score vol. 12 issue 18

VOLUME 12 ISSUE 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA

Time to look great!

PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

Lambert boys complete historic perfect season for second state title | Pg. 7

Mountain Climbing | Pg. 4The Mountain View boys basketball team adds pieces for successfully 2016.

Finish Strong | Pg. 9

The Newton boys dominate Day 3 in route of boys Track & Field title.

Know a young athlete who overcame a serious injury or illness? Nominate them for Comeback Athlete of the Month at choa.org/comeback.

This comeback athlete had a long road back. Today it’s 8.5 miles.

©20

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3Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

PUBLISHER/EDITOR I.J. Rosenberg

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rhonda Rawls

MANAGING EDITOR Craig Sager II

ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Kyle Sandy

MARKETING/ Lauren Goldstein PARTNERSHIP DIRECTOR

BUSINESS MANAGER Marvin Botnick

BEAT WRITERS: Joseph Chapman (Braves,GA Tech)

Dan Mathews (UGA)

Craig Sager II (Falcons,

GHSA, Kennesaw)

Kyle Sandy (GSU, Hawks) STAFF WRITERS Tyler Andrews Ned Kaish

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STARTING LINEUP 04 COLUMNISTS 07 09ON THE COVER PREP COVER

ON THE INSIDE AT SCORETEAM SCOOP AND VOICES STAY CONNECTED!

TOP TEN PICKS | NUMBERS

GEORGIA STATE | KENNESAW STATE GEORGIA | GEORGIA TECH

BRAVES | FALCONS HAWKS | HIGH SCHOOL HAPPENINGS

COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAMBERT LACROSSE BOOSTER CLUB, TY FREEMAN, AND PINION PHOTOGRAPHY

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Westlake will hire Kareem Reid of Coconut Creek High in Florida as head football

coach to replace Bryan Love. Reid’s Coconut Creek teams were 16-14 and did not have a losing season in three years at a school that had gone 1-19 over the previous two campaigns. “A lot of it was family-based,” Reid told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper of Fort Lauder-dale. “I have a young son in the Atlanta area, and I wanted to be a strong presence in his life. To leave here, it would have to be a special place.” Westlake was 10-3 and reached the Class AAAAAA quarterfinals in 2015 under Bryan Love, who accepted the head coaching job at Lamar County. Westlake was 0-10 in 2012 but went 24-11 in Love’s three seasons. FLORIDA TIES…

North Cobb Christian has hired Jake Sorg as its head football coach. Sorg had been head coach at Westmin-ster Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he also was the school’s director of strength and conditioning. His football teams were 28-12 over the past four seasons. He has 14 for-mer players who have played college football or signed to play this fall. Sorg will join North Cobb Christian’s staff on April 27 and meet parents and potential players on April 28. Spring football practice will begin May 9. He is a graduate and former four-year starter at Guilford College in Greens-boro, N.C. Quinn Gray, the former NFL quarterback and Florida A&M offensive coordinator who was 2-8 in his only season as head football coach at Whitefield Academy in Mableton last

season, has been hired as head coach at Man-darin High in Jacksonville. Whitefield is the ninth Class A private school that searched for a new coach this off-season. Jobs also have come open at Calvary Day, Christian Heritage, King’s Ridge Chris-tian, North Cobb Christian, Our Lady of Mercy, Prince Avenue Christian, St. Francis and Tattnall Square. Those at St. Francis, Prince Avenue and Whitefield have not been announced. West Hall boys basketball coach Zac Swansey, a former University of Georgia and Dunwoody High player, has been fired after an investigation into an inappropriate relation-ship with a female student at the school, the Gainesville Times reported Monday. School officials told the newspaper that local law enforcement has been notified. West Hall hired Swansey last year, and his Spartans were 13-15 in Swansey’s only season after a 3-23 finish in 2015. The team made the state playoffs for the first time in five years. Swansey had coached at Johnson High in Gainesville as an assistant prior to coming to West Hall. Swansey’s career at Georgia was high-lighted by a game-winning turnaround 3-point shot against Kentucky in the 2008 SEC tourna-ment, which Georgia won in Atlanta. In high school, Swansey averaged 19.2 points and 6.3 assists on Dunwoody’s 2006 Class AAA championship team after transfer-ring from Flowery Branch.

WALTON WINS AGAIN… The Walton Raiders Girls tennis team won the Class AAAAAA over the weekend with a 3-1 victory over Etowah. Walton has won 14 of the last 16 championships at the state’s high-est level of competition. “To come back and beat them and be strong in almost every line, I’m so proud of them,” said Walton coach Anthony Foti, who took over the girls program this season. “I’m very proud to keep up the tradition for sure,.” In Class AAAAAA boys, Northview dropped a point before rallying for a 3-2 win. In Class AAAAA boys, Lakeside Evans suc-cessfully defended its state crown with a 3-1 win over Starr’s Mill. …Columbus swept Kell 3-0 to win the first girls tennis championship in school history in Class AAAAA girls. The Marist boys successfully defended their Class AAAA title with a 4-0 victory over Carrollton. On the girls side, North Oconee stunned Marist 3-1 and won the first girls ten-nis championship in school history. Westminster swept the Class AAA titles. The boys cruised past Oconee County 3-0 to defend its championship. Westminster’s Cyan D’Anjou suffered a debilitating ankle injury in her third game, but returned to win the No. 3 singles and give the Wildcats a thrilling 3-2 victory over Savannah Arts. Photo courtesy of the Sun Sentinel

An extremely young team competed well in the tough Region 7-AAAAAA

last year. Five sophomores and two fresh-man saw meaningful minutes. Five players have played together this summer with the Heat Check. This past weekend at Georgia Cup IV, Heat Check played up a grade in the 17U division and won the title, knock-ing off some very good competition along the way. Mountain View has the second-smallest projected student enrollment in the new Class AAAAAAA with 2,098 kids, just six more than Westlake’s 2,092 in Region

2. Mountain View will be placed in Region 6 along with Collins Hill, Duluth, Discovery, North Gwinnett, Mill Creek and Peachtree Ridge. It’s always stiff competition in Gwin-nett, but Mountain View has as good a shot as anybody to earn a postseason berth and in the process clinch their first ever playoff appearance. Youth will be served as Coach BJ Roy’s patience is on the brink of paying off. Last year 6-3 sophomore Spencer Rodgers led the team in scoring at 15.4 per game. Rod-gers and diminutive 5-7 freshman point

guard Donell Nixon II make up the Mountain View Splash Brothers. Rodgers hit 79-of-183 (43%) while Nixon II drilled 69-of-154 (45%) from beyond the arc. Sophomores Miles Long (8.5 ppg), Kevin Kayongo (5.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and Jalen Hayes (3.5 ppg) make up a talented backcourt. Kayongo at 6-4 is a very versatile player that can handle the ball in transition from his small forward position and also help out on the boards and defend well. Hayes’ twin brother Nick is graduating, making room for the younger Hayes to make an impact. Sophomore Alex Wesig and junior Uchenna Nwagbara are two well-built for-wards that need to continue to hit the glass hard to make up for the Bears’ lack of major size. Brandon Green was a much ballyhooed freshman last year that saw playing time in spurts. At 6-4, Green may be in line for a major increase in minutes and a chance for

a breakout sophomore season. The Bears join Lakeside-Evans and Alex-ander as three of Sandy’s Spiel’s top sleeper teams heading into the 2016-17 GHSA bas-ketball season. For more high school basket-ball news and notes during the offseason, visit sandysspiel.com. Sandy’s Spiel is the leader for GHSA basketball coverage. Photos courtesy of the Ty Freeman

SANDY'S SPIEL

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

MOUNTAIN VIEW BASKETBALL ON THE CLIMB

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

SPRING STORYLINES UNFOLD ACROSS STATE

SAGER SAYS

5Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

888-436-5833 | soccerstreets.org | [email protected] | @soccerstreets | /SoccerintheStreets

PLAY. GROW. WORK. SUCCEED.

“I told myself that I’m going to do something and that this organization would help me. From that day, I stuck to it.”—Adam Adam, a Soccer in the Streets graduate and current coach in the program


OUR TWO CENTSOur email newsletter is something we take a lot of pride in at Score. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a high school sports-heavy publication that we produce each day to fill in our readers on the latest happenings in Georgia prep sports. We send it out Monday through Friday throughout the year and Monday through Saturday during the fall.

Not only do we cover popular sports like football, basketball and baseball, we also cover every other varsity sport the GHSA fields. If you like Georgia high school sports at all, sign up for our email newsletter by visiting www.tinyurl.com/scorenewsletter and enter your email address(es) that you’d like added to the distribution list.

WH

O’S

HOT

WH

O’S

NOT

Bartolo Colon Hawks Sharman White BravesKris HumphriesMike

Budenholzer

Stick the 42-year-old pitch-er on the Atlanta Braves and he would be second on the team in homeruns. The portly icon blasted the first homer of his career against the San Diego Padres and nearly broke the internet. Colon’s homer is one of the greatest moments in MLB history.

Atlanta lost its 11th-straight game to the Cleveland Cav-aliers as they were swept out of the playoffs for the second consecutive year at the hands of the Cavs. At-lanta fought hard but ridic-ulous shooting by Cleveland and poor coaching held the birds back.

After conquering the ranks in high school basketball, Miller Grove’s head coach will bring his pedigree to the college level as an assistant for the Georgia State Pan-thers. GSU should become a destination in the next few years as GHSA hoopers will flock to Coach White.

The Tomahawks might as well be a permanent stay on our “Not” list this season. Atlanta is rebuilding and that is expected, but not expected is that they are not even competitive. Atlanta is 1-15 at home thus far and ranks seventh in wins at Turner Field. Embarrassing.

Too bad Atlanta didn’t want to play its most effective players against the Cavs. Humphries was a revela-tion in his limited minutes throughout the series, thoroughly outplaying max contract candidate Al Hor-ford. Hump’s Per 36 aver-ages were absurd at 23.8 points per game and 15.4 rebounds per.

Coach Bud was outcoached by rookie Tyrone Lue. It has been a fall from grace in the past 12 months. Terrible moves such as picking up Tiago Splitter and Tim Hard-away Jr. never paid off. Bud inexplicably not playing Kris Humphries more was his biggest goof of the playoffs.

TOP 10 PICKS By Craig Sager II

NUMBERSBy Kyle Sandy

FREDI FIREDThe Braves fired manager Fredi Gonzalez on Tuesday, after one of the worst half-seasons in the franchise’s 140-year history was followed by its worst-ever start to a season. They have a majors-worst 9-28 record. Brian Snitker will move up from his Triple-A Gwinnett managerial position to serve as interim Braves manager.

HISTORY MADECampbell’s Isaiah Rogers broke a 50-year-old shot put state record on Thursday with a toss of 67-10.00, passing Chip Kell’s mark of 66-07 in 1966. Rogers will be heading to TCU next fall and is currently ranked top 10 nationally in every throwing event.

ON THE FIELDUGA-football commit Charlie Woerner of Rabun County won the Class AA discus state title with a throw of 158-02, edging second-place Hunter Sanek’s (Temple) 150-08. Monroe-Albany’s Akelies Leroy won the AAAA title with a massive 165-01 throw to give the Tornadoes 10 points.

MOVING ONThere will indeed be one less quarterback on Georgia’s roster, one who looked pretty good at G-Day and is from the West Coast. Robinson went 5-for-7 for 49 yards and one touchdown in the G-Day game, inciting Smart to say “that fourth quarterback did a pretty good job, didn’t he?”

PURSUIT OF PERFECTIONThe Lambert (21-0) boys completed the school’s second perfect season and captured its second state crown (2012) with a 6-3 victory over host Lassiter (18-3) in the boys Class AAAAAA championship. The Longhorns gave up just 2.89 goals per game in the final nine games of their perfect season

GIANT SLAYERSFor only the second time in GHSA lacrosse history, the Milton Eagles are not state champs. Walton scored a 9-8 victory in Saturday’s finals and handed Milton its first loss to an instate team since 2009. The Raiders’ had never beaten Milton before although they were the most consistent challenge on their annual slate.

? “

ANSWER ON PAGE 14 - Al Horford

TRIVIA QUESTION

SANITY AT LAST

HOW MANY ALL-STAR APPEARANCES DOES AL

HORFORD HAVE?

"I believe that the way that we play makes

us successful, and we have to figure out how we can take that next

step as a group.”

By

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Straight Hawks losses to the Cavaliers.

Made three-pointers in the four-game sweep for Cleveland.

Dennis Schroder played every minute in the fourth quarter in Game 4.

Minutes played for Jeff Teague in Game 4.

Fredi Gonzalez wins as manager of the Braves.

Overturned calls in Gonzalez’s seven lifetime challenges.

Mike Foltynewicz strikeouts on Mother’s Day.

Time the Hawks cracked 100 against the Cavs.

7Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

The Lambert (21-0) boys completed the school’s second perfect season and cap-

tured its second state crown (2012) with a 6-3 victory over host Lassiter (18-3) in the boys Class AAAAAA championship. The Longhorns established their defen-sive dominance early against Lassiter after having to rally past Etowah in the semifinals. Lambert held Etowah to just one goal in the second half after overcoming a 6-4 halftime deficit for its 10-7 win. “The semis helped us out a lot,” said Lam-bert head coach Josh Sagel. “That was the first time we were down all season at the half. We learned a lot about ourselves.” Lambert had the pedal to the metal from the opening faceoff and Hayden Barnes found the back of the net just 46 seconds into the game to give the Longhorns their first lead of the game. Grant Plauger assisted Hunter Clem to make it a 2-0 game and Matt O’Rourk scored before Lassiter could make it 3-1 at the

end of the first. The defense tightened up in the second quarter until O’Rourk scored the period’s only goal and put Lambert up 4-1 at the half. “Our defense is a cohesive unit on and off the field,” explained Sagel. “That bond is tough to break.” Lambert also held Lassiter scoreless in the third quarter and Conrad McEvoy scored another Longhorn goal to build the lead to 5-1. Walker Wing assisted O’Rourk for the hat-trick in the fourth quarter to make it 6-1 before Lassiter added a pair of late goals dur-ing a desperate blitz of aggressive offense. The six goals were the fewest scored in a game by Lambert all season, but the Longhorns gave up just 2.89 goals per game in the final nine games of their perfect season.

CLASS AAAAAA GIRLS Walton 9, Milton 8: Visiting Walton stunned Milton 9-8 in the girls Class AAAAAA

title game to win its first state title and end the Eagles’ run of six straight. The familiar rivals have played in the last three championships, but Milton’s reign reaches back much further. Milton had won 10 of the 11 state titles the GHSA has handed out in the highest classifica-tion prior to Saturday and had not lost to an in-state opponent since its loss to Chattahoochee in the 2009 finals. Riley Ewing got Walton off to a fast start after netting a pair of goals in the first half and giving the Raiders a 6-4 edge at intermission. Walton pushed the lead to 8-5 in the second half, before Milton netted back-to-back goals to pull within one. Walton took a 9-7 lead with four minutes but Milton answered with 2:04 on the clock to cut it to 9-8. The final two minutes were an excruciating and tense game of keep away against Milton’s all-out attack. Ewing finished with two goals, and team-mates Hunter Corvin and Erin McBride also added two goals apiece. Milton traveled to Walton on March 10 and left with a 14-9 victory. The nine goals by Walton in March and on Saturday were the most allowed by Milton against any Georgia school this season.

CLASS A-AAAAA GIRLS Blessed Trinity 15, Kell 13: Kell was denied a three-peat as Blessed Trinity stunned the Longhorns after trailing by five goals to claim their first ever state title and complete an un-defeated season. Kell led 10-6 at the half before momentum turned. The Longhorns were with-out their two First Team All-State defenders in senior Riley Proshek (Kennesaw State) and junior Ann Ryan Lanz, who received two yellow cards in the semifinals causing the GHSA to rule them ineligible for the state championship. “With eight minutes to go, they [Blessed Trinity] just started winning a lot of the 50/50 balls and they controlled the draw and started making plays offensively,” explained Kell head coach Todd Utt. Kell held a 13-8 lead with 12:05 to play be-fore the Titans made their move. “I tip my hat to them for sure, they played a great game.” Blessed Trinity head coach Liz McFarland

LACROSSE

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]& KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

LAMBERT BOYS CLINCH 6A TITLE & PERFECT SEASON

couldn’t have been prouder of her team after the come from behind win. “It truly was a team effort tonight. Everyone dug deep. They have always believed they have what it takes to be a state champion.” Believe it or not, trailing by five goals late was a daunting task that the Titans were ready for. “We have practiced the scenario of being down several goals and knew what to do in this situation. It came down to stamina, endurance, stick skills and confidence, not to mention re-siliency and a belief of never, ever giving up.” In the loss Jennifer Buckley netted a team-high four goals and added two assists. Talen Francis assisted on five goals and scored on of her own. Katherine Gross, Izzy Palermo, Payge Pusatere and Anna Luckie all chipped in two scores.

CLASS A-AAAAA BOYS Allatoona 9, Westminster 7: Allatoona jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead and never re-lented, even when Westminster pushed ahead in the second half. The Bucs captured their first state title in lacrosse 9-7 in a thrilling game which saw four-time state champion West-minster push Allatoona to the brink before fall-ing short of repeating as state champs. Danny Tesler’s goal off a face-off with 1:04 left put the game on ice. The Buccaneers took an early 3-0 lead on goals from Trevor Stuart, Carson Sorrells and Ben Galloway before Jack Patton netted the first of his four goals for the Wildcats. After Stuart tacked on another goal to make it 4-1, Westminster tagged on four unanswered goals to move ahead 5-4 in the third quarter. Cope Fitzharris hit John Farley before the half to trim the lead to 4-2. Logan Devereaux found the back of the net and Henry Parker assisted Patton to tie the game. Devereaux fed Patton to take Westmin-ster’s only lead of the game. From there the Buccaneers steadied the ship, getting goals from Austin Zumbado and Galloway in the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 8-6. Patton connected with Fitzharris to bring the Wildcats to within one at 8-7, but Tesler’s late goal was the deciding blow. Photo courtesy of Walter Pinion

ON THE COVER

With more than 150 training specialties, the U.S. Army has more ways than ever to advance your career and add strength to your life. You can choose to serve full-time or part-time. You can attend college first, or earn a degree as you serve. And if you have what it takes, you can pursue a leadership role as a U.S. Army officer. There’s strong. Then there’s Army Strong. Learn more at goarmy.com.

©2015. Paid for by the United States Army. All rights reserved.

MORE CHOICES.MORE STRENGTH.

Earn a salary and money for your education while you gain the strength to stand out. Get unmatched jobtraining that will give you an edge in any industry – military or civilian. Visit your local Army Career Counselor today or visit us online at goarmy.com/bs02

Newton trailed South Gwinnett 45-40 after 15 events and had just the 4×400 meter

relay left to win the state title, needing a third-place finish or better. The Rams’ team of Elija Godwin, Artice Hobbs, Jeremiah Holloman and Alex Sands got it done with a second-place fin-ish of 3:17.85 to add eight points (48-40) and crown Newton this year’s Class 6A Boys Track & Field champions. Newton had just 17 points entering Day 3 and were eighth in the standings. They also had to overcome a shaky 4×100 relay to open the day, in which Godwin, Hobbs, Sands and Riordran Johnson legged a team that did not finish and earned zero points. Godwin gave the Rams a spark by posting a 47.40 first-place finish in the 400 meter dash for 10 points. In Class AAAAAA, Southwest DeKalb scored 58 points to edge second-place Cedar Shoals for the title. Brothers Terryon and Terry Conwell solidified the victory with a one-two finish in the 200 meter dash that rewarded the Panthers 18 points with two events left. Eastside burned the field in Class AAAA with 71 points for the program’s first state title.

Jovan Brown clocked a 37.62 in the 300 me-ter hurdles for 10 of the points and Eric Stokes took the 200 meter gold with a 21.58 and the 100 meter gold with a 10.48. In Class AAA, Cedar Grove defended its state title with a 74-point weekend. Blessed Trinity posted a distant 39 points for second-place. Cedar Grove took first in both relays and Jessie Reverio clocked a 38.65 for first in the 300 meter hurdles. Wesleyan edged second-place Vidalia 69-61 in Class AA for the program’s first state title. The Wolves entered Day 2 with just 21 points and a thrilling 3:24.12 to 3:24.19 win over Holy Innocents’ for first-place in the 4×400 meter relay clinched the victory. After winning seven straight titles from 1996-2002, Landmark Christian returned to the podium for the first time since 2008 with an 88-points outburst in Class A-Private. Commerce dominated the Class A-Public competition for the program’s second state title after tallying 99 points in the 16 events. Photos courtesy of Pinion Photography and sghsathletics.com

PREP COVER

NEWTON'S STRONG FINISH EARNS 6A STATE TITLEBY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

FINAL TEAM STANDINGSClass AAAAAA

1. Newton (48)2. South Gwinnett (45)

3. Campbell (43)3. Lakeside-DeKalb (43)

5. McEachern (38)

Class AAAA1. Eastside (71)2. Marist (44)

3. Woodward Academy (40)3. Grady (40)

5. Eagle’s Landing (36)

Class AA1. Wesleyan (69)

2. Vidalia (61)3. Bleckley County (43)4. Holy Innocents’ (40)

5. Early County (37)

Class AAAAA1. Southwest DeKalb (58)

2. Cedar Shoals (44)3. Allatoona (40)

4. Starr’s Mill (34)5. Flowery Branch (32.50)

Class AAA1. Cedar Grove (74)

2. Blessed Trinity (39)3. Jefferson (35)

3. Central-Carroll (35)5. East Jackson (33)

Class A-Private1. Landmark Christian (88)

2. Athens Christian (65)3. ELCA (55)

4. Savannah Christian (48)5. First Presbyterian (44)

1. Landmark Christian (88)2. Athens Christian (65)

3. ELCA (55)4. Savannah Christian (48)5. First Presbyterian (44)

Class A-Private


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11Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

Seventy-three University of Georgia student-athletes will receive their undergraduate or

graduate degrees Friday at the annual spring commencement exercises. The undergraduate ceremonies will be held in Sanford Stadium be-ginning at 7 p.m. Among the 73 UGA student-athlete grad-uates are 11 members of the equestrian team, 10 members of the football team, seven men's track and field athletes, seven women's track and field athletes, six members of the baseball team, five members of the soccer team, five members of the women's basketball team, four members of the gymnastics team, four mem-bers of the men's basketball team, three mem-bers of the men's swimming and diving team, three members of the women's golf team, three members of the women's swimming and diving team, two members of the men's tennis team, one softball player, one volleyball player and one women's tennis player. BETWEEN THE LINKS… The Georgia team of head football coach Kirby Smart and former Bulldog quarterback Da-

Georgia State (23-29, 9-18) will be closing its regular season at the end of this weekend

with a series against rival Georgia Southern. On Sunday, the Panthers dropped their home finale to Troy 16-3. The Trojans (30-23, 15-12) scored runs in the first five innings and hung a final five runs in the top of the seventh before the game was called after a scoreless bottom of the frame. Bryan White lasted two innings allowing four runs. The Panthers committed four errors on the day, putting the pressure on an already beleaguered bullpen. Troy leadoff man Steven Whitaker finished 1-for-2 with three walks and five RBIs. Houston Mabray tossed a complete-game, giving up just one earned run and six hits over seven innings. Luke Leonard was a bright spot for Georgia State at the plate, going 3-for-3. The Panthers have been without slugger Joey Roach while the pitching staff has been deci-mated with injuries, proving to be a disastrous combination.

GIRLS TRACK & FIELD Senior sprinter Ravin Gilbert scored 18

The 24th ranked Yellow Jackets (31-16, 11-12 ACC) looked to follow a sweep of then 15th

ranked Coastal Carolina with a big series win against #3 Miami (36-9, 16-6 ACC) this past weekend. After a 12-1 win over the Canes in the opener on Saturday, they looked primed to take game two and pull out a huge series win. However, Mother’s Day was not as friendly as Miami dominated in a 12-2 victory behind four home runs. In the rubber match on Monday night, Tech took a 3-1 lead heading into the 4th frame. But after a 5-run 4th and a 6-run 5th by Miami, the Hurricanes never looked back and cruised to a 17-6 win over the Yellow Jackets to take the series. Danny Hall’s squad currently sits at 3rd in the Coastal Division and 7th overall in the ACC. The top-10 teams in the conference make the ACC tournament and the Yellow Jackets must finish strong to secure a spot in the tournament.

Kennesaw State head football coach Brian Bohannon was inducted Saturday into the

Griffin-Spalding Athletic Hall of Fame. The Owls' second-year coach joined five others in the 2015 induction class. A native of Griffin and a standout on the gridiron for Griffin High School in the 1980's, Bohannon later starred as a wide receiver at the University of Georgia. He played his high school football for a coaching legend, his father Lloyd, who was enshrined to the Griffin-Spald-ing Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. "This is an honor for me to be inducted to the Griffin-Spalding Hall of Fame, and truly special to join my father," said Bohannon. "I grew up here and have enjoyed so many great memories. Griffin will always hold a special place for me and my family. I thank the com-mittee and congratulate all of the other de-serving inductees." The 2015 Griffin-Spalding Hall of Fame class also includes Susan Wilder (Special Olympics), Carlton English (Baseball), Pa-tricia-Anne Upson (Soccer), Homer Gibbins

vid Dukes finished second this week at the 2016 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge at the Reyn-olds Lake Oconee Resort. The Georgia duo finished at nine under par, two shots behind the winning team from Ole Miss. Team winnings will be split evenly between endowed scholarships at the universities and foundations or charities of the coach's choice. The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Challenge is the country's premier head coach and celebrity char-ity golf event featuring NCAA head coaches and former athletes and celebrities from the same school competing against their rivals for a share of a $540,000 scholarship purse. In addition to the $540,000 charity and scholarship purse, another $124,500 was gener-ated for charitable organizations. Over the last nine years, the event has contributed a total of $6 million in scholarship and charity, helping make the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl college football's most charitable bowl game.

ON THE DIAMOND… The No. 15 Georgia softball team (40-16, 12-12) will head to the SEC Tournament this week as the No. 8 seed, as the Bulldogs' first game will be on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET against ninth-seeded Ole Miss. The game will air on SEC Network while IMG Radio will also broadcast the game. Geor-gia closed out the regular season on a high note, taking game three at No. 4 Alabama to avoid the series sweep. After squandering a late lead in game two, the Bulldogs held on to it in the se-ries finale, winning 9-5 after posting 12 hits off of three Crimson Tide pitchers.

points to lead GSU as the women’s team fin-ished sixth in the Sun Belt Conference cham-pionship. The Wesley Chapel, Fla. sprinter was second in the 100m in 11.50, the third-fastest time in school history as she has times two through five in the record books. In the 200m, her second-place finish was in 23.63, the fourth-fastest time in school history, as she has three of those top five times. Gilbert also was on the second-place 4x100 relay team of Jada Stew-ard, Ashlan Rosier, and Katherine Randolph with a time of 45.32, the fifth-fastest clocking in school history. LaPorscha Wells took home the gold medal in the hammer throw, the lone event the Panthers placed first in.

TOURNAMENT TENNIS The women’s tennis team saw their season end on Friday the 13th, losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. No. 3 seed GSU lost to No. 2 seed Syracuse. Georgia State finishes the highly-successful season 15-6 with a con-ference championship trophy for the program, along with this second NCAA bid in three years and third bid in seven years. “Obviously, we are a little disappoint-ed now,” head coach Jason Marshall said. “I thought we had a legitimate chance to close it out an hour before it ended and we made a lot of mistakes that helped them late. Our fit-ness could have been better (the match lasted 3 hours, 40 minutes).

Looking ahead, Savannah State visits Russ Chandler Stadium this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. before the Jackets travel to Charlottes-ville this weekend to face defending national champion Virginia. Next Tuesday (5/17) Georgia Tech will face Georgia at Turner Field in the final game of the series. Tech has dropped both previous games against UGA this year. To finish off the regular season, next weekend the Yellow Jackets will host a series against the last placed team in the Atlantic Division, Boston College. PASTNER COMPLETES STAFF New head basketball coach Josh Pastner completed his staff this past Friday by hiring Tavaras Hardy from Georgetown. This will be Hardy’s 11th year as a Division I assistant after positions at both Northwestern and George-town. Hardy will be joining both Darryl Labar-rie and Eric Reveno as assistant coaches for the Yellow Jackets this year. Labarrie was pre-viously on staff with the Yellow Jackets for two years under Paul Hewitt prior to being an as-sistant to Ron Hunter at Georgia State. Reveno is coming off of his 10th year as head coach at the University of Portland and also joined the Georgia Tech program earlier this past Friday. He earned the title of West Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2009.

(Boxing) and Monty Roberts (Football/Track). Bohannon took the reins of the upstate KSU football program in 2013, coming to The Nest with 17 years of college football coaching experience. He began his career as an assistant at Gardner-Webb, spent five years on the staff at Georgia Southern, six at Navy and five at Georgia Tech. The Owls went 6-5 in their inaugural sea-son under Bohannon, including a 5-1 record at Fifth Third Bank Stadium, which was sold out for all six home games. Kennesaw State opens its 2016 campaign on September 3 versus East Tennessee State at home. GOTHAM CITY CLASSIC… The 2016 Gotham Classic field was an-nounced on Monday, May 16 and the Ken-nesaw State Owls will be a part of it, the Ga-zelle Group announced. The teams comprising the field of the fourth annual Gotham Classic are the Univer-sity of Massachusetts, University of the Pacif-ic, Kennesaw State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Rider University. Derek Kellogg will enter his ninth season at the helm of his alma mater's basketball pro-gram and is already the third winningest coach in school history…eight letterwinners return from last season, including the starting guard junior Donte Clark and classmate C.J. Ander-son, who started 11 games in the back court…they will be joined by a seven-member, con-sensus Top 30 recruiting class – tops in the Atlantic 10 – in 2016-17.

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

GEORGIA STATE

GEORGIA TECH

KENNESAW STATE

BY DAN MATHEWS | [email protected]

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected]

BY JOSEPH CHAPMAN | [email protected]

BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

CLASS OF 2016 IS WELL-REPRESENTED

SPRING SPORTS NEARING HOME STRETCH

BASEBALL DROPS SERIES VS. MIAMI

COACH BOHANNON INDUCTED INTO GRIFFIN-SPALDING


With the 2015-16 season officially in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look to-

wards the future. Atlanta has some big deci-sions looming that may shape the franchise for the foreseeable future. There are a few obvious decisions Coach Budenholzer and the front of-fice must make.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS Kent Bazemore and Al Horford top the list as upcoming free agents. Just like a year ago when DeMarre Carroll was the out-of-nowhere small forward that burst onto the scene his contract year, Baze has followed in his footsteps and will try to cash-in like Carroll did with his 4-year, $60 million contract with the Toronto Raptors. Bazemore is three years younger than Carroll and had nearly identical seasons with the Hawks once they were insert-ed into the starting lineup. Carroll suffered an injury late in the season but that did not hinder him from cashing out. Will the Hawks gamble again and hope for another small forward to

After losing the series in the Big Apple to the Mets, the Braves returned to Turner

Field this past weekend and were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks. After dropping the first game 7-2, Atlanta faced off against for-mer Brave, Shelby Miller. The Braves hit Miller early, putting up a run in each of the first two frames. However, that’s all the Braves would get as Miller did not allow another run in his first win of the season. In game 3, the Braves then found themselves down 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th when Jeff Francoeur followed a Ty-ler Flowers RBI single with a 2-RBI double of his own to tie the game. Chris Hermann then belted the go-ahead 2-run HR over the right center field wall in the top of the 11th to give the Diamondbacks the win. The Braves dropped to 1-15 at home and a league worse 7-23 overall after the sweep. They now sit 12.5 games behind the division leader, the New York Mets. Looking forward, the Braves host the Phillies in a three game series this week before

AMB Sports & Entertainment (AMBSE) and The Coca-Cola Company announced that

the leading beverage provider has been named a founding partner of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Through the partnership, Coca-Cola is the exclu-sive non-alcoholic beverage partner of the Na-tional Football League’s Atlanta Falcons, Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the highly-anticipated new home of both professional sports franchises. The partnership expands on the long-stand-ing relationship between the Falcons and Coca-Cola, which has been serving its products at Fal-cons games since the team’s inception in 1966. Upon completion in June 2017, Mercedes-Benz Stadium will exclusively serve Coca-Cola prod-ucts including Dasani bottled water and fresh brewed Gold Peak Tea, at its 673 food & bever-age points of sale. To improve the concessions experience, Mercedes-Benz Stadium will utilize self-service kiosks serving Coca-Cola products as part of the stadium’s promise to deliver an ex-ceptional fan experience. “Coca-Cola is a one of the most recognized brands in the world, and we are thrilled to expand on our long-standing partnership,” says Steve Cannon, chief executive officer of AMB Group,

Over his last nine seasons at the helm of the Miller Grove basketball program, Sharman

White accumulated a 245-42 record as the head coach of the Wolverines while leading the pro-gram to seven state titles, including six in a row from 2009-14. Now White, who just wrapped up 31-3 season including a GHSA Class AAAAA State Championship and a strong showing in the DICK’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals by beating Findlay Prep 67-65 and losing to eventual champion Oak Hill Academy 47-46, will get a crack on the bench alongside Georgia State’s Ron Hunter. In White’s swan song season, he was named the National High School Coaches Association’s (NHSCA) Boys’ Basketball Coach of the Year. SU-Vtv tracked Miller Grove’s postseason run in the documentary “Reclaiming the Crown”, which has not yet been released but has a storybook ending as the Wolverines held off Allatoona 50-48 in this year’s final. In total he has a 372-90 record dur-ing his 20 years on the sidelines. In 2014 he was named the USA Today All-USA Coach of the Year.

emerge and a 3&D guy? Or will the Hawks finally settle on Bazemore and let him grow. My vote is to sign him and let the 26-year-old flourish in a familiar system. Al Horford has been rumored to be a max-contract type player. If Atlanta were to re-sign him, it would be a foolish mistake. The soft center showed his true colors in the postseason where he averaged 13.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Compare that to Kris Humphries, another free agent, that posted 9.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in just 14 minutes of action. Atlanta has been known to make the wrong decision dating back to firing General Manager Danny Ferry. If they waste cap space on Horford, the Hawks will continue to be mired in mediocrity and prove to fans that they are fine with being an average franchise with no real plans of pushing for an NBA title.

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? Another franchise altering decision needs to be whether the Hawks should stick with Jeff Teague as their point guard or turn the reigns over to Dennis Schroder, who played the entire fourth quarter in Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in favor of Teague. This situation is turning out to be a Chris Paul-Eric Bledsoe deal like the Clippers had but to a lesser extent. It would behoove Atlanta to trade Teague who has already reached his ceiling and roll the dice with the enigmatic German guard and let him fulfill his potential.

traveling to Kansas City to face World Series champion Royals this weekend. WAITING FOR DANSBY... One glimmer of hope that Braves fans continue to hold onto during this painful sea-son is the multitude of talented prospects in the minors, led by Dansby Swanson. Swanson, the #1 pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, was sent to the Braves in the package deal that landed Shelby Miller in Arizona in early December. ESPN Senior Writer and Baseball Insider, Keith Law, ranks the Braves as the #1 farm system in baseball and ranks Dansby Swanson as the #1 prospect in the organization (13th overall). So how is Swanson performing? While playing for the Carolina Mudcats (High-A), he had a .333 batting average with one home run in nearly 100 plate appearances with the team. With the success he was having in Carolina, the Braves promoted him to Mississippi (AA) on April 30th. Even though he has gone hitless in his past 4 games, he started his AA career hitting .450 through the first 6 games with 1 HR. While many believed that Swanson would not suit up for Atlanta until 2017, it is not un-reasonable now to think that he could get the call-up to the MLB this year with how well he’s playing and how poorly the Braves are playing. This will be an interesting storyline to follow after the All-Star break.

LLC. “As a global brand with deep-rooted ties to the Atlanta community, Coca-Cola’s activation at Mercedes-Benz Stadium solidifies our ties in the heart of Atlanta and demonstrates our aspiration to be benchmark in everything we do.”

DREAM TEAM… Coca-Cola joins the roster of other top brands as founding partner of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including Equifax, The Home Depot, NCR, Novelis, SunTrust, IBM and American Fam-ily Insurance. “Atlanta is the birthplace and home of Coca-Cola, so we are always proud to support home-town partners,” said Sandy Douglas, President, Coca-Cola North America. “The new Mercedes-Benz Stadium will provide numerous opportuni-ties for refreshing experiences while cheering on our hometown teams – the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, as well as other thrilling events.” To launch the partnership in a unique way, Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Coca-Cola cre-ated a campaign video released today that puts Coca-Cola on top of Atlanta. The video features Cannon; Rich McKay, president and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons; Ann Rodriguez, vice president, business operations Atlanta United; Carlos Bo-canegra, technical director, Atlanta United; Mike Gomes, senior vice president, fan experience; and Alan Rabb, vice president, finance Coca-Cola USA operations along with more than 200 stadi-um workers, including Westside Works graduate Ian Miller. Committed to supporting the revitalization of Atlanta’s Westside, Mercedes-Benz Stadium has employed Miller and more than 100 gradu-ates of Westside Works, a long-term neighbor-hood program focused on creating employment opportunities and job training for residents of the Westside community.

White told the Champion Newspaper, “It feels great because for me it’s a direct reflection of the great players and coaching staff that help make a recognition like this possible.” White also has served time on the USA basketball circuit as an assistant coach for the 2015 USA U16 National Team that captured the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Champion-ship. He is also a part of the 2016 USA Basketball Men’s U17 World Championship Team that will compete in the FIBA U17 World Championship. With the hire, Georgia State instantly be-comes that much more attractive to potential recruits. White knows the state’s hotbeds and has unmatched name recognition that will attract players to follow him to the next level. This was an inevitable move in his climb up the coaching level, but it is noteworthy for its impact collegiately and at the high school level. The Miller Grove job becomes to most cov-etable position in the state with a built-in tradi-tion of winning and talent set to return. The move shakes up the landscape of high school basketball in Georgia along with the shuffling of the classifi-cations and regions amongst the state. Whether an assistant slides over one chair or Miller Grove tries to find help from the outside, they will have big shoes to fill.

ATLANTA HAWKS ATLANTA FALCONS

BY KYLE SANDY | [email protected] BY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]

D-DAY LOOMS FOR HAWKS

ATLANTA BRAVES

BYJOSEPH CHAPMAN | [email protected]

BRAVES DOWNFALL CONTINUES

COCA-COLA TO SERVE NEW MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUM

GHSA BEAT

MILLER GROVE’S SHARMAN WHITE JOINS GEORGIA STATE

BY CRAIG SAGER | [email protected]

13Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

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15Vol. 12 Iss. 18 | May 18 - May 24, 2016

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