Archive for August, 2010

Five comments about our Class A preseason all-state team:
The No. 1 and No. 2 teams in Class A – Charlton County and Wilcox County – have the two most celebrated quarterbacks in the state. Nick Marshall of Wilcox threw for 2,956 yards and 32 touchdowns last season, and Chris Milton of Charlton threw for 2,664 and 33 TDs. Marshall is our QB, and Milton is our athlete. Both figure to play defensive back in college.
Class A is famous for big-time running backs (Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Champ Bailey, Washaun Ealey). We went with a pair of seniors in Kyle Karempelis (3,500 career yards rushing) and Earnest Butts (more than 1,800 in 2009) over several good candidates that include ELCA’s Keyante Green, Hawkinsville’s Fabian Forrest, Washington-Wilkes’ Eric Scott and Bowdon’s Maricio Askew.
Two wide receivers, Zack Walker and Kevin Blackburne, had more than 50 catches last year. That made them our choices over the more highly recruited Justin Scott-Wesley, the University of …

Continue reading Class A preseason all-state team »

A Lassiter football assistant coach is reaching a milestone this year – his 50th season in coaching.

Bob Lord’s career includes Georgia coaching stops at Berkmar, Woodstock, Pope and Fellowship Christian. He was an assistant coach for years in the NFL with the Bears, Packers and Giants. He has coached in college at Liberty University.

This season, he will be working with the defensive line at Lassiter under new coach Jep Irwin. Lassiter’s first game is Saturday in the Georgia Dome against North Gwinnett.

Lord had been an assistant under Ricky Turner at Blessed Trinity but was contacted at Lassiter by assistant Butch Burden, who was on Lord’s staff at Pope in the early 1990s.

“I went over and talked with the new head coach, Jep Irwin, and we struck a chord and I talked things over with my wife and we prayed about it and decided that I could help them and here we are,” Lord said. “I am coaching the defensive line and having a ball.”

At age 80, Lord is believed to be the oldest …

Continue reading Lassiter’s Lord enters 50th season as coach »

Here are previews of the top 10 games this weekend, as high school football gets underway officially.

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Brookwood vs. Walton
When, where: 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Georgia Dome, Atlanta
Rankings, records: Brookwood was 6-6 in 2009 and lost in the Class AAAAA second round to Peachtree Ridge; Walton was 6-4 and missed the Class AAAAA playoffs. Neither team is ranked.
Last meeting: Walton won 14-9 in 2008.
Three things to know: 1. Brookwood is no longer the big-lineman, smash-mouth program of yesterday. Its marquee players are WR Andre “A.J.” Sims (57 catches, nine TDs in 2009), QB Ben McLane (1,780 yards passing) and WR/DB Nick Moore. 2. Walton returns only four of 22 starters and will rely on more youngsters, such as junior twins RB/DB Daron and DB Zack Blaylock, the sons of former Atlanta Hawks guard Mookie Blaylock. 3. Brookwood and Walton historically are two of the top Georgia schools …

Continue reading Previews to 10 top games in Week One »

Newton High School fired its head football coach after an incident with the booster club president and a football player, according to the Newton Citizen.

Nick Collins has been relieved of his coaching duties but will remain as an employee of the school system.

“Yes, Mr. Collins is no longer the coach of the Newton Rams,” Newton County Schools spokesman Sherri Davis-Viniard told the AJC. “The school system is not releasing further information as it is a confidential personnel matter.”

The incident began after a disagreement between Collins and football booster club president Felicia Jackson over payment of an assistant coach’s stipend, according to the Citizen. The Newton County Sheriff’s Department was called to the school.

Here’s some of the rest of story by the Citizen’s Manny Fils. [Click here to read it in its entirety]

Continue reading Newton fires head football coach after incident with booster club president and football player »

Class AAA contains two Atlanta Journal-Constitution/GHSF Daily Super 11 players in Gainesville’s A.J. Johnson and Grady’s Damian Swann. It also contains perhaps the three most controversial Super 11 omissions in Dalton’s Watts Dantzler, Monroe Area’s Stephon Tuitt and Troup’s Quan Bray, all of whom are consensus top 10 recruits in Georgia.

Class AAA also is home to several players with previous all-state recognition who aren’t being recruited that heavily because of size or other factors. Included in those are Washington County’s little Montravious “Whistle” Gladdin, who rushed for more than1,700 yards last season.

Reigning state champions Sandy Creek and Peach County are represented by five players total. Washington County matches Sandy Creek for the most with three. Peach County has two, including OL Renard Williams, who is moving to TE this season but is listed at the postion at which he was all-state in 2009.

The schools and hometowns of three players are often listed …

Continue reading AAA preseason all-state »

Continue reading AA preseason all-state team »

Mr. 63, please don't take our lunch money at the AJC. We still think you're super (CCHS)

If you ever watched MTV’s “Two-A-Days” high school football reality show, you know that Rush Propst is a quote machine.

When asked about his football team at Colquitt County High School by a reporter, Propst said — wait a minute — he had a question first: ”How the [heck] can you leave Xzavier Ward off the AJC Super 11?”

It was a fair question. He was talking about Colquitt’s man-child on the offensive line, the 6-foot-7, 255-pound senior who will probably be playing left tackle for some football team for, oh let’s say, the next decade. Ward has around 25 major-college scholarship offers, with UGA and Alabama as his long-time leaders.

“I get bombard daily by college coaches who want to know what Xzavier is thinking every second,” Propst said. “There’s probably several guys on that [Super 11 list] that don’t fall into that category [of intense recruiting].

“It has to be a pure lack of …

Continue reading MTV celebrity coach rants about Colquitt County OT Xzavier Ward’s omission from AJC Super 11 »

Brookwood High will retire the jersey of the late Amanda Riley, a member of the school’s basketball team who lost her 13-month battle with cancer last spring. The ceremony will take place at halftime of the Atlanta Dream’s “Take The Show On The Road” event, which begins at 5 p.m. Thursday at Brookwood.

Riley was a two-sport athlete at Brookwood, running cross country in addition to playing basketball.

“With her battle and strength and determination … she touched many lives in not only the Brookwood community but throughout the metro area and countless individuals beyond,” said Brookwood basketball coach Scott Terry.

Tickets are $15 and include a ticket to the Dream’s home game on Aug. 22. Proceeds from the event will be used to establish the “Amanda Riley Memorial Scholarship.”

• Please click here for the AJC’s latest news on FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL … and scroll down the page.
• What are your thoughts on the AJC Super 11? Voice your opinion here
• Follow the AJC’s Michael Carvell …

Continue reading Brookwood High School to retire jersey of late basketball player »

Get out your Kleenex tissues.

Atlanta filmmaker Rick Cohen has put together another wonderful trailer for his “Season of a Lifetime” documentary which will follow around Greenville High coach Jeremy Williams and his football team this season. Williams has inspired many with his attitude toward his terminal illness of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

I never thought any trailer could beat the first one, but No. 3 comes close. You see touching video of Josie Williams helping her father dress for work, along with the coach playing around with son Jacob, who was born with spina bifida.

Williams also appears at a church, giving his testimony and offering words of encouragement to others.

• Please click here for the AJC’s latest news on FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL … and scroll down the page.
• What are your thoughts on the AJC Super 11? Voice your opinion here
• Follow the AJC’s Michael Carvell on FACEBOOK … and Twitter
• Got an item? mcarvell@ajc.com

Continue reading New video from ‘Season of a Lifetime’ documentary with ALS coach Jeremy Williams »

School officials from Fitzgerald and defending Class A champion Wilcox County were scheduled to meet on Tuesday night, according to WALB-TV.

The Georgia High School Association is still awaiting on written reports from both schools before determining any possible disciplinary measures.

WALB’s Stephanie Springer talked to several eyewitnesses and described the scene as a “brawl involving more than 100 people.”

“You see players, parents, coaches even onlookers jumping the fence and running out into the field it was pretty confusing,” Investigator Patrick Hogan, who was working security during the game, told the TV station.

One of the parents of  a Fitzgerald player was quoted as saying, “It was like the whole team just rushed, from there normally they would walk down the line and shake hands but they just rushed toward us and chaos just begun.” Click here to read the rest of the report.

Scene from after last Friday's scrimmage between Fitzgerald and reigning Class A football …

Continue reading ‘Brawl’ update: School officials from Fitzgerald and Wilcox County to meet, says report »

The Class AAAA preseason all-state team is better than the AAAAA team published Monday. Not saying that AAAA is better than AAAAA, but its all-star team probably is.

Five of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/GHSF Daily Super 11 players are in AAAA, plus several other big-time recruits. See our story on that below.

The hardest spot to make was kicker and punter. Seriously? Yep. Georgia has the No. 1-rated kicker nationally (Ammon Lakip of Chattahoochee), according to ProKicker.com, and the No. 1-rated punter nationally (Will Monday of Flowery Branch), according to KohlsKicking.com.

And both have produced on the field. They are not just combine freaks. That leaves out a pair of all-state kickers in Bainbridge’s Keenan Adams (a Colorado State pledge) and Dunwoody’s Adam Breed. Ryan Kay of Dutchtown is another who would be all-state in any other class. Here is a good story on Lakip on NeighborNewspapers.com.

The easiest spot to make was tight end. Nile Daniel is a fine player who …

Continue reading Preseason All-State: Class AAAA »

The Georgia High School Association is investigating a “shoving match” after Friday’s football scrimmage between Fitzgerald and defending Class A champion Wilcox County.

“As I understand it, it was basically a huge shoving match that involved both teams, people out of the stands and those kinds of things,” GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin told the AJC on Monday evening.

“It was a post-game situation, and several people have suggested that it wasn’t as bad as all the bad rumors we’ve heard about it. We’re going to wait until we get the written reports from both schools before we sort it all out.”

Swearngin said he expects reports by Wednesday, and says it is unlikely that any possible penalties would involve suspensions — unless it was proven that a player or coach tried to intentionally harm someone else.

“There would be no sit-out penalties because it was a practice game or scrimmage, and not an actual game,” Swearngin said. “So we would have to look and see if there …

Continue reading GHSA investigating ’shoving match’ after football scrimmage between Fitzgerald and defending Class A champion Wilcox County »

Kaleb Cowart (Gatorade)

The last of the five Georgia high schoolers selected in the first round of the baseball draft has signed a professional contract.

Cook High third baseman Kaleb Cowart signed a contract with the LA Angels, only hours before the Monday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline.

“I just felt like it was the right move,” Cowart said. “I prayed about it and I feel like this is what God wants me to do.”

Cowart, drafted No. 18 overall by the Angels, reportedly signed for bonus of $2.3 million.

“We got close to the money figure,” Cowart said. “We just kept talking money. I had a price out there, and they got relatively close to it. That’s just life-changing money and I couldn’t turn that down.”

Cowart was one of three first-rounders drafted by the Angels in the first round, along with East Coweta pitcher Cam Bedrosian and Marietta outfielder Chevez Clarke. By signing with the Angels, Cowart bypassed his baseball scholarship to Florida State.

“There was a …

Continue reading Breaking News: Georgia baseball first-rounder signs with LA Angels only hours before deadline (Updated) »

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The LA Angels have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday to sign Cook High third baseman Kaleb Cowart.

It will likely go down to the final hours — or even minutes — with Cowart, who was drafted No. 18 overall by the Angles and was reportedly seeking a $3 million signing bonus to bypass his baseball scholarship to beloved Florida State.

It appears both sides are getting closer on the final day. Cowart is “believed to be seeking a bonus in excess of $2 million, with the Angels offering at least $1.5 million,” according to MLB.com. Angels scouting director Eddie Bane also told the website that the club “was fairly close” to reaching an agreement.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Cowart was one of five Georgia high schoolers selected in the first round of the June major-league draft, along with Woodward IF-OF Delino DeShields (No. 8 to Astros), Blessed Trinity CF Jake Skole (No. 15 to …

Continue reading Baseball: Will it be FSU or MLB for Cook first-rounder Kaleb Cowart when clock strikes midnight? »

Here’s our preseason all-state team in the highest classification.

Five observations:

– South Gwinnett’s Kent Rollins could be this year’s Hutson Mason. He threw for 2,212 yards and 23 TDs last year in 11 games. North Gwinnett QB C.J. Uzomah, whom we put in the athlete category because he’ll probably play TE at Auburn, is another state player-of-the-year candidate from Gwinnett County.

– Picks by region go like this – 1 (7), 2 (3), 3 (1), 4 (2), 5 (2), 6 (2), 7 (5), 8 (3). Yep, Region 1 has five teams, seven first-team picks.

– The hardest spot to make was defensive back. North Cobb’s Darren Waller, who has committed to Georgia Tech, was left off, for example. “He’s 6-5, pushing 210 pounds, ran a 4.36 electronic time, power cleans 280, has a 3.8 GPA,” North Cobb coach Shane Queen told the Atlanta Journal-Consitution. “I don’t know what else you could ask for.” Tight end is was another difficult spot. We had to move McEachern’s Rory Anderson to WR, which he plays.

– The …

Continue reading Preseason All-State: Class AAAAA »