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The Commerce News
Sports
CONTACT US: Brandon Reed / brandon@mainstreetnews.com / (706) 367-5233 or (706) 335-2927
CHS Wrestling
Tigers Prepare For 08-09 Season
Andrew Minish (right) puts a hold on Jake Hill to prepare for the upcoming season.
(left) during wrestling practice Monday evening. Photo by Brandon Reed
The Tigers have been working thorugh the month
or two areas, and really hit them
By Brandon Reed
It’s never too early to start pre
paring for your next season.
Just ask the members of the
Commerce Tigers wrestling
team, who have been working
throughout the month to pre
pare for their upcoming winter
season.
Coach Kendall Love said
upwards of 20 wrestlers have
been attending, and working to
keep themselves in shape for the
2008-2009 wrestling season.
“Basically, we have a few prac
tices, then we go to other places
and match up with other teams
to get some live wrestling in,"
Love said. “We’ve probably seen
between 25 to 30 teams through
out the month. We’ve seen several
really good schools. We wrestled
Gilmer County, the AAA state
champs. We’ve faced several
AAAAA schools, Brookwood,
all the Forsyth County schools,
and we’ve had a good summer.’’
Love said his wrestlers have
competed well over the sum
mer. They took part in a league
last week at South Forsyth High
School. Love said out of the 12 to
15 schools that took part in the
league tournament last Friday,
Commerce had the largest num
ber of wrestlers to place.
“If they had scored the tourna
ment, we would have won it,’’
he said.
The tournament was broken
into a varsity bracket, and a J.V.
bracket.
On the varsity side, in their
weight classes, Doug Maloch
and Nick Arostegui placed first,
Jon Cash took second, Casey
Drinkard and Thomas Sears fin
ished third, and Dillon Desean
and Tyler Austin placed fourth.
“We had a couple of varsity
starters out,’’ Love said. “Phillip
Edwards probably would have
placed real high, as well as
Terrance Martin. Both of them
were out of town for the week.’’
In the J.V. bracket, in their
weight classes, Chance McClure,
Zach Harmon and Bo Aaron
won first, Chase Barnett, Austin
Patterson and Josh Swistack
placed second, and Jessie Savage
finished fourth.
Love said the summer work
outs go a long way toward pre
paring for the winter season.
“We don’t really concentrate
on conditioning, because the
season doesn’t start until win
ter,’’ he said. “We basically work
on areas that need improve
ment. I try to focus in on one
hard, and really work on more
technique than anything during
the summer. That way, when the
season starts, we can re-hit the
technique, but we don’t have to
spend nearly as much time on
it, and can go straight to condi
tioning.’’
Love said he tries to get the
equivalent of 30 matches in dur
ing the summer schedule.
“That’s a season for some folks,
you know,’’ he said. “So, it’s kind
of a season in the off season. It’s
really important.’’
Love said that most of his
wrestlers showed up to the sum
mer practice this month.
“We’ve had about 23 guys on
average,’’ he said. “Of course,
there were different guys
depending on the week. Some
were on vacation, or whatev
er. We should have around 30
kids when the season kicks off
in October, and about 23 of
them showed up all summer, so
that’s good. We’ve made some
strides.’’
This week marks the last for
practice for the Tigers. The
team was scheduled to travel to
North Oconee to wrestle several
teams on Tuesday. They’ll travel
to Clarke Central on Thursday
for a multi-squad meet starting
at 5:30 p.m.
Auto Racing
Jefferson Racer Takes Atlanta Dragway Win
Jefferson’s Stacey Blanton enjoyed his victory Saturday
with his wife Debbie, son Ryan and daughter Shannon in
attendance at the Atlanta Dragway. Photo by Tim Glover
By Amy Glover
Despite predictions of thun
derstorm, the first day of sum
mer and the second points race
of the season met with sun
shine at the Atlanta Dragway.
Each class was full, and many
final rounds were decided by
break outs and fouls in the
face of some great runs and
race vehicles that seemed to
run better broken down.
Super Pro Winner Stacey
Blanton, Jefferson, pulled a
near perfect package in his ’05
Undercover Dragster, running
dead on with a zero at 5.04.
Clay Fancher of Loganville
would have faced a tough run
with or without his breaking
out (5.336 on a 5.34), which
gave Blanton the win light.
“I was very excited, I was
shaking. “ Blanton exclaimed,
reaching enthusiastically for his
winner sticker. Blanton’s wife
Debbie, five-year-old son Ryan
and his one-year-old daughter
Shannon were in attendance.
It was the children’s first time
seeing their father’s success in
the fast lane.
Jim McKelvey of Snellville
and Robby Brown of Winder
placed in the semi-final
rounds.
The Pro class winner was
instantly determined when
Canton’s Larry Chance
cut a red-light, handing the
win to Howard Warren of
Douglasville.
“I just thought my car was
broke the last two runs,’’ he
said. Warren dialed his car
up with an educated guess at
7.96, ultimately running a 7.90.
His Maverick normally runs
around 7.15.
“This is my first win in five
years,” Howard said. “Hopefully
this is the start of getting back
on track.’’
Chad Brewer, from Canton,
placed third.
D.A. Streber, of Greenville,
SC, took top honors in the
Sportsman class, with a .0123
margin of victory against the
“Bounty Hunter’’ J.D. Burford,
also of Greenville, who defeat
ed last weekend’s champion
Mel Abney earlier in the com
petition. Burford broke out with
a 12.97 run against his 13.00
dial-in. Streber ran dead on at
19.82 with a .006 light, secur
ing his fifth Atlanta Dragway
win.
Terry Turpin of Maysville fin
ished in the semi-finals.
The Motorcycle class faced
an interesting circumstance,
when Jay “Bird’’ Rhyne from
Athens met with Tim Sutton of
Clermont in a repeat of the last
race’s final. Sutton running a
9.34 on a 9.27 dial, against
Rhyne’s 12.55 on a 12.53 dial,
giving Rhyne the win, despite
experiencing clutch trouble.
“My clutch was slipping like
last time,’’ he said “I put a
whole new clutch in it, and it
was worse, it just kept on rev
ving’ up.
“Tim was gunning for me. He
broke his glasses during his
bye-run into the finals.’’
The 13-17 Junior Dragster
category was dominated by
16-year old Chase Mullinax of
Buford, who defeated 14-year
old Kelsey Lynn of Marietta
with the better light (.024 vs.
.086) and better ET (7.91 vs.
.7.93), as both raced on a 7.90
dial.
“I blew three motors before
this,’’ Chase said. “Tim Stevens
helped put the motor togeth
er, and Bill Gillen loaned the
clutch. That’s why I cut good
lights all day. I couldn’t have
done it without them.’’
Chase thanked his mom and
dad, also. 13-year old Dylan
Hutchins, from Monroe, placed
in the semi-finals.
Eleven-year old Becky
Granneman of Kennesaw ran
dead on at 9.92, overcoming her
late light (.141) against 12-year
old Chris Bowden of Homer,
who ran 9.35 on his 9.28 dial-in
to take the 8-12 Junior Dragster
win. Granneman’s solid run
at the top end guaranteed her
first-time victory.
She is the daughter of track
veteran Mark Granneman,
multi-time champion and race-
winner.
Nine-year-old Charlie Smith
of McDonough was the semi
finalist.
IB
THE COMMERCE (GA.) NEWS
WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 25, 2008
Boys Basketball
40 boys turned out for the Future Eagle Basketball Camp earlier
this month.
Future Eagle Boys
Basketball Camp Held
The East Jackson Future
Eagle Boys Basketball Camp
was held June 2-5.
Forty participants took part
in the camp, which was in its
second year.
East Jackson head boys’ bas
ketball coach Brian Turner led
the camp. Coach Sid Smith,
Coach Jason Rainey and some
of the East Jackson high school
basketball team assisted him.
All participants received East
Jackson shorts and T-shirts for
attending the camp, and sev
eral other awards were given.
Jeremiah Crumley won the
7-8-year-old free throw and hot
shot contest. Andrew Bruce
won in the 9-10-year-old free
throw and hot shot competi
tion, while Tryee Rakestraw
won the 11-13-year-old free
throw, and Nathan Crumley
won the 11-13-year-old hot shot
event.
The Eagle camp award went
to Gabriel Pierce.
EJCHS Wrestling
Inaugural Wrestling
Camp Finishes At EJCHS
The first annual East Jackson Wrestling Camp was held last week, run
ning June 9-11 at East Jackson Comprehensive High School.
During the three days, clinics were held by Nate Carr Sr„ 1988 Olympic
Bronze Medalist and three-time NCAA Champion, EJCHS coach Randy
Hill, who is an Ohio high school and college wrestler with over 20 years
coaching experience and coach at EJCHS, and EJCHS coach Frank
Caputo.
Other clinicians included Justin Otis, the Georgia State Champ and
runner-up for the South Carolina State Champ, who was ranked in top
20 in the nation in high school. Otis also wrestled for UCT and currently
coaches at Baylor High in Tennessee. Tim Mitchem, who wrestles for the
University of the Cumberlands and is a Georgia State Champ, was also
on hand as was Arturo Holmes, and high school coaches Garrett Testa,
Kyle Hill and Kyle Tau.
EJCHS was host to the first East Jackson Wrestling Camp ear
lier this month. The camp took place over four days, with several
clinicians on hand.
Commerce Park and Rec
Tigersharks At jefferson
McKenzie McRee dives from the block in 8 & under girls
competition last week. The Tigersharks traveled to Jefferson
met the Sea Dragons in a dual meet on Thursday. No scores
were kept by Commerce. The Tigersharks were scheduled
to take part in another dual meet at Chattahoochee today
(Wednesday) before traveling to Dacula on Saturday.