pre-re
gion games arc helping him sec
what his team needs to do better.
If the Hornets can improve their
interior defense and hit the glass
they look like they'll be awful
tough when the games start count
ing.
The Lady Hornets were flat for a
half, and their offense was stymied
for three quarters, but Donna
Campbell made two big adjust
ments, one on defense and one on
offense. Freshman Jennifer Smith
gave them some big minutes under
the defensive boards and April
Horsting took over the game in the
fourth quarter.
Both Pierce and Campbell were
less than pleased with the overall
performance's and both teams have
work to do but based on the reac
tion of the two vocal crowds, no
body who watched Tuesday nights
games asked for their money back.
•Since the college football season
is just about over, I'm going to
take a break from my sterling pre
dictions until the bowls roll around.
Last week I picked Tech and lost,
USC and lost and Florida State and
won.
If I was a major league hitter it’s
not a bad average, but a prophet
who's wrong two out of three times
isn’t worth much.
As for the NFL, I picked the Ea
gles and lost due to a bad fourth
down spot, the Rams and got
whipoed. the Falcons over the
Please see LAWSON, page 3B
Perry wrestlers open with loss
By BRIAN LAWSON
Sports Editor
Perry was defeated in its season
opening wrestling match against
Irwin County 42-30 Thursday
night.
The Panthers struggled in the
lower weights losing seven of their
first eight matches. But in the area
where they were expected to be
strongest, the middle and upper
weights, the Panthers won four of
the next five matches.
Among the winners for Perry were
Jason Cantrell at 119 pounds, John
Rowland at 153, Mike Jolley at
160, Joey Askew at 171, and
heavyweight Jason Reed who won
in a walkover.
The match was filled with pins by
both teams. Irwin County recorded
six falls and the Panthers scored
four.
Cantrell was the lone winner for
Perry below the 153 pound class.
Cantrell nearly scored a fall in the
first period, but the Indians'
Richard Wingate battled back and
scored a near fall of his own. Both
wrestlers were close to being pinned
at different times in the second nc-
New wrestling coach brings experience
By BRIAN LAWSON
Sports Editor
Perry High's new coach Steve
Hassengcr brought 13 years of ex
perience coaching wrestling and a
plain spoken approach when he and
his family moved here from Michi
gan this summer.
"I operate on a simple philoso
phy. I believe in hard work. If you
work hard, winning will come easy.
One of the greatest things about
wrestling and other individual
sports is if you work harder than
anybody else you are guaranteed
success. You don't have to rely on
anyone else," Hassengcr said.
Hassengcr, a Michigan native was
born and in the town of Constan
tine, population 1,300. While in
high school he wrestled, twice qual
ifying for the state finals, played
football, baseball and ran track.
"After college, I moved back to
my home town and wanted to coach
and teach there, but there weren't
any openings, so I lived in Con
stantine and commuted about 30
miles to work in Bronson," Has
senger said.
After four years, Hassengcr re
ceived an offer to come back to his
alma mater and coach.
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Rec b—ball practice opens
The Perry recreation basketball practice officially
began, Friday night. This season will boast 35 teams
and 300 players. The teams will practice and play at
Perry Middle School and Perry Hlah.
Saturday, q
Dec. 5,1992 ID
riod but Cantrell rallied from a near
fall, to put Wingate on his back and
score the fall.
The victory was the first for
Perry after, Demetrius Mims and
Michael Register were pinned in
the first two matches.
With the Indians ahead 30-6 and
having scored pins in five of the
first six matches, the duels at 140
and 145 were critical for Perry's
chances of winning the meet. The
two matches proved to be pivotal in
deciding the meet's outcome.
Robert Bowers came out strong
against the Indians’ Eric Gentry and
took an early 2-0 lead. Gentry be
gan taking control in the second pe
riod and Bowers had a difficult lime
working an escape. The third pe
riod saw Bowers fighting from his
back, trying to avoid being pinned.
He spent roughly a minute on his
back in the third period but did not
suffer the fall.
Gentry won the match 7-2, to put
the Indians ahead 33-6.
George Francis, at 145 pounds,
dominated the Indians' Varney Lott
Please see OPEN, page 3B
"I had nine great years there, but
the overall economy in Michigan is
down and my wife had just gradu
ated college, so we began to con
sider a warm weather move. With a
down economy, wrestling is one of
the first things to get cut. In the
past we had 'Pay to Play' where
kids had to pay $75 just to try out
for his high school team. I think
Michigan is headed in that direction
again," he said.
Hassengcr began researching vari
ous sun belt suites and sent resumes
to Arizona, Missouri, Texas and
Georgia.
"I interviewed in nine county or
city schools in Georgia all in one
week. I drove 3,300 miles and met
with 17 principals. I chose Perry
because of the sUitus wrestling has
at the school. If you've been in
volved in wrestling for a while you
can sec when a school is committed
to a wrestling program or not.
Perry is committal to it and Tony
Thrift has done a tremendous job
building the program here. I arrived
at the perfect time," Hassengcr said.
Hassengcr teaches history and has
an additional degree in English and
a masters in health and physical ed
John Rowland, facing, en route to a pin against Irwin County Thursday.
ucation.
He attended Olivet College in
Olivet Michigan, located 30 miles
south of Lansing.
While at Olivet he played
linebacker and wrestled under Coach
Jarc Klein. Klein is currently the
winningest active wrestling coach
in the NCAA.
"We were 88-3 in my four years
wrestling at Olivet. He's an excel
lent coach. He had 300 wins as of
1990, so now he's something like
350-75 in his 25 years at the
school," he said.
As a 167 pound wrestler Hassen
ger qualified for the NCAA division
three national championships in his
senior year.
"1 learned that because I wasn't the
biggest or the strongest or the
fastest wrestler I had to do a move
exactly right or I'd get nailed. I’ve
tried to break wrestling down into a
very technical sport that requires
precise moves. Each step is taken
and explained. The little details
like pushing your hips as you drive
a half nelson arc the things that win
the big matches," he said.
The biggest difference between
wrestling in Georgia and Michigan
Please see COACH, page 3B
Perry middle rolls on Tabor
By BRIAN LAWSON
Sports Editor
The Perry Middle School basket
ball teams had a successful two
days beating Tabor in the four
games played between the schools
Tuesday and Wednesday.
The seventh grade girls won 19-
11.
The seventh grade boys prevailed
37-32.
The eighth grade girls scored a
29-21 victory and the eighth grade
boys won 53-48.
In the seventh grade girls game,
Coach Danny Shelton said missed
lay-ups hurt his team.
"We played pretty good defense
against an offense our girls hadn’t
seen before. We were able to get
the ball out in transition and we ran
up and down the court well. But
we missed seven or eight lay-ups.
Everybody who was healthy got a
chance to play a good bit and we
were able to play 10 girls. That
playing experience will help us
come tournament time," Shelton
said.
The Lady Panthers scoring was
divided among six players:
Shenequia Howard had six points,
April Fendley had four, Lucrista
King scored three, Kristen Shipes,
Jennifer Pcastcr and Kamari Toomcr
had two each.
The seventh grade boys played the
first half without a lot of intensity
according to coach Robert Cook.
"We played with them in the first
half and we played pretty well, but
we were lacksadasical. We didn't go
into the locker room at half time,
we gathered in a comer of the gym
and I told them if they played like
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New Perry wrestling coach Steve Hassenger
they were capable we'd be ahead hy
10 or 12 points. They came out in
the second half fired up and took
control of the game. Tabor had one
player who kept hitting a little turn
around jumper in the first half. He
had 12 points in the first half, in
the seond half he didn't score. We
had 22 steals and 32 rebounds for
the game and most of those came in
the second half which was the dif
ference in the game. Everybody
contributed for us. Saturday I'm
going to start my second string and
give them a chance to start the
game with some intensity for us,"
Cook said.
Seventh grade boys scoring:
Frank Jackson scored 12 second half
points and had six rebounds; Reggie
Clark had 11 points, 11 steals and
six rebounds; John Brewer had six
points, six rebounds and five steals;
Justin White scored four points,
Frederick Marshall and Kory
Whitfield had two points each.
The eighth grade girls coach Ron
Wilson was happy with his team's
win, but not with the tempo of the
game.
"We didn't play very well. Usu
ally we are in a situation where our
team dictates the tempo. Tabor was
able to slow the tempo and we
played their game. Last week we
scored 51 points and this week we
only scored 29. I don't want to
play a slow tempo game, I want us
to run the floor and play pressing
aggressive defense. I think we won
because we have good talent and our
reputation precedes us a little bit.
But that reputation is only going to
take us so far and we need to come
Journal
together and start playing more as a
team. I'm thankful lor the win, hut
we've got plenty of work to do,"
Wilson said.
Eight girls scored for the eighth
grade team including, Eugenia Rad
ford with 10, Teresa Scott, Megan
Jackson, Kim Cordy and Shanandra
Findley each had four points, Mon
tierr Bryant and Monique Kendrick
had two points each and Ursula
Francis scored one point.
The eighth grade boys saw a 26-
12 halftime lead and a 34-26 third
quarter lead evaporate, but they held
on to win 53^48.
They overcame 15 fourth quarter
points from one Tabor player in
cluding two three pointers.
Coach John Warlick was out of
town due to a family illness and as
sistant Coach Lonnie Freeman
coached the team.
"They were good in transition but
they seemed to get tired in the sec
ond half. The played tough in the
fourth quarter though, as tired as
they were they scored 19 points and
held on for the win," Shelton said.
The eighth grade boys had three
players in double figures including
two seventh graders.
Seventh grader Terrance Joiner had
18 points and classmate Daniel
Harvey had 10 points. Ben Hulbert
scored 13 points, Dejuan Lewis had
nine points, Daron Barrett scored
two and Eddie King had one point.
All four of the Perry Middle
school teams will be in action
today against Warner Robins
Middle School, beginning in
Warner Robins at 10 a.m.