Newspaper Page Text
3C
SPORTS
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gainesvilletimes.com
Weekend Edition-December 23-24, 2022
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
MR, OLYMPIA
Photo courtesy Garry Glenn
Gainesville’s Tim Moon won the bench press championship
in the 50-and-over weight classification at Mr. Olympia on
Dec. 17 in Las Vegas.
Gainesville’s
Tim Moon wins
50+ bench press
crown in Vegas
BY BILL MURPHY
bmurphy@gainesvilletimes.com
Gainesville’s Tim Moon continues to persevere.
On Dec. 17, Moon captured his seventh-straight bench
press championship for the 50-and-over age group at Mr.
Olympia in Las Vegas.
On his first attempt, Moon was able to successfully lock
out at 617 pounds, which also was good enough for another
best-lifter award.
After a successful first attempt, Moon twice tried 700
pounds, but was unable to lock it out.
Moon’s championship is especially impressive, consid
ering he has overcome multiple training-related injuries,
he only trained for about six weeks to prepare for Mr.
Olympia.
LAKE LANIER
FISHING REPORT
Bass will move
to deeper water
with arctic blast
BY ERIC ALDRICH
For The Times
Lake Lanier’s water level is currently at 1,068.75 feet or
2.25 feet below full pool of 1,071.
Water temperatures have fallen into the low-50s.
We should expect them to fall to 50 degrees, or lower,
with the crazy cold weather that is forecast for the Christ
mas holiday.
The lake is clear on the main lake and slightly stained to
stained in the backs of the creeks and in the rivers.
The Chattahoochee River is still stained to muddy from
rain inflow.
Check generation schedules before heading out to the
river at 770-945-1466.
I want to wish all of our readers a very merry Christmas.
Bass fishing has been good, but anglers should expect
to see the shallow bite fade and the deeper bite to get even
better with the arctic cold blast forecast for Christmas.
Humans don’t quit eating when the weather turns cold,
and neither do bass.
While the cold water makes the bass less active, they
still have to eat.
This past week, a couple of patterns have been working
well.
We should expect that to change when surface tempera
tures drop quickly.
We will still have a shallow bite early in and late in the
day.
That is where anglers should look for bass as they start
their mornings.
This shallow bite has continued all day long this past
week, but expect that to change as many more bass mov
ing out deeper in 35-60 feet deep.
My go-to lure this past week has been a SPRO Little
John DD in either Citrus Shad or Clear chartreuse.
I am casting these lures to long points, humps and bluff
walls and digging them into the rocks and around brush
for some bigger-than-usual spotted and largemouth bass.
Use a long, medium-weight crank bait rod like my eight-
foot long Kissel Krafts Custom Cranking Rod.
I moved up to using a longer casting rod a couple of
years ago because it allows anglers to make extremely
long casts and also allows the Little John crank bait to dig
deeper along the bottom as deep as 20 feet deep.
Make a long casts parallel to the point or humps or
beside bluff walls in the backs of the pockets and creeks.
I use 12-pound Sunline Cranking FC to get these lures to
run at there maximum depth.
Anglers shouldn’t shy away from working their crank
baits along the bottom because they fear getting snagged.
Instead allow your lure to hit and run over the bottom.
Just quit cranking when the lure stops and it will usually
rise off the bottom before you can continue your retrieve.
Also invest in a good lure retriever, as it will pay for
itself in two uses.
While I would prefer that the crank bait bite would stay
relevant, I expect it to fade as the bass move out deeper
with the incoming frigid temperatures.
Anytime we get temperature extremes, like the one
forecast for this weekend, anglers can expect a shad kill
to occur.
When this happens, bass will just swim around slowly on
■ Please see FISHING, 8C
HIGH SCHOOL BASKCTBALL
POST-HOLIDAY THRILLS
Photos by BILL MURPHY I The Times
East Hall’s Levi Holtzclaw (4) puts up a shot defended by Cherokee Bluff’s Cooper Glover (10) on Dec. 16 in Flowery
Branch.
Always-exciting Lanierland tourney coming next week
Cherokee Bluff’s Kaitlin Cook (20) passes the ball against East Hall on Dec.
16 in Flowery Branch.
BY BILL MURPHY
bmurphy@gainesvilletimes.com
Lanierland is uniquely Hall
County.
Now in Year 63, the top eight boys
and girls programs will battle in out
for the county basketball champion
ship in front of packed bleachers,
while the weather outside is frigid.
Back in 1960, South Hall High
principal CW Davis could have
never imagined how big his holiday
tournament would become.
But a supportive community for
sports and remarkable athletes who
have played in Lanierland have
intertwined through the decades and
made it the state’s most storied prep
basketball tournament.
On Dec. 28, tournament play will
kick off with all eight first-round
matchups at Cherokee Bluff High.
On Day 2, the tournament will
shuffle over to Flowery Branch High
for the four semifinal games.
Then on Dec. 30, championship
games will be held at Chestatee
High.
If history is any indication, this
year should be a wide-open field
with thrilling finishes, just like the
East Hall victory over Gainesville in
the 2021 finals at North Hall.
Will East Hall (42 combined Lani
erland titles) and Gainesville (35)
add to their long list of Lanierland
titles?
Can Lakeview Academy take the
next step and win at Lanierland for
the first time, after making the girls
championship last year?
So much is going to be determined
in three days of action-packed hoops
after Christmas.
On Thursday, Times staff writer
David Friedlander will break down
the action on the girls side in 2022.
The Chestatee, Cherokee Bluff
and Gainesville girls are all off to a
hot start.
But don’t count out any of the
other five programs in the field.
On the boys side, Gainesville and
Flowery Branch are red hot. But
West Hall has also been an early
surprise and seeks to add to its lone
boys Lanierland title in 2008.
And Lakeview Academy is young,
but scrappy under coach Tyler
Sanders.
The Lions will also be a tough out
in the county championship.
One interesting fact about Lanier
land is that 6 of the 8 schools have
a coach who previously played in
Lanierland.
Cherokee Bluff girls coach Lind
say Justice (who played at North
Hall), Chestatee girls coach Sut
ton Shirley (North Hall), Flowery
Branch girls coach Courtney New
ton (Flowery Branch), Lakeview’s
Sanders (Johnson), North Hal girls
coach Eric Herrick (North Hall) and
West Hall boys coach Bobby Pless
(North Hall) have all seen both sides
of being part of Lanierland.
■ Please see LANIERLAND, 8C
YOUTH FOOTBALL
Photo courtesy Shane Lazenby
The North Hall Junior Trojans recently won the 11-and-under North Georgia Youth Football League championship for their
age group.
North Hall Junior Trojans win title
BY BILL MURPHY
bmurphy@gainesvilletimes.com
The North Hall Junior Trojans sev
enth-grade football program recently
won the North Georgia Youth Football
Association championship.
This season, the seventh-grade pro
gram repeated as league champions
by beating Jefferson 22-14 in the finals.
For 2022, the Junior Trojans (9-0
on the season) scored 297 total points,
while allowing only 48.
It’s the first time that a North Hall
Junior Trojans program has posted
back-to-back undefeated seasons, its
head coach Shane Lazenby said.
Team members included Hayden
Simmons, Noah Kemp, Levi True-
love, Sam Gundlach, Sawyer Lazenby,
Walker Vining, Grayson Sanchez,
Jaxon VanPool, Cole Lindlief, Wynne
Billingsley, Ryan Sanders, Nathan
Wood, Kieran Canavan-Lima, Cam
eron Hill, Ander Chavez, Reid Baum
gardner, David Rodriguez, Landon
Silva-Burtnett, Luke Robertson, Hanan
Portillo, Joab Bolton, Jay Newberry,
Rhett Brown and Rhett Johnson.
Coaches were Chris Baumgardner,
Jacob Billingsley, Shane Clark, Joe
Kemp, Shane Lazenby, Chad Sanders
and David Truelove.