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MP golf squads
qualify for state
May 9, 2018
MP senior Payton Poland, staring down an approach shot
at Forsyth Golf Club in an early season match, posted one
of the Lady Dogs three top scores in the area champion
ship match in Columbus on May 1. (Photo/Richard Dumas)
By Richard Dumas
forsyth'Smymcrnet
The Mary Persons boys
golf team qualified for the
AAAA state tournament
for the first time in four
years on Tuesday, May 1.
Playing in the Area
1 - AAAA tournament at
Bull Creek Golf Club in
Columbus, the Bulldogs
recorded a team score of
324, the best 18-hole mark
in head coach Clint Ash
mores four-year tenure as
head coach. For the second
straight year, sophomore
Gus Proctor recorded MP s
top individual score at
area, posting a 79. Fresh
man Cannon Newberry
matched Proctor for team
low medalist honors with
a 79 while his brother
Carson Newberry, another
freshman, had MP s third
best total of 81. MP s other
counting score was record
ed by junior Dylan Steed
with an 85.
Two other MP boys
participated on May 1 but
failed to record counting
scores. Senior Josh Cobb
fired a solid round of 88
while freshman Calen
Knight, one of the teams
standouts this year, finished
with a 91.
MP, which finished in
a tie for third place with
Perry on May 1, was one of
four Area 1-AAAA (com
bines Regions 1-AAAA
and 2-AAAA) programs
to post a state qualifying
score. Others included: area
champion Columbus, who
fired a 297 to win by 22
strokes and second-place
Northside (Columbus),
who shot a 319.
Ashmore said MP s goal
for state will be to place in
the Top 10. The Bulldogs
last Top-10 finish came in
their most recent trip to
state in 2014, when MP
placed in a tie for sixth.
He said a team score of
320 is a goal, which would
mean his top four players
averaged an 80. With the
two-day boys state tourna
ment slated for Achasta
Golf Club in Dahlonega
on Monday, May 21 and
Tuesday, May 22, Ashmore
said he’s confident MP
can achieve its goals if it
cleans up some short game
mistakes.
“It sets up for us pretty
well,” Ashmore said of the
Dahlonega course.
As for the MP girls golf
squad, the Lady Dogs
narrowly reached the state
tournament once again
with a qualifying score of
315 while placing fourth at
the Area 1-AAAA tourna
ment at Bull Creek Golf
Club on May 1.
MP s best score was shot
by freshman Molly Poland,
who finished with a 95.
Sophomore Carrington
Hughes also had a strong
day, posting a 100. The
team’s most experienced
player, senior Payton
Poland, had MP’s other
counting score of 120. Isa
bel Stone also represented
MP in the area tourney,
posting a non-counting
round of 123.
“They did a good job,”
Ashmore said of his girls
squad. “They were 15 shots
better than the qualifying
number.”
As expected, Columbus
was the Area 1-AAAA
champion, firing a 241 to
win the area championship
by a whopping 70 strokes.
Joining Columbus at state
will be second-place How
ard, who shot 311, third-
place Upson-Lee, who shot
312, and fifth place Perry,
who posted a 316.
The two-day girls AAAA
state tournament will be
contested on Monday, May
21 and Tuesday, May 22
at Innsbruck Golf Club in
Helen.
DUMAS
Continued from Front
between the netminder’s legs for a
sudden death win.
All of a sudden, a decade of Capi
tals failure turned to triumph. And
in a blink, Ovechkin went from
being a tragic figure in the sport to
a potential champion.
The players are the ones who
made the plays, but I’m gonna
credit Capitals’ owner Ted Leon-
sis and Washington’s front office
for this victory. After the Caps
fell short in Game 7 to Crosby’s
Penguins once again in 2017,
numerous NHL media members
suggested the Capitals “blow it all
up”, a common refrain spoken
about gutting a team and starting
from scratch. Included in this talk
were discussions about trading
Ovechkin, perhaps the greatest
left winger in NHL history. At 31,
Ovechkin was coming off of one of
his worst seasons in 2016-17 and
had been relegated to the Caps’
third line in last year’s playoffs.
After falling short of the Confer
ence Finals yet again, plenty of
front offices would have heeded
the media’s advice and moved on
from Ovechkin. But instead, the
Caps stood pat, confident that
the same squad that had captured
seven division crowns in a 10-year
span would eventually show the
same mettle in the postseason.
So instead of breaking things up,
the Caps’ brass relied on aging
stars like Ovechkin, Holtby, John
Carlson, Jay Beagle and Nicklas
Backstrom once again to lead the
way, and it finally paid off. The
Caps’ front office should be lauded
for understanding that a few bad
playoff bounces in a luck-driven
sport didn’t mean the franchise
was on the wrong track.
But save a little appreciation
for Ovechkin as well. After an
off-season of wondering where
he would be playing, “The Great
Eight” returned to the Caps ready
to bounce back and return to his
familiar scoring ways. Ovechkin
notched an astounding seven
goals in the first two games of the
season, becoming the first player
in over a century to achieve back-
to-back hat tricks to start a season.
By year’s end, Ovechkin led the
league in goals for the seventh time
with 49 and also became just the
20th NHL player to eclipse 600
goals in a career. In the span of
six months, NHL observers went
from wondering whether Ovech
kin could ever play a key role on a
contending team again to ques
tioning whether he has time left
in his career to run down Wayne
Gretzky as the game’s top goal
scorer ever.
With his legacy riding on his per
formance this spring, Ovechkin,
who is one of only two members of
the exclusive 500-goal-club never
to have played in a Conference
Final, has risen to the occasion,
Ovechkin has scored 15 points,
including eight goals, in just 12
games while leading the Caps
back from deficits in each of the
first two series. He also recorded
perhaps the single most memo
rable moment of his NHL career
in Game 3 of the Penguins series
when he converted the game-win
ning goal by batting the puck in
mid-air into the net with just over
a minute left for a 4-3 Caps win.
For the Capitals and Ovechkin,
the work has only begun. The
Caps remain eight wins away
from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup,
and there are several experienced
giants, including Tampa Bay and
Nashville, still separating them
from eternal greatness. There’s also
a neophyte franchise in Las Vegas
that’s doing something so incred
ible in Year 1 that it’s never before
been seen in pro sports history. But
for one night, as Caps’ announcer
John Walton exclaimed following
Kuznetsov’s goal Monday night:
“The demons have been exor
cised.”
The champion Penguins have
been vanquished, D.C is back in
the Final Four for the first time
in 20 years, and Ovechkin has
claimed his rightful place among
the all-time hockey greats. “The
waiting is the hardest part”, but the
reward sometimes makes it worth
the wait.
GHA: Georgia communities depend on hospitals
By Earl Rogers
Each day, thousands of
individuals pass by one
of Georgia’s nearly 200
hospitals. Many of us may
not think about hospitals
until we, or people we
know, require emergency
care, surgery, outpatient
treatment, or one of many
other hospital services. For
most of us, hospitals exist
“just-in-case.”
“We may not clearly see
how hospitals benefit us
when we are not using
them for healing purposes.
But think about where we
live, work and play. Thriv
ing communities are a
result of strong economies,”
said Montez Carter, chair
of the Georgia Hospital
Association (GHA) and
chief executive officer of St.
Mary’s Health Care System
in Athens.
What does this have to do
with hospitals? Hospitals
greatly contribute to the
economic health of their
communities by generating
billions of dollars for the
economy every year. Exam
ine the impact of Georgia
hospitals on local and state
economic activity and you
will find that they benefit
just about all of us, whether
directly or indirectly. Aside
from impressive statistics,
like the delivery of more
than 120,000 babies and
having nearly 5.3 million
emergency room visits in
2016, Georgia hospitals also
contributed $49 billion to
local and state economies
in the same year, according
to the most recent econom
ic impact report by GHA.
“A hospital is more than
just a place to treat patients.
It helps communities thrive.
Hospitals are important to
communities’ economic,
social and overall well
being,” said Carter.
Hospitals are immensely
advantageous to the local
and state economy. In
2016, hospitals spent more
than $21.7 billion to oper
ate. These expenditures
generated an estimated $49
billion in state and local
economic activity, which
translates to $2.40 for every
$1 of hospital expenditures.
A majority of hospital rev
enue is spent on wages and
salaries. In fact, hospitals
are a major source of jobs
for their communities. In
2016, hospitals directly pro
vided more than 150,500
full-time jobs. When an
employment multiplier is
applied to this number, it
indicates that hospitals sup
ported more than 366,000
full-time jobs in the state.
The employment multiplier
considers the “ripple effect”
of direct hospital expendi
tures on the economy, such
as medical supplies; durable
medical equipment and
pharmaceuticals; and retail
establishments that depend
on the hospital and its em
ployees for business.
The GHA economic im
pact report also measures
hospitals’ direct economic
contributions to Georgia’s
working families. Using a
household earnings multi
plier, the report determined
that hospitals generate
more than $19.1 billion in
household earnings in the
state. The household earn
ings multiplier measures
the increased economic
contributions from indi
viduals employed directly
or indirectly by hospitals
through daily living expen
ditures.
Despite their economic
contributions, Georgia
hospitals continue to
face financial challenges.
Georgia residents who are
uninsured or underinsured
and unable to pay hospital
bills continue to add to
the uncompensated care
problem hospitals, both
rural and non-rural, face.
In 2016,
Georgia hospitals ab
sorbed more than $1.8
billion in costs for care that
was provided but not paid
for. In the same year, Geor
gia’s uninsured rate was 12
percent, the third highest in
the nation. Only Texas and
Alaska had higher unin
sured rates, at 15 percent
and 14 percent respectively.
Additionally, Medicaid
pays Georgia hospitals only
about 87 percent of actual
costs, meaning hospitals
lose 13 cents on every dol
lar spent treating a Medic
aid recipient.
Unfortunately, many
hospitals have been forced
to close due to dire fiscal
strain. Since 2012, nine
Georgia hospitals have
closed and others, espe
cially those in rural areas,
are fighting to keep their
doors open. The most
recent Georgia Department
of Community Health
Hospital Financial Survey
shows that, in 2016:
• 40 percent of all hospi
tals in Georgia had negative
total margins; and
• 63 percent of rural
hospitals in the state lost
money in the same year.
“When hospitals continu
ally lose funds, it creates
an intense financial strain
that only worsens year after
year,” said Carter. “As we
have seen over the past few
years, eventually, hospitals
have no choice but to close
when they cannot recoup
lost funds. Then, access to
care becomes a larger issue.”
Uncompensated care is
not the only ongoing chal
lenge hospitals encounter.
Physician shortages and
access to care are very real
problems in rural com
munities. This is where a
healthy economy greatly
helps. When a commu
nity’s economy is healthy, it
becomes more appealing to
physicians, as well as attrac
tive to new businesses and
infrastructures.
“Hospitals are address
ing the workforce shortage
by increasing the amount
of medical school resi
dents through additional
graduate medical education
(GME) programs,” said
Carter.
Currently, 16 hospitals
have GME programs,
one of which is at a rural
hospital. “Homegrown”
physician programs are
working to attract doctors
to the rural communities in
which they were raised and
educated. Medical schools
all over the country have
established incentives and
efforts to attract medi
cal students back to their
hometowns to practice. Ac
cording to Augusta Univer
sity, the implementation of
dedicated rural admissions
tracks have helped increase
graduates in rural medi
cine. The programs recruit
students from rural and
underserved areas in order
to return those students
back to those areas.
By addressing the work
force shortage, hospitals
can make sure they keep
their doors open and con
tinue to be financial assets
to their communities. The
closure of a hospital not
only means an increased
lack of access to care, but
also may mean fewer dol
lars going into the commu
nity, which can jeopardize
the livelihood of residents
and businesses.
“All over the state, hospi
tals are doing everything
they can to stay viable to
ensure their stability as
well as remain economi
cally beneficial,” said Carter.
“Their contributions to
local and state economies
ensure the fiscal and social
health of their communi
ties.”
Earl Rogers is the presi
dent of the Georgia Hospital
Association.
The Monroe County Board of Commissioners will
be holding a mobile meeting:
Mt. Zion Baptist Church