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EJCHS Football
CHS Football
Eagles Use Scrimmage For Final Tune-Up
Freshman C.J. Allen (9) looks for daylight as scrimmage game last Thursday in Gainesville.
Chestatee defenders close in on him during a Photo by Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
The 2008 East Jackson Eagles
got their first taste of action
Thursday night, as they trav
eled to Gainesville for a scrim
mage with the Chestatee War
Eagles.
Head coach Frank Caputo
said he felt the scrimmage
went okay and gave his team a
chance to measure itself against
a seasoned program.
“Going in, we knew we weren’t
going to play our first line guys
offensively for probably more
than 15 plays, and we prob
ably got that 15 out of them,’’
Caputo said. “I thought the first
group, for the amount of time
that they were on the field, did
pretty well offensively.’’
Caputo said he also felt
that the younger kids did well
against Chestatee.
“I thought they did a real nice
job of executing and doing
what they had to do,’’ he said.
“Granted, we had enough mis
takes to last a lifetime, but
we seemed to play pretty well
when we got down in the red
zone. We also threw the ball
pretty well, and I was tickled
about that.’’
On the defensive end, Caputo
said the Eagles really didn’t
take a lot of time to prepare for
Chestatee.
“We’ve just been working on
ourselves,’’ he said. “Anytime
you go against an option foot
ball team, if you don’t take
the time out to prepare for
them and do your assignments
because it’s discipline football,
they’re going to have some runs
on you.’’
Caputo said while he didn’t
feel the team did a good job of
tackling, he did see some good
effort in spots Thursday night.
“I thought our younger
kids played pretty well and
ran around with more ener
gy than the older bunch. We
were looking for that energy.
Unfortunately, for the older
guys, they didn’t have it that
evening, but we’re sure they’ll
have it in the future.’’
All in all, Caputo said, the
Eagles are glad to have the
scrimmage behind them.
“Overall, it was a good barom
eter for us. Chestatee has a
fine football team and coach,
and they’re a playoff team. I
think we responded fairly well
to the challenge.’’
The next challenge is to
take the lessons learned in
Gainesville back to East
Jackson, and work to fix any
problems that came to light.
“We’re going back to our
fundamentals,’’ Caputo said.
“We’re working on blocking,
tackling and shoring up our
mental mistakes. We made a
lot of mental mistakes, as far as
which way to go, and our head
placement.’’
The focus this week, Caputo
said, will continue to be on the
Eagles.
“It’s a time for us to work on
us,’’ he said. “We have an extra
week to do that before we have
to concentrate on West Hall.
We’re going to work on us and
get ourselves straightened out
as best as we can this week,
then start working on West
Hall.’’
East Jackson will kick off its
2008 season on Aug. 29, at West
Hall against the Spartans.
CHS Softball
Lady Tigers Kickoff Season At Lanier Point
Commerce junior Kelsey Beck stands ready at the plate during
the Lanier Point tournament last weekend. The Lady Tigers went
1-5 in tournament play Friday and Saturday.
By Brandon Reed
The 2008 softball season got
under way for the Commerce
Lady Tigers this past weekend, as
the team traveled to Gainesville
for the Lanier Point Invitational.
The outing was a little rough on
the Lady Tigers, as they went 1-5
on the weekend.
But, coach Pam Canup said,
the team is improving with every
game.
The ladies were scheduled
to face Banks County today
(Wednesday) in Homer at 5:45
p.m.
Rough Start
It was a rocky road for
Commerce from the beginning,
as the Lady Tigers were shut
out in both games Friday, losing
by identical 9-0 scores to White
County and Habersham County.
“Both of them have been very
successful teams,’’ Canup said.
“We struggled a little bit with the
hitting, trying to figure out this
and that. We didn’t play as well
as I thought we should have. We
made a lot of mental errors in
those two games.’’
Getting Better
Commerce started Saturday
morning with the Lady Red
Elephants of Gainesville. Both
teams went back and forth dur
ing the course of the game, with
neither able to show a clear
advantage. Canup played the
team’s younger pitchers against
Gainesville, and the lady Tigers
fell 7-5. That was also the score
against Rabun County.
Despite the losses, Canup said
the team continues to improve.
“In each game, you could see
them getting progressively bet
ter, and learning each other.
Everybody is in a new position.
The shortstop is learning where
the second baseman is going to
be, things like that.
“But there were a lot of lit
tle things that we did well.
Everybody was where they were
supposed to be. Noticing some
of the other teams, they didn’t
seem to be that way. There were
a lot of things that we were doing
well, but we just had some men
tal lapses here and there.’’
Winning Combination
Those improvements culminat
ed in Commerce’s lone victory
in the tournament, when they
defeated Banks County 2-1.
Canup said the team’s improve
ments in the previous games paid
off for the win.
“We actually started hitting the
ball better and better,’’ she said.
“We feel like from Friday night to
Saturday night, we’ve been get
ting better and better. We made
a whole bunch of steps.
“If we keep getting better and
better, maybe we can make a run
at our region.’’
The Lady Tigers hoped to
carry the momentum of the win
to their final game of the tourna
ment, as they faced East Hall late
Saturday.
But the Lady Vikings came out
swinging, and put five runs on
the board before the end of the
first inning.
Commerce began fighting
back, and chipped away slowly
at the East Hall lead, managing
to come back and score. In the
seventh inning, the Lady Tigers
had the bases loaded when East
Hall finally put the game away,
leaving Commerce with an 8-6
loss.
Regardless of the outcome,
Canup said she saw a lot of good
things out of her players over the
weekend.
“Brittney Wilson hit the ball
well, and she made a lot of con
tact,’’ Canup said.
Canup also pointed to her three
young pitchers, Brooke Vickery,
Kayla Burks and Beth Pritchett,
as doing some good things dur
ing the tournament.
“They did a pretty good job of
trying to stay around the plate
and throw strikes,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, ace Brooklynn
Stinchcomb was moved to the
outfield to allow the younger
pitchers to feel things out.
“She did a good job while the
younger girls were pitching,’’
Canup said.
Senior C.J. Wilkes also had
several good catches during the
weekend, Canup said, while
Peyton Maddox and Haiden
Nunn both laid down good
bunts.
Canup said that several team
members came out of the week
end a little banged up, but not
giving up.
“After six games, they were
sore and tired, but they kept
going at it,’’ she said. “They’re
wanting to do whatever the team
needs.
“We’re getting better and better,
and they seem to want to do the
little things to try to keep improv
ing. We’re not there yet, but we’re
getting better all the time.’’
The Lady Tigers were sched
uled to play host to Jefferson
Tuesday afternoon. Results were
unavailable at press time (check
MainStreetNewsSports.com for
score updates).
%
The Commerce Tigers continue to work on the fundamentals as
they get themsevles ready for the 2008 season.
Photo by Brandon Reed
Commerce Works
Towards Big Picture
By Brandon Reed
You can practice any number of plays, you can set up any kind
of defense, but the bottom line when you’re getting a football
team up to speed in the pre-season is to be better each day than
you were the day before.
That’s the mindset of the Commerce Tigers as they continue to
close in on their season opener on August 29. So far, coach Steve
Savage said this week, that’s what his team has been working
towards.
“I’ve been real pleased with the way we’ve worked and the way
we’ve gone about making this team better,” Savage said.
The team is working to overcome the loss of several key seniors
from 2007, including quarterback Reuben Haynes, Cohen Cooke,
Jake Flint and Baxter Barnes.
But several seniors appear ready to move into leadership roles
on the team, including Chase Bowen, Javon Womack, Taylor Sims
and Austin Hanley.
Savage said he was pleased with the way the team has improved
over the last several weeks.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “I think we’re get
ting a little better every day.”
Savage said as the team members continue to work to define
themselves, they also continue to work on the fundamentals of
the game.
“This football team is still trying to find itself and what it can
do,” he said. “We’re trying to find out defensively who we are, and
make sure we have everybody in the right position.
“Sometimes even though you’ve played the first game, you still
may not have them where they should be at, but we’re getting
closer to it.”
Commerce is in a good spot to work out all the kinks. Its first
region game isn’t scheduled until Oct. 3, at Athens Academy.
That gives them four full games and five weeks to get everything
in place before making a run at their region opponents.
Savage says he hopes his team will have itself situated well
before it reaches Athens Academy.
The Tigers will start their season Aug. 29 with the latest install
ment of a cross-county rivalry with the Jefferson Dragons. Last
year, the Dragons ended a 12-year Commerce winning streak with
a 42-7 blowout.
But Savage says the opener and the three games that follow
are just opportunities for his team to improve before getting to
the more important games, those that could lead Commerce to
another state title.
Meanwhile, the goal is to get better each day.
EJCHS Volleyball
Lady Eagles Goes 1-3 In
Area Play Date At EJCHS
By Brandon Reed
The East Jackson Lady Eagles’ volleyball season got under way
on Saturday with an area play date Saturday. The team went 1-3,
but according to coach Tim Thomas, the outcome could have been
better.
“(We) could have easily been 2-2 if we had played our best,” he
said.
Green County
The Lady Eagles started out against Green County and won in
two sets, 25-16 and 25-15.
“We tried several different lineup combinations in this one so the
score really doesn’t reflect how one-sided it was,” Thomas said.
“Greene is just getting started and this was their first match ever.”
Thomas said despite the win, the team was way off of its game.
Athens Academy
As good as things went against Green County, they didn’t do
nearly as well against Athens Academy, losing in two sets 25-5 and
25-6.
“Athens is easily the best team in our area,” Thomas said. “We’re
not even near their level at this point, but we did learn a big les
son here. Our back row has to be solid in receiving the opponents’
serve, and it wasn’t in this match. The good thing is that we have
the personnel to do it, we just have to do a better job in practice of
coaching them on this.”
Lakeview
After the roughing up the team got from Athens Academy, the
Lady Eagles made more of a stand against Lakeview Academy, but
still came up on the losing end in two sets, 25-7 and 25-12.
Continued on Page 2B