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PACE 2B THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2008 BCMS WRESTLING SPORTS NOTICES Middle school grapplers win at Jr. Patriot Classic Bank County Middle School’s wrestling team won the Junior Patriot Clas sic at Oglethorpe, Nov. 15. Out of a 16 team-brack eted tournament, Banks County pulled 106 points ahead of the competition. Athens Christian was the closest team to the middle school grapplers. Medal winners include: Taylor Wood, first place in the 75 lb. class and Kyle Ruark, second place in the 85 lb. class. Cody Beezley, first in 95 lb.; Mason Patton first in 105 lb.; Francisco Hurtado, third in 105 lb.; Tyler Bee zley, first in 115 lb.; and Kevin Mayfield, third in 115 1b. Kelsey Ayers, third in 135 lb.; Hayden Dilbeck, third in 145 lb.; Dachary McDuffie, second in 155 lb.; Destin Patrick, second in 165 lb.; Bobby Morgan, fourth in 175 lb.; Phillip Dean, first in 185 lb.; Jer- remy Gosnell, first in 195 lb.; Dylan Martin, third in 215 lb.; Logan Free, fourth in 215 lb.; and Blake Reyn olds, second in 250 lb. Scoring team wins for Banks County were Wes Faulkner, Eathan Wood, Lockland Wilson and Chris tian Minish. The middle school Leop ards grapplers will com pete Saturday at the Athens Christian Tournament. • Christmas Fun At BCHS Friday, Dec. 5, starting at 5 p.m. there will be an evening of fun for all Banks County children. Enjoy a visit with Santa, craft table, cookie decoration, cake walk, jumping machine, hay ride and more. Parking by the Ag barn as the festivities will take place on the bus ramp side. • Flag Football Fundraiser At BCHS Stadium Friday, Dec. 5, the annual fire dept. vs. sheriffs office flag football fundraiser starts at 7 p.m. • Change In Game Times On Saturday, Dec. 6, the Banks County High School is hosting Jackosn County in five basketball games. The ninth grade girls’ C-team will not be playing on Saturday, but the boys’ C-team will play at 10 a.m. Following that game, the junior varsity girls play at 11:30 a.m. with the junior varsity boys playing at 1 p.m. Varsity games begin at 2:30 p.m. with the Lady Leopards. The Leopards will play after the girls game. OUTDOORS WITH SKIPPER WORKING FOR THE PJNj Demetric Dempson (top) works to pin an Oconee County opponent during Tuesday’s home match?® Photo by Justini Poole'' Wrestling continued from page IB Check www.mainstreetnewssports.com for updates on the home match. Next up for the BCHS Mat Leopards is the Panther Invitational at Jackson County Friday and Saturday. Competition is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday. Three wins for BCMS girls continued from page IB Shedd said that he is excited to get a lot of experience for the girls since it helps add depth for later on in the season. “The result of this game was the product of hard work during the off-season and at prac tice which our program takes great pride in,” said Shedd. “One of the greatest stats I was impressed with, was that we only had nine turn overs and were able to hold Commerce to just five points with only six total team fouls.” Leading the charge for the girls was Taylor Kennedy with 16 points followed by second leading scorer McKenna Rylee with 12 points. Sabrina Porter picked up eight points just ahead of Morgan Cox with seven points. Drew Dalton, Toni Mullins, Kaitlyn Duncan and Savannah Blalock each scored two points. Erin McDonald picked up a free throw. Shedd said, “I have been extremely pleased with our team's performance so far but I know we still have a lot of tough teams we will need to prepare for later on down the schedule." Tip-off First Round The Leopard girls smothered Kings Bridge with a full court press and defense Nov. 21. Banks was up 29-0 at halftime and according to Shedd maintained a balanced scoring attack. “This was a great start for our team,” said Shedd. “You almost hate to play a game like this as your first game. Although we played very well, we still were not quite sure what kind of team we had when this game was over. The one thing we did know was that our team has a high level of energy, they hustle, and are extremely aggressive offensively and defen sively.” All of the team was able to participate on the court and a lot of girls scored. Leading the middle school Lady Leopards was McKenna Rylee scoring eight points. Tying for second leading scorer was Lauren Carter, Sabrina Porter and Morgan Cox each with six points apiece. Scoring five points apiece were Drew Dalton and Gabby Grisham. Taylor Kennedy picked up four points followed by Kaitlyn Duncan, Savannah Blalock and Haley Warner each with two points. Tip-off Championship Banks advanced to face West Jackson in the championship round on Nov. 22. The girls fought hard for the 31-26 win and made a comeback in the second half. According to Shedd, the girls started out slow and allowed a lot of turnovers off of West Jackson’s half and full court pressure. Banks was down 18-11 going into the half. Coming out of the break, the girls refocused and played a tough, man defense to climb back into the game. Shedd said that the game plan never changed, but the girls refused to quit or lose. “We were able to claw back into the ballgame by playing a tough, man defense and denying their posts players the ball.” The girls challenged every shot and begin to pick up rebounds. At the end of the third period the girls cut the lead to 23-19. Taking the lead in the fourth period, the middle school Lady Leopards picked up a 31-26 win. “I am proud of our team’s performance and think they were able to show great character with a huge comeback victory to take first place in the tournament.” Leading scorer Taylor Kennedy picked up 12 points followed by McKenna Rylee scoring nine points and Drew Dalton with four points. Lauren Carter, Sabrina Porter and Gabby Grisham each scored two points. www.commercechrvslerdodgeieep.com COMMERCE CHRYSLER DODGE JEEP (706) 335-2800 NO HASSLE! NO HAGGLE! ^ ALL REMAINING 2008 CHRYSLER DODGE ^ AND JEEP VEHICLES IN STOCK ONLY Activity All Around L ast Wednesday, I was in the woods at my usual late time of around seven a.m. It wasn’t long after I arrived at my perch, in my comfort able double ladder stand, that things began to happen. The first movement I no ticed was of a doe and a year ling. They were headed up my way; she was a bit antsy as she looked towards me. I believe she discovered my usual hid ing place. Back to my right, a herd was making their way through the woods. The herd, being my resident deer of two does and three yearlings. They seem to like our place, bedding down at evening, in different favorite spots, near the back pasture. Now, I had around seven or more ladies around me, I figured where the girls are the boys will be. I soon heard a racket going on at the prop erty next to ours. I figured it was a couple of bucks locking horns. I blew my grunt call but the only re sult was a couple of the does looking my way. I noticed the sound of fighting deer had stopped, and then got a brief glimpse of three big deer running through a clearing toward the creek. I figured they must be nice bucks, but no chance at all to get a shot. Then I noticed a spike com ing out of the nearby property, heading to ward a doe. skipper smith woods. Inside the house produces noth ing. I got a chance to take my four-year- old grandson Carson, out to the ground blind on Friday. He made it con- tently for about 45 minutes but we didn’t see any deer, so he was ready to He came on over my way, and I enjoyed watching him. He probably had been watch ing the fight going on with the bigger deer, and now, with them gone, started looking around to see what he could find. The does had moved on off at this point, and the woods were now empty. A bit later the spike came back again, and I blew the call. He didn’t pay much attention and even tually melted into the woods. That ended a real enjoyable morning. Perhaps, a nice buck will show up. I thought, you cer tainly don’t get a big deer unless you are sitting in the leave. And we did. I wanted it to be a pleasant experience for him, so he will want to come back. As we sat together in the ground blind, he looked over at his grandpa and said, “I love you.” Boy, you want to touch an old fellow’s heart, he sure did. That makes it a very special time for grandpa and grandson. Let me know about your success in the outdoors. Skipper Smith is an outdoors columnist for The Banks County News. His col umn appears weekly. Let him know about your outdoors or hunting adventures at 706- 677-1520.