Archive for the ‘toddholcomb’ Category

One Sunday in June, the AJC in its print edition will be looking into the issue of paying to play sports in Georgia high schools.

I’ll be writing on the subject and was hoping to get some stories and first-hand experience from the online audience this week.

Do you have a child playing sports in high school? What is the out-of-pocket expense (or dues or fees) that you are asked to pay?

Public schools can’t force student-athletes to pay for play high sports, but they can ask, and they can call these player fees mandatory when they really aren’t.

But no matter how you slice it, high school sports are expensive, and the money-making engine of a sports program – mostly football – can’t always cover the cost of uniforms, equipment, gas for bus travel, officials, etc., of a school’s 15 sports teams.

So how much does it cost to play sports at your school?

Is it too much? Is it fair? Are there some out there that don’t pay anything? Are there any paying $800?

What are these teams …

Continue reading HS sports: How much does it cost to play? »

Our third daily look at the best players in high school football focuses on receivers.

Here are 10 to watch.

They must be pretty smart because three have offers from Yale.

Remember that these are not recruiting rankings. These players have been selected primarily on their high school production and their value to their high school teams.

Let us know who you think we missed.

- Myles Autry, Norcross: Autry plays many roles for Norcross but is most commonly lined up at slot receiver. In 2012, year of Norcross’ first state title, Autry had 45 catches for 632 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also had more than 500 yards rushing and 500 returning. Autry could play any of several positions in college. His finalists appear to be Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State and Miami. Autry is coming off ACL/MCL surgery.

- Emanuel Beal, Hillgrove: Beal caught 43 passes for 855 yards (19.9 avg.) and seven touchdowns for 6-5 Wheeler last season. He has transferred to Hillgrove. Beal (6-1, …

Continue reading 10 best HS wide receivers: Kitt heads productive group »

Our look at the best high school football players in Georgia continues today with 10 running backs.

Remember that these are not recruiting rankings. These players have been selected primarily on their high school production and their value to their high school teams.

Let us know who you think we missed.

- Kwan Brooks, Monroe Area: Brooks rushed for 1,916 yards and 18 touchdowns for a 12-2 team in 2012. It was Monroe Area’s first trip to the state semifinals. Brooks had seven touchdown runs of longer than 50 yards. Brooks is 5-9, 165. He’s not getting the same recruiting attention as his backfield mate, quarterback Stanton Truitt, but that will change if he gets his academics in order.

- Kawon Bryant, North Oconee: A rising junior, Bryant played only seven games last season on a 10-2 team because of injuries. He for 1,146 yards and 14 touchdowns. He rushed for 204 yards against Jefferson as a freshman.

- Esaias Chapman, Harris County: Chapman rushed for 2,124 yards and scored …

Continue reading 10 best HS running backs: Can Chubb hit 3,000? »

Over the next several days, we’ll be providing a position-by-position look at some of Georgia’s best high school football players. It starts today with quarterbacks.

These 10 were chosen based on what they bring to their high school teams. These are not recruiting rankings. In fact, four of the 10 are not being recruited as quarterbacks.

Who are the best quarterbacks that we left out?

- Brooks Barden, Cartersville: Barden led Cartersville to a 13-1 finish (best since the 1999 state championship team) while passing for 2,872 yards (189 of 304) and 39 touchdowns with only five interceptions. Despite good size (6-3, 200) and being a coach’s son, Barden is not yet considered a blue-chip prospect.

- Adam Choice, Thomas County Central: Choice is rated as the No. 1 running back recruit in Georgia by Rivals.com, but he’s been one of the state’s better high school quarterbacks for the past two seasons. In 2012, he rushed for 1,656 yards and scored 23 touchdowns in 12 games. He passed …

Continue reading 10 best HS quarterbacks: Watson heads list »

The Georgia High School Association published the 2013 football schedules this week.

Football schedules during odd years (ie, 2013) generally feature the same opponents as the previous season because they are generally played under two-year contracts, but there are several good exceptions.

Here are the 10 best ‘’new’’ games on the 2013 schedule:

1. Booker T. Washington (Fla.) at Norcross: Norcross returns 16 starters – including three blue-chip recruits – from a team that went 15-0 and won Class AAAAAA last season. That’s the kind of glitz that attracts national TV audiences, especially when matched against Florida’s reigning Class 4A champion. The game is set for Aug. 24. Each team has three prospects who are rated four stars by Rivals.com. They are DE Loenzo Carter (rated No. 1 at his position nationally), WR Myles Autry and LB Kevin Mouhon for Norcross and QB Treon Harris, DE Chad Thomas and DB Nigel Patten for BTW, which was 13-1 last season. Expect both to be nationally …

Continue reading 2013 football schedules: 10 best ‘new’ games »

Atlanta is the eighth-best city for producing current NBA talent, according to MaxPreps writer Kevin Askeland.

Lakers center Dwight Howard, a graduate of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, is the marquee Atlanta-produced player.

The No. 1 ranking went to Los Angeles, which Russell Westbrook of the Thunder and Paul Pierce of the Celtics.

Atlanta’s ranking would be higher if Josh Smith and Lou Williams, both of the Hawks, were included.

Smith played at McEachern as a sophomore and junior but spent his senior season at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Askeland used the players’ last high school.

Williams was not counted because of a season-ending injury. The players were rated based on their NBA Total Player Rating for this season.

Which brings me to this –

With Smith and Williams added, would Atlanta beat L.A.? Atlanta needs more guards, but L.A. doesn’t have the size to match up with Howard, Smith and J.J. Hickson.

Let’s compare:

ATLANTA

C Dwight Howard (17.1 ppg, 12.4 …

Continue reading How do Atlanta’s NBA players stack up? MaxPreps rates ATL at No. 8 »

Schools that get a significant number of their students from outside their district boundaries could find themselves competing in higher classifications beginning in 2014-15 if a proposal before the Georgia High School Association is passed next week.

The plan, submitted by Lovett, would affect private schools but also public city schools such as sports powers Buford, Gainesville, Cartersville and Calhoun. Also at risk of getting bumped in class are magnet, charter and open-enrollment schools that are more common in larger school systems such as Cobb, DeKalb, Atlanta, Bibb and Muscogee.

The chances of the proposal passing  is perhaps unlikely. GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin calls it impractical to force every school to compile those statistics on their student bodies.

But the proposal remains significant in that a private school is willing to revisit a multiplier after  the public-private split in Class A this academic year. It also underscores the growing concern …

Continue reading Buford to face multiplier? GHSA to hear new reclass plan »

Three former Georgia high school basketball players are on teams that made this weekend’s Final Four in Atlanta. They are Kevin Ware (Rockdale County) of Louisville and Tekele Cotton (Whitefield Academy) and Carl Hal (Bleckley County) of Wichita State.

It’s rare that a Georgia player has been one of the marquee players in the Final Four.

Here are five memorable exceptions:

1981: Al Wood, Jones County – Wood was the first Georgia player to make the five-man All-Tournament team, and  no Georgia player has ever been so prolific a scorer on such a national stage as Wood in the 1981 semifinals against Virginia and Ralph Sampson. The 6-foot-6 guard scored 39 points (making 14 of 19 shots) with 10 rebounds in the 78-65 victory.  The 39 points broke Jerry West’s record of 38 for a national semifinal. Wood scored 18 more in the final, but North Carolina was beaten by Indiana and Isiah Thomas. Wood was drafted by the Hawks in the first round and played seven years in the NBA. Wood is …

Continue reading ‘Never Nervous’: Five Georgia players who starred in the Final Four »

Here are 10 observations and news items concerning high school football and basketball and the GHSA that you might find interesting.

1. Some of the metro Atlanta’s top defensive coordinators have been on the move this off-season. The latest is North Gwinnett’s Mo Dixon, who announced Wednesday that he was taking a similar position at Byrnes, the South Carolina power about a dozen state championships. Dixon had been defensive coordinator for the past seven years on Bob Sphire’s staff. Meanwhile, Grayson’s defensive coordinator, Robert Andrews, is East Jackson’s new head coach. Lovejoy’s Kevin Jones is the head coach at Dutchtown. Burke County’s Michael Youngblood is the new head coach at South Cobb. Brookwood assistant Michael Owens is the new head coach at Chattahoochee. Brookwood doesn’t assign the title of defensive coordinator, but Owens was integral in helping the Broncos’ defenses over the years. Coaching tip: Defensive coordinators at top programs are in demand.

2. The

Continue reading 10@10: Defensive coordinators highly sought … All-star games … GSWA all-state basketball … GHSA vs. GISA »

A former Georgia high school player was named the SEC player of the year this week. Two were named first-team All-SEC. Two were named first-team All-ACC.

Got me to thinking. What be the all-Georgia team in college basketball?

I’ve got four. Who is the fifth?

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia (Greenville) – A 6-foot-5 sophomore guard, Caldwell-Pope is averaging 18.0 poinds and 6.9 rebounds. Caldwell-Pope is the first former Georgia high school player be named the SEC’s POY since Kenny Walker of Kentucky (Crawford County) in 1986. TRIVIA: Georgia players were the SEC players fo the year five times in six seasons from 1982 through 1986. Who were they?

Lorenzo Brown, N.C. State (Centennial) – Brown made second-team All-ACC. Brown is averaging 12.5 points and an ACC-leading 7.0 assists on a team that is 22-9.

Richard Howell, N.C. State (Wheeler) – Howell, who led Wheeler to its most recent state title in 2009, made first-team All-ACC. Howell is averaging 12.7 points and leads the …

Continue reading Basketball: Who are Georgia’s best players in college ball? KCP, Howell … »

The GHSA split Class A into public and private divisions this academic year, but that hasn’t ended private-school domination elsewhere.

Even with only 10 private schools in AAA and AA, private schools have won 10 of the 17 AAA/AA state titles so far. The 113 public schools in AAA and AA have claimed the other seven.

That doesn’t count swimming, which doesn’t have AAA or AA classes, but a combined AAAAA-A. If that sport had AAA and AA, it would be 14 to 7, privates ahead. Westminster has its own pool, after all.

But it’s not just swimming and cross country and volleyball that the privates have dominated.

Last week, private school athletic superiority was evident on the hardwood of the basketball state finals in Macon. Greater Atlanta Christian (boys) and Wesleyan (girls) won the Class AA championships. GAC’s average margin of victory was 25.4 points. Wesleyan’s was 38. Both won their state championship games by wide margins.

In AAA, private school St. Pius won its third state …

Continue reading Public-Private debate: Is AA the next to split? »

State records fell during the last weekend’s semifinals of the state basketball tournament. They’re nothing to brag about, though.

The average margin of victory of the girls games was 21.1 points, making them the most lopsided girls semifinals in state tournament history. The record had been 19.4 in 2011.

The boys semifinals last week were more competitive, with an average margin of 11.9 points, but still on the rise from 11.0 in 2012 and 9.9 in 2011. Miller Grove won 72-38 in Class AAAAA. Eagle’s Landing won by 26, Columbia by 27. Johnson of Savannah won by 22.

The lack of parity in semifinals has risen since the 1970s, when the average margin of victory was 9.7 points. Thanks to the Georgia Basketball Project for providing the scores that allowed for that calculation.

Is it the trend of transfers and the evolution of super teams? Is it the move to six classifications? Is it the way that the GHSA sets up the bracket? Or was last weekend a fluke?

Consider the shock and awe …

Continue reading Semifinal blowouts: Where is the parity in Georgia high school basketball? »

Here is a look at the 14 semifinal boys games slated for this weekend. Look for a girls preview later today.

Class AAAAAA

*Hillgrove vs. Wheeler (5:30 p.m. Saturday, Georgia Tech): Both are Cobb County schools, Wheeler rich in basketball tradition, Hillgrove making its first semifinal appearance six years after opening its doors. Wheeler won state titles in 1994, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2009 under coach Doug Lipscomb. The Wildcats are 21-8 this season, ranked No. 7, and winners of Region 5. Hillgrove, ranked fifth, is 26-4 overall, 13-2 since Jan. 11 with both losses to second-ranked North Cobb, which is in the other semifinal. (Cobb is the first county ever to put three teams in the boys semifinals in the highest classification.) Wheeler is full of blue-chip recruits, one of which, junior Elijay Staley, had 17 points and 11 rebounds in the 60-47 victory over sixth-ranked Peachtree Ridge in the quarters. Hillgrove is led by Kyle Castlin and B.J. Brown.

*North Cobb vs. Norcross …

Continue reading Boys semifinal previews: Cobb makes semifinal history … Norcross, Miller Grove, Columbia, GAC chase history … #1 Buford vs. #2 Savannah … #1 Eagle’s Landing vs. #2 South Atlanta »

Here is a class-by-class look at the boys quarterfinals.

For a rundown on the girls semifinals, go here.

AAAAAA – Tift County had to turn 400 fans away Saturday for its 100-81 victory over Westlake. Expect the same for the quarterfinals against North Cobb unless Tift is able to find a way to squeeze them in. Tift is ranked No. 1, North Cobb No. 2. Tift led by as many as 30 against Westlake, which is ranked eighth. … The other quarterfinal that is between ranked teams matches No. 6 Peachtree Ridge at No. 7 Wheeler. AJC.com’s David Purdum is slated to cover that one from The Lip in Marietta. … Unranked Brunswick is in the quarterfinals for the first time since 1982. The Pirates will be at home against fifth-ranked Hillgrove, another second seed. Hillgrove made the quarters in 2010. Neither has made a state semifinal. … No. 3 Norcross plays Berkmar in the other quarter. The two Gwinnett County schools have won some six state titles since 2000, although it’s been a while for …

Continue reading Boys quarterfinal primer: No. 1 Tift vs. No. 2 North Cobb … Columbia-Marist III … GAC-Manchester rematch »

Here’s a bit of a primer on the state basketball tournament, which begins today (Tuesday).

What: The Georgia High School Association state basketball tournament. It began in 1922 as a boys-only event and was run by the Georgia Interscholastic Athletic Association (GIAA), but the GHSA existed then and recognizes those champions. The girls joined the mix in 1945. The Georgia Interscholastic Association (GIA) held tournaments for African American schools from 1948 through 1970 during segregation.

When/where: The state tournaments  for classes AAAAAA through AA begin Tuesday and Wednesday. The Class A tournaments begin Feb. 22-23. The finals are March 7-9 in Macon. Until the semifinals, the games are played on the home court of the higher-seeded teams.

What’s new: Two big changes in the state tournament this year.

- Class A is split into public and private state championships. While the draws for classes AAAAAA through AA have been posted, those for Class A will be released on …

Continue reading State tournament primer: Favorites, story lines, history, Cinderellas, debuts … »