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Sports 'ynsssfei' : : ■ ' ■ .. :; ;;■ #r h" JU rjfe % *lßFft *jf Home Journal Photo by Rob Mead SCORING Westfield running back Chance Jones (2) heads eliminated from the GISA state playoffs by Tattnall. into the end zone against Tattnall Nov. 19. The Hornets were Tattnall ends another Westfield dream , 35-6 By Phil Clark Home Journal Sports MACON The Tattnall Trojans took advantage of some Westfield mistakes, and overcame some of their own in pounding out a 35-6 Georgia Independent School Association quarterfinals victory over the Hornets Nov. 19. That sends the Trojans into the semifi nals, while ending the season for West field. Tattnall, the region 2AAA top seed and defending state champions, will now face DeerfielcPWindsor at home Nov 26. Deer field-Windsor beat Mount de Sales 25-22 to advance to the final four. Westfield and Tattnall both had to punt on their opening possession after each could manage just one first down. Then on the Hornets second possession, a bad snap on a punt attempt forced punter Daniel Weir to scramble with the ball, and the piav ended up losing a yard, turning the balrover to tne Trojans at the West field 40-fyard line. Tattnall seized the opportunity to put the first points of the game on the board despite two offensive holding penalties that temporarily halted the drive. Quar terback Josh Loosier took the ball over Houstonian Brian Green drops big buck During 1998. Hugh Green, the former Houston County Conservation Officer, bagged a huge buck in nearby Peach county where he now lives. Hugh saw three large bucks and managed to drop one, “but it was not the biggest one” he recalled. Regardless, the buck he bagged was good enough to win a week ofthe Georgia Out door News deer contest. Hugh won several nice prizes and finished third in the G.O.N. Shootout held at the August Buckarama. Well it now seems that his son Brian, has picked up where his dad left off and har vested another big buck from the same property and off the same stand! Here s his story. “On Nov. 14, a chilly, 45- degree morning, my wife and I went hunting on a small track of planted pines about five or Chipper Jones is third Atlanta Brave to win MVP honors Since they came to Atlanta in 1966, the Atlanta Braves have had some truly great baseball players. When Chipper Jones was tne run away winner of the 1999 National League most valuable player award, he became the third Atlanta player to capture the coveted award. Terry Pendleton had been the last to do it following the 1991 season, and previously Dale Murphy turned a trick accomplished by few. He won the award back to back in 1982 and 1982. Only three other players in Braves franchise history had won the MVP award. Johnny Evers did it for the World Series champions in 1914, Bob Elliot won it in 1947 and Hank Aaron in 1957, another Braves championship year There wasn’t too much argument over Jones' winning the award. He almost single-handedly demolished the New York Mets down (he stretch, solidifying his position as the most valuable player to his own team in the National League. After all. that’s what the MVP award is supposed to be about. Chipper completed the best season of nis career with the winning of the coveted award He Page 6A from the 20 after a nolding call had offset a 14 yard Boots Vinson" run. Loosier’s point after kick gave Tattnall a 7-0 lead with 3:23 left in the first period. An illegal procedure penalty put the ball on the Westfield 17-yard line following Loosier’s kickoff and all the Hornets could get out of the possession was a five-yard gain by Chance Jones. This time from punt formation, Weir couldn’t handle the snap and the ball squirted out of his hands toward the Westfield end zone. As the ball approached the goal line, Weir booted it through the end zone for a safe ty- Tattnall coach Barney Hester argued that Weir had kicked tne ball before it reached the end zone, which would have given Tattnall the ball at the one-yard line. However, the officials upheld their original ruling that the play had resulted in a safety, giving the Trojans a 9-0 lead with the Hornets getting a free kick. The troubles continued for the Hornets, though, when Weir's punt went out of bounds, giving Tattnall the ball at the Westfield 45-yard line. After a three-yard gain and a five-yard illegal procedure penalty, Loosier broke open for a 47-yard touchdown with 48 seconds left in the j§| fR l -■<*r IST | jfet L Jatin Trussel I Home Journal Outdoors six feet tall in Peach County. We were hunting in a 12-foot tower stand overlooking a tood plot in a low-lying area. The plot was just over a hundred yards away. A cotton field bor dered the planted pines to our left,” Green said. “I looked up and coming from a pecan field there were three does coming across the cotton field headed toward the food plot. As I watched the Phil Clark Home Journal Sports was quick to say, though, that a world s championship would have been more satisfying. Through the years, the Braves have been one of the most success ful of all sports franchises. They have not posted the World Series championships like the New York Yankees, of course, but they did win titles in 1914. 1948, 1957 and 1995. That's two In Boston, one in Milwau kee, one in Atlanta. Some 41 players who toiled for the Braves at least one year are in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Others are on the way. Five of those players spent part of their careers in Atlanln Hank Aaron and Phil Neikro Wed., Nov. 24, 1999 deer through my scope. 1 noticed two of the deer were looking back with their tails up,” he continued. "As they started moving toward the" food plot, the fog became thick. I lost the deer in the fog for about 10 minutes. As the sun rose at about 7:15, the fog started to burn off. I caughf a glimpse of the does in the food plot and I was trying to decide whether or not to shoot,” Green related. “As the deer made their way about halfway between me and the food plot. I had my crosshairs looking for the shof. My wife said. There is another deer, I think it is a buck.' When I looked up in the food Blot, I saw the buck trailing le does with its nose to the ground," said Green. There was only one gap left to shoot through before the buck made it into the pines. I Houston Home Journal first quarter to give Tattnall a 15-0 lead. With Tattnall leading 22-0 with 9:48 left in the half, the Hornets finally got something going offensively when Bo" Hart connected with Weir for 15 vards then Ernest Greene for 37 to the Tattnall 18- yard line. Jones got nine yards on first down, but two plays for no gain brought up a fourth and one at the 9-yard line. Jones got the first down, then went over for the score four plays later, again on a fourth down play. The point after try was wide and the Trojans had a 22-6 lead with 5:20 left in the half. The Trojans answered the touchdown with a 12-play, 68-yard drive with Vinson going the final vara with 1:12 left in the nail, increasing" the Trojans' lead to 29-6 at the half. Will Holt breathed a little hope into the Hornets when he recovered a fumble after a Westfield punt, but a 12-play drive stalled when Loosier intercepted "a Hart pass at the Trojans' three yard line, end mg what became the Hornets' last scoring threat. The Trojans scored a meaningless touchdown with 4:48 left in the game for a 35-6 victory. The Hornets finish the season with a record of 9-2-1. come immediately to mind. Eddie Mathews played 'just one year in Atlanta. That was the 1966 season, the year the team came south from Milwaukee. Gaylord Perry, who pitched just about everywhere, was in Atlanta for the 1981 season, while another jour neyman pitcher, reliever Hoyt Wil helm, was here from 1969-71. Of course, in recent years, pitch ing has been the area in which the Braves have captured the most awards. In the decade of the 90s. Atlanta pitchers have won a total of six Cy Young awards. Tom Glavine won in 1991, the same year Terry Pendleton was MVP, while Greg Maddux won three years in a row in Atlanta, 1993, '94 and ’95, after winning the award in 1992 while a member of the Chicago Cubs. John Smolta won in 1996, and Glavine again in 1998. Warren Spahn won in 1957 in Milwaukee, the year Aaron was MVP. Since coming to Atlanta, the Braves have haa some pretty out standing rookies, too. Earl Williams won rookie of the year honors in 1971 before being traded to Balti put mv crosshairs in the gap, and as he trotted across just over a hundred yards, I shot," Green said with excitement in his voice. “As 1 shot, the buck crashed through the pines about 30 yards and stopped. The three "does ran off and my wife asked, ‘Did you get him?’ I said, 'Yes, I hit him, but I’m not sure where,'" Green said. "After 20 minutes of wait ing, I looked up to my right and saw the buck slipping out of the pines. The first thing I noticed was the buck's bowed back and short steps. I put the crosshairs behind the buck's shoulder for a second shot: he turned and ran 20 more yards andpiled up!" he added. “Tnis buck was possibly the mate of my dad s GON’s "week one winner of last year. The second of the big three!" said Green. 'lUp t f 3 t%S3Hm :^a» | V -,: ?i <. vy : ' ■ \ - J> T 7m /'’"' ' ww *—» <N^al, i r '" / f \ 5 - ■•* gf ; c ||ji||jjP - .{i:: W.aE ■ . x > JHgkv .v’* w » J 4BB| H Home Journal Photo by Jj Johnson DRIVING THE LANE John Millender (24) drives the lane against Echols County Nov. 20. The Panthers downed the Wildcats 71-58 in the season-opening game for both teams. The Panthers took an early 11-6 lead at the end of the first quarter but Echols cut the gap to four points early in the sec ond before falling behind 30-20 at halftime. The Wildcats refused to quit, and maintained a 6-9 point gap throughout the third quarter. Penalties and lack of substitutes (Echols only dressed nine players) caught up with the Wildcats in the final quarter. Perry was scheduled to host the Wildcats in a second matchup Nov. 23 and will host Dooly County Nov. 27. Lady Panthers set to open against Dooly County By ALLINE KENT Home Journal Sports Listening to Perry High School head girls basketball coach Max Vickers, one hears the excitement in his voice and sees it on his face as he talks about the upcoming sea son and his Lady Panthers. “These girls are practicing tough and are mentally tough. They have an energy that seems to feed off each other. It is amazing," he said this week. This will be Vickers' sixth vear as head coach and by his "own admission this is going to be a different year for nim. of the 12 players on varsity, six are returning from last "year. Onlv three ol those saw any time starting for Perry, Kiki Woodard, Marquita Ragin and Jessica Green who alternated as starters last season. With no seniors on the team, the four juniors, Green, Ragin, Woodard and Akenia Davis, will be expected to move into leadership roles. Four sophomores, Aleta Code, Angela Davis, Amber Overton and Nioakie Hill, and four freshmen, Fatima Stripling, Charity Adams, Lydia Diaz and Natassjia Mitchell, round out the team. Regardless of their youth, Vickers has been impressed already by their dedication and determination, calling them the "hardest working group I have had " “1 am not sure how good we will be, but we have been giv ing it all we have during prac tice," he said. The team's diligence started this summer when they attended camp at Georgia Col lege and State University in Milledgeville. Although the team won only a handful of games on their summer sched ule, Vickers said the opportu more. Bob Horner won in 1978 and David Justice in 1990. Earlier, Alvin Dark won the award while playing shortstop for the 1948 world’s champions. Sam Jethroe won it two years later, in 1950. For all of their successes over the years, though, the Braves have had just one “manager of the year.". That was Bobby Cox, who won the award in 1991. There was at a time a great deal made of retiring a player's uniform number. And it's still done to a degree. Thing is, with free agency, players don't stay with one team long enough. There are some, of course, but the number dwindles year by year. Only five Braves have receive'd' the honor. The first was Spahn. His Boston and Milwaukee number 21 was retired in 1965. Spahn won 356 games for the Braves. Eddie Mathews, who had a life time batting average of .271 with 512 home runs ana 1,453 runs bat ted in, had his number 41 retired in 1969. Hank Aaron’s number 44 was retired in 1975 after the Hall of Fame slugger set the major league nity gave the Panthers a chance to figure out their style. “With everyone basically new. we needed a chance to find out what we could do well, “ he said. Vickers is also excited about the changes his staff has gone through including the addition of Rnsti Horsting. who will be assisting Vickers during the games. Horsting, who also heads up the girts softball program at Perry, brings according to Vickers a “fun attitude and good strong work habits to our program." ' Marlon Robinson, will be taking over the Junior Varsity for the first time this year and Vickers is excited about what he will be bringing to the younger players. “Coach Robinson really knows the game of basketball, especially ball handling and fundamen tals." While the boys team will be traveling to Albany during the Christmas break for a tourna ment, Vickers decided to include the Bear Brawl tour nament, held at Houston County high school, on his schedule again this season. The Bear Brawl he said, gives him a chance to scout and enjoy local teams while allow ing families and fans the opportunity to come watch the games. This year, all four Houston County public high schools will be amongthe par ticipants in the Bear Brawl. Vickers has been pulling double duty for four weeks while he conducted basketball practices and worked with the football team. With football season over just about two weeks when he faces his first opponents, Vickers said that ms team will be ready to play Dooly in their opener this weekend. career home record with 755. Aaron also had a lifetime batting average of .305, something fans seem to over look. He also batted in 2,297. In 1984 Neikro’s number was retired, although "fcnucksie" was still playing in the major leagues. In fact, he came back to Atlanta briefly in 1987 to end his career. Neikro won 316 major league games, 268 of them while a member of the Braves. The last to have his number retired in Atlanta was fan favorite and all around nice guy Dale Mur phy. Dale retired just two home runs shy of the coveted 400 mark and ended his career with a .265 batting average. His number was retired in 1994. Murphy led the league in runs batted in each of his MVP seasons, and hit 36 home runs to lead the league in 1984. How long will Chipper Jones remain in Atlanta? The question is hard to answer because of free S. The Braves reluctance to sr Ken Griffey Jr. could mean Atlanta will opt to go after their own soon to be free agents instead. Guys like Chipper Jones. I like that atti tude.