Newspaper Page Text
Insid
Opening Game: The East Jackson Lady
Eagles had a rough season opener at North
Oconee. PAGE 3B
1B
THE COMMERCE (GA.) NEWS
WEDNESDAY,
NOVEMBER 28, 2007
CHS Men's Basketball
East Jackson Wrestling
'New' Tigers Open With Banks Co. Friday
Just like the Lady Tigers, the
Commerce men’s basketball pro
gram is starting over this year.
Chad Bridges is the first new Tiger
coach in 27 years, having been
hired to replace Rex Gregg, who
retired after last season.
The Tigers open the 2007-08 sea
son Friday night, hosting Banks
County.
Like Gregg, Bridges had to wait
until football season ended to get
his full complement of players.
Practice started Oct. 29 with 11
players; last Monday Nov. 19, he
got 17 more as the Tiger football
season ended Nov. 16 at Gordon
Lee High School.
“We started Oct. 29 with the guys
not playing football,” said Bridges,
who was an assistant coach at
Franklin County High School for
10 years. “The football guys came
out yesterday (Nov. 19), and we
were mostly getting organized
and accustomed to what we are
trying to do.”
What the Tigers hope to do, he
continued is “to play disciplined,
try to play fundamentally sound,
take care of the basketball, run
when we have a good break, and
hopefully, our players will under
stand which is a good opportunity
to run and when it is time to pull
out and set it up.”
As usual, the Tigers will not be
big. Their post player, Jake Flint, is
about 6-2 — about the size of the
guards and forwards on a team
that runs “six foot, six foot two
across the board,” Bridges said.
The Tigers have four seniors
Please Turn to Page 4B
Chad Bridges, left, will coach his first action starts at 7:00, with boys’ action following
Commerce varsity basketball game Friday immediately.
night as the Tigers host Banks County. Girls’
Eagle Wrestlers To Be
Tested Friday, Saturday
In Panther Invitational
By Brandon Reed
The East Jackson athletic program is set for another first this week,
as the Eagles varsity wrestling team was scheduled to host Towns
County and Social Circle Tuesday, and to travel to JCCHS to take
part in the Panther Invitational this coming weekend.
East Jackson head wrestling coach Frank Caputo said he feels his
team, a mixture of experienced and first-year wrestlers, is ready for
the start of the season.
“The older guys, I think they’ll be able to go out there and do what
they do,” Caputo said. “I’m really excited about seeing them having
a chance to wrestle in a match, as opposed to just in the wrestling
room, and see if they’re going to do some of the things that we’ve
been working on and teaching. For the new guys, I’m excited for
them to see how well they’re going to be able to go out there and go
one on one with somebody. The majority of them haven’t had this
opportunity.”
Caputo says just as with any other first-year team, mistakes are
expected.
“I’m sure we’ll make a world of mistakes, which is fine,” he said.
“The only way to get better at this, in my opinion, is for them to go
out there, try their moves, and if they make a mistake, we’ll correct
them and get them ready. One of the nice things about wrestling,
and for us, is that we have until the state duels or the area tourna
ment to really be up to par.”
Caputo says around 56 kids have come out thus far for the team.
He said he will probably continue to let the kids who are “on the
fence” come out.
“We’re pretty excited about the number of kids we have out right
now,” Caputo said. “We’re hoping that by February we’ll be ready to
roll as far as the region and state tournament are concerned.”
Caputo said his athletes are excited about writing new pages in
East Jackson’s athletic history book.
“I think they’re really excited about that opportunity” he said.
“(They have) the opportunity to be the first guy to pin somebody,
the first to win a match, or the first to place in a tournament. I think
there’s a lot of excitement generated just in those regards.”
Caputo is just coming off of coaching the inaugural East Jack
son Eagles’ football season, and said the challenge of a quick turn-
Please Turn to Page 4B
CHS Wrestling
EJCHS Men's Basketball
Commerce Wrestlers
Look To Build On
Last Year's Success
Kendall Love’s wrestling Ti
gers will start their season in a
big way Friday. They’ll be one of
24 teams at the Jackson County
Panther Invitational in Jefferson.
“There will be several teams
in the top five,” Love pointed
out. “It’s a meat grinder to begin
with.”
The majority of Love’s Tigers
have been on the mats only a
week, since most played foot
ball. The rest started practice
Oct. 29.
The Tigers are ranked sixth in
Class A. They come off a 21-9
dual meet record last year and
a final ranking of seventh, and
while they’ve got some experi
ence, this will be a young Tiger
squad.
“We’re very young. We’ve got
one senior, Baxter Barnes, who
wrestles at heavyweight,” Love
pointed out. “Everyone else is
an underclassman.”
Love looks to last year’s state
qualifiers to lead the squad this
year. They include Doug Mal-
och, runner-up at 103 pounds,
who will wrestle at 112 this sea
son; Jon Cash, fourth last year at
130 and competing this year at
135; Casey Drinkard, fifth at 119
and wrestling at 125 or 130 this
season; and Nick Arostegui, who
was sixth last year at 112 and will
wrestle at 125 or 130 this year.
Please Turn to Page 2B
Tiger Wrestling Schedule
Nov.30-Dec. 1 @ Panther Invitational TBA
Dec. 4 @ Clarke Central 5 p.m.
Dec. 7-8 @ Apalachee Invitational TBA
Dec. 13 home vs. Athens Christian, Banks 5 p.m.
Dec. 15 @ Madison Co. Duals - Danielsville 9 a.m.
Dec. 21-22 @ S. Forsyth Tournament TBA
Dec. 28 @ Keen Classic - Jefferson 9 a.m.
Jan. 4-5 @ Amicalola Classic - Dawsonville 9 a.m.
Jan. 8 @ home vs. Hab Central, Dawson Co. 5 p.m.
Jan. 12 Area Duals TBA
Jan. 18-19 State Duals @ Macon TBA
Jan. 25-26 Sham Slam @ Habersham Central TBA
Jan. 29 home vs. Winder-Barrow, Social Circle 5 p.m.
Feb. 2 Gladiator Duals @ Clarke Central 9 a.m.
Feb. 5 @ Jackson Co., N. Hall, E. Jackson 5 p.m.
Feb. 8-9 @ Vidalia Tournament TBA
Feb. 15-16 Area Tournament @ Jefferson TBA
Feb. 22-23 State Tournament @ Gwinnett Arena TBA
Close, But No Cigar In Season Opener
Brandon Rucker (10) makes a pass during last Tuesday’s season-opener against the North
Oconee Titans. Photo by Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
It was a hard-fought first game
for the East Jackson Eagles boys’
basketball team, as they came
out on the losing end of a closely-
contested game at North Oconee.
In the end, it was the Titans top
ping the Eagles 60-54 last Tuesday
night.
“We made a lot of mental mis
takes, as far as getting to where
we were supposed to get to,” said
Coach Brian Turner. “Our defense
gave up a lot of easy shots that we
shouldn’t. We weren’t talking and
rotating. We missed some easy
shots.”
East Jackson got on the board
first, with sophomore Evan Wil
liamson scoring the first points
in Eagles’ history. The lead would
go back and forth throughout the
game. Late in the fourth quarter,
the Eagles found themselves down
by four, sank four free throws, then
scored on their next possession to
regain the lead over the Titans.
But missed free throws and a
missed lay-up gave North Oconee
the opening it needed, and when
they scored their last couple of
free throws in the clutch, that
sealed the game for East Jackson.
“I thought we played really hard,”
Turner said. “I don’t know that we
played really well for the whole
game. We made a lot of mistakes,
being young, and having first-game
nerves, I guess. Overall, I thought
we played in a way that we can
learn from. I think that we learned
a lot from that game. We came in
over the holidays and watched the
film. I think the kids understood
what I was talking about from the
game situation, as far as the mis
takes we were making.”
Turner says he wants his players
to learn to communicate and re
member to work all the time from
last week’s loss.
“In the style that we’re trying to
play, which is up-tempo and press-
ing, we’ve got to do a better job of
communicating, and rotating and
getting to the open men, which we
didn’t do a lot of times last Tues
day” he said. “We gave up a lot of
open looks that we shouldn’t have
given up.”
Brandon Garrett led the scoring
with 15 points. Kolby Gilbert con
tributed 11 points.
The Eagles were scheduled to
face the Providence Christian
Stars in Lilburn on Tuesday. Re
sults were unavailable at press
time. Turner said going into Tues
day night’s game that he hopes the
team has corrected the problems
it had against North Oconee.
“Over the holidays, we got three
practices in,” he said. “We actually
spent the night in the gym Friday
night. I think it was good for the
kids just to work on some of the
stuff that we had been doing, and
also it kind of gave me a better
idea of a rotation that we need to
look at.
“As far as rotating people in and
out, I think we got tired in the first
game, and that’s something that
we’ve got to do a better job at,
me coaching. We took away from
some of our conditioning to try
to work on execution, and I think
that hurt us. The ones that came
from football were out of shape,
and we’ve got to do a better job of
making sure that we get in better
shape over the next few days.”
Up ahead is the Eagles’ first
home game, this Friday, against
West Forsyth. Turner says while
the home opener is important, he
feels every game is important at
this point.
“They need to win some, and
understand how to win basketball
Please Turn to Page 3B