VOLUME 11 ISSUE 28 | AUGUST 27-SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA Time to look great! IT WON’T BE LONG The preseason closes as Matt Ryan and the Falcons prep for Monday Night showdown with Eagles | Pg. 7 NOT A SECOND TIME | Pg. 10 DeKalb’s best fall short to Florida powers in third Annual Chick-fil-A Battle of the Borders COME TOGETHER | Pg. 5 Kyle Sandy reveals which teams benefitted from the latest GHSA boys basketball offseason transfers
Transcript
VOLUME 11 ISSUE 28 | AUGUST 27-SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 | YOUR SOURCE FOR SPORTS IN GEORGIA
Time to look great!
IT WON’T BE LONGThe preseason closes as Matt Ryan and the Falcons prep for Monday Night showdown with Eagles | Pg. 7
NOT A SECOND TIME | Pg. 10 DeKalb’s best fall short to Florida powers in third Annual Chick-fil-A Battle of the Borders
COME TOGETHER | Pg. 5Kyle Sandy reveals which teams benefitted from the latest GHSA boys basketball offseason transfers
3Vol. 11 Iss. 28 | August 27-September 2, 2015
PUBLISHER/EDITOR I.J. Rosenberg
ART/CREATIVE DIRECTOR DJ Galbiati Blalock
MANAGING EDITOR Craig Sager II
ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Kyle Sandy
MARKETING/ Lauren Goldstein PARTNERSHIP DIRECTOR
JUNIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rhonda Rawls
BUSINESS MANAGER Marvin Botnick
BEAT WRITERS: Dan Mathews (UGA) Craig Sager II (Falcons) Kyle Sandy (Braves, Dream, GSU, Hawks)
Ned Kaish (GA Tech, Kennesaw) STAFF WRITERS Avi Goodfriend,
Evan Miller, Ned Kaish
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In addition to Falcons regular and post-season home games, the new Atlanta stadium will host Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United beginning in March 2017, as well
as Georgia Dome legacy events, such as the SEC Championship Game, Chick-fil-A Kickoff, the Chick-fil-A Bowl Game(s) and the 2020 NCAA Men’s Final Four.
For up-to-date stadium info and seating sign up today to be the
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The new Atlanta stadium video halo will be the largest in the world with nearly 64,000 square feet of LED.
McEachern (1-0) will Buford (2-0) Friday night in the Atlanta Falcons High School
Game of the Week. The Indians nearly knocked off Buford in last season’s meeting. They held three separate leads, but the Wolves, fought back to grab a 27-20 victory. Joshua Thomas’ 5-yard run with 2:15 remaining gave Buford the go-ahead score. The Indians enter with one statement win already under their belt. McEachern trounced Tucker in the final game of the Corky Kell Clas-sic 50-14 and held a 48-7 lead at the half. Coach Kyle Hockman pulled his starters at the five-minute mark of the second quarter. In the limited action the starters did see, running back Sam Jackson was dazzling. The senior galloped his way to 161 yards and three scores on just nine carries, good for a whopping 17.8 yards
per carry. Junior quarterback Bailey Hockman completed 5-of-12 passes for 101 yards and one touchdown in his brief action. Jackson is a Georgia Southern-commit while Hockman is heading to UGA. The top notch talent doesn’t stop there though. Along with Hockman, defensive tackle Julian Rochester is also tabbed for Athens. The 6-foot-5, 315-pound 5-star prospect recorded 116 tackles and 11 sacks as a junior. Fellow defensive tackle Andrew Tarver is heading to Florida International after picking up 81 stops and four sacks in 2014. The defense will be powerful upfront, but the engine that runs the McEachern motor is its offense. Hockman passed for 3,597 yards and 42 touchdowns last year and has a pletho-ra of weapons to throw to. Tight end Christian
Roberson is a Mississippi State-commit, while 4-star Tyler Smith, 3-star transfer Tyler Sim-mons and MTSU-commit C.J. Windham form possibly the best receiving core in the state. Smith caught 65 passes for 1,291 yards and 20 scores last year while Simmons starred at New Manchester. They will receive plenty of looks with Hockman being protected by 3-star guard Tremayne Anchrum. Jackson ran for 1,068 yards after being pressed into duty after Taj Griffin’s season-ending injury Week One. Jackson averaged 9.6 yards per carry. Also in the backfield is Quay Holmes, who gives Hock-man a different style of runner than Jackson.
WOLVES OF BUFORD McEachern can score with the best of them, but its defense will have to shut down a Buford team coming off a 77-0 thrashing of Berkmar. The Wolves escaped in Week 1 by beating Eastern Christian Academy, Md. 27-20. Martin Mangram, Xavier Gantt and An-thony Grant lead Buford’s rushing attack. Man-gram gained 49 yards and scored twice while Grant ran for 56 yards to lead the team. They use an onslaught of running backs to gobble up the clock and bust big plays, making it hard for the opponent to key in on one guy. Gantt gained 699 yards and scored 10 times last year and is committed to Georgia Tech. Mic Roof steps in at quarterback for Luke Humphrey. Roof tossed two touchdowns and
went 6-of-6 for 74 yards in Buford’s rout of Berkmar. The Wolves needed only 230 yards of total offense to score nearly 80 points thanks to its stout defense pinning the Patriots deep in their own territory. Roof knows McEachern well. He stepped in for an injured Humphrey last year against the In-dians connected with Caleb Auer on a big two-point conversion after the Wolves’ final score. Coach Jess Simpson praised Roof for his poise and will surely lean on his maturity as a signal caller under center for this Friday’s rematch. The game will be won of the defensive side of the ball. Ben “Shug” Frazier is a highly-touted defensive tackle that clogs up holes like his counterpart Rochester. William Craig anchors the linebacker position after transfer-ring from North Paulding and has already com-mitted to play at MTSU. Brett Shepherd plays both linebacker and tight end and makes an impact whenever he is near the ball. Free safe-ty R.J. Walker is known for making big plays in the secondary and already has a 62-yard inter-ception return for touchdown under his belt this season. A.J. Hendricks will be important on special teams as a dangerous return man. He brought an 88-yard kick return back for six last week. Photo coutesy of Itoro Umontuen/FansFa-voriteFan.com.
As there is every year, there was some major offseason movement among some of the
best basketball programs in the state of Geor-gia. Below are some of the top transfers I have stumbled across this summer. There are some big names on the move that will greatly effect region races and state playoff pictures. One team has struck gold with three players mov-ing in and will now vault back into the discus-sion as a legit title contender. I will continue to update my findings as they come in, so feel free to tweet me @KyleSandy355 or email me at [email protected] to share any of your own findings.
CLASS AAAAAA IMPACT TRANSFERS One player might shift the balance of power in 6A and especially in Region 3. Chuma Okeke and his 22.8 points and 8.3 rebounds shift from Langston Hughes to Westlake. Hughes was primed for a big season chock
full of juniors. An astronomical 12 sophomores suited up last year for coach Rory Welsh and it was Okeke along with guard Khalil Cuffee (18.2 ppg) that ran the show as super sophomores. Now Cuffee will have to shoulder the complete load with Okeke gone. The highly sought after forward joins an already talented roster that stumbled to a 13-15 record in 2014. Big man Michael Durr, shooting guard Raquan Wilkins and point guard Danny Lewis along with Okeke make the Lions one of the most intriguing teams for a huge rebound season. Collins Hill picked up some great size in-side to help add to a team that could use some toughness in the low post. Chris Parks and AJ Cheeseman will bring just that. Parks averaged 8.0 points and 5.2 rebounds as a freshman with Lanier. Cheeseman knows Collins Hill well, as his Duluth Wildcats split a pair with the Eagles during the Region 7 regular season. Cheeseman averaged 11.4 points and 7.1 rebounds as a junior.
Shiloh added some dynamic players to its backcourt in Darnell Rogers and Greg James. Rogers averaged over 28 points per game in South Carolina and became a YouTube sensa-tion for his acrobatic and jaw dropping play as the smallest player on the floor. He played with new teammate Josh Okogie on the AAU circuit on Team CP3 and decided to follow him to Georgia to play their senior season to-gether. James is strong outside shooter with nice size and is receiving looks from low to mid-major programs. Hillgrove took a major blow in losing Collin Sexton. The rising junior was a major piece to Hillgrove’s 23-win season and was a big-game performer when the Hawks needed him the most. He will join last season’s state runner up Pebblebrook, who needs to reload after losing Ty Hudson (Clemson), Derek Ogbeide (UGA), Trhae Mitchell and glue guy Kevin Murph. Sexton will team up with Auburn-bound point guard Jared Harper and will form one of the best back courts in the state. The big winner of all this moving-and-shaking has to be Milton, who vaults itself back into state prominence if all the pieces come together. Kendrick Summerour brings his slick And-1 type handles to the Eagles after averag-ing 14.1 points and 4.1 assists as a sophomore at Kell. Justin Brown averaged 15.1 points a night as a freshman at Northview, while Kyrin Gallo-way brings size inside. This new trio will team-up with Harvard bound big man Chris Lewis and the rapidly improving Alex O’Connell. Romello White returns to Peachtree Ridge after a season at IMG Academy and has im-
proved his stock and is being looked at as a 4-star power forward.
THE REST OF THE STATE IMPACT TRANSFERS Aaron Augustin averaged 16.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists for Peachtree Ridge a year ago, but now teams up with UConn-com-mit Alterique Gilbert at Class AAAAA power Miller Grove to form yet another great Peach State backcourt. Jacara Cross’ move from Cedar Grove to Lithonia makes the Bulldogs one of the top dogs in AAAA. Couple him with Tyleen Pat-terson, Rodney Chatman and Tyheem Freeman and you have a dynamic team that already is coming off a 27-win season. A pair of guards should improve back-courts in AAA. Lamont Smith joins super soph-omore Drue Drinnon for East Jackson while Zion Williams replaces Jenkins graduate Eric Johnson, who hit the game winner to lift the Warriors to a state championship last season with just seconds left. Williams averaged 10.3 points and 6.8 assists as a sophomore. Isaiah Kelly provides Pace head coach Demetrius Smith with an embarrassment of riches inside. Kelly will join top nationally ranked big man Wendell Carter Jr. and will like-ly give the Knights a say when it comes to the state championship. Dual sport star Anthony Showell aver-aged 16.6 points per game for Duluth last season and suits up alongside 5-star guard Kobi Simmons. Photo coutesy of Ty Freeman.
For the eighth straight September, quarter-back Matt Ryan will lead the Falcons into
a new season of NFL football. His rookie sea-son saw him develop into the face of the fran-chise. In this role, he has rewritten Falcons his-tory and equipped a culture of winning that is shared with the arrival of each season. His immediate success in the League be-came Atlanta’s new standard. Ryan’s 56 wins his first five seasons are the most by any quar-terback in NFL history. His consistency defines what it means to be a ‘franchise quarterback’ and he enters 2015 already holding all-time Falcons records for passing yards, touchdowns, completions and QB rating.
DRAWING COMPARISONS Ryan entered last year’s season opener against the Saints with 153 career touchdown passes, one behind Falcons Ring of Honor member Steve Bartkowski’s franchise re-cord. With the Falcons down 13-0, Ryan fired a back-shoulder throw to Roddy White for a 2-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to tie Bartkowski. On Atlanta’s first posses-
sion of the third quarter, Ryan connected on a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Levine Toilolo to break the record before adding a 54-yard touchdown pass to running back Antone Smith. Ryan’s three-touchdown performance powered Atlanta’s 37-34 overtime win against the rival Saints. After the excitement, he spoke about what the record meant to him. “It’s a great honor,” said Ryan. “No one has more respect for Steve Bartkowski than I do and what he did for this organization. He’s become a great friend since I’ve been here in Atlanta and a great mentor. I’m very proud to be in good company. It’s really a great honor.” The comparisons to other great quarter-backs have followed Ryan since his record-setting collegiate career. While at Boston College, Ryan surpassed legendary Eagles quarterback Doug Flutie (28) for the school record of most passing touchdowns in a sin-gle season with 31. The record-setting cam-paign garnered Ryan 2007 ACC Player of the Year honors and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is shared by quarterbacks Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Andrew Luck
and reigning recipient Marcus Mariota. Ryan also earned the Manning Award in 2007, a trophy named after Archie Manning that has been handed out to the best college quarterback in the country since 2004. Ryan shares that title with Heisman winners Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston and Mariota.
MATTY ICE Last season, Ryan accounted for 4,694 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 14 inter-ceptions and earned a trip to his third Pro Bowl. While there, he helped Team Irving close out a 32-28 victory with a game-winning touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham. Game-winners have been a specialty of Ryan since his storied career at Boston College but he has continued his late-game heroics with the Fal-cons at an unparalleled rate. Ryan has orches-trated 26 game-winning drives with Atlanta, the most by any quarterback since he entered the League in 2008. In the world of sports, we compare coach-es to coaches, players to players, fan bases to fan bases and teams to teams. From pre-game, to post-game to our video games, players are ranked, measured and compared with one another. Comparing often gets a bad rap but there is also value with it, especially as a fran-chise quarterback. Ryan’s early comparisons to the NFL’s top tier of quarterbacks as he en-tered the League were a way of showing a fan base what was possible. The comparisons that have continued each season since represent the proverbial bar that Ryan and the franchise are annually raising. Ryan’s leadership and experience in the spotlight has become an essential ingredient to the Falcons success and it reaches rookies and veterans alike. Tight end Jacob Tamme, who was signed from Denver this offseason, has spent six of his previous NFL seasons with Peyton Manning as his starting quarterback. Tamme, recognizes what type of quarterback Ryan is and is looking forward to seeing his command of the offense and leadership in crunch time. “With Matt, I can’t wait to get out there that first time when we’re down by three and need to make a drive to win the game,” admit-ted Tamme. “Matt’s already done that [game-winning drives] a bunch, and I’m looking for-ward to getting a chance to be a part of that with him.” Putting together a game-deciding drive is a critical part of winning, but the real chal-
RYAN’S HIGH-POWERED OFFENSE SET TO MAKE MORE HISTORY IN 2015
lenge comes from consistently leading an of-fense for the entire season. Ryan has been able to handle this with his preparation and ability to get his playmakers involved with his arm strength and accuracy. Since 2008, Falcons fans have produced one of the League’s most explosive passing at-tacks. White made his first career Pro Bowl ap-pearance in 2008 with a rookie passer, while setting a then Falcons single-season record in receiving yards with 1,382 yards. White would end up making four consecutive Pro Bowls (2008-11) and is now the Falcons all-time lead-er in receptions (765), receiving yards (10,357) and touchdowns (62). In 2011, Julio Jones entered the fray as an-other weapon for Ryan to throw to. Jones went on to record the best season that a Falcons rookie receiver has ever had with 54 catches for 959 yards and eight touchdowns. The fol-lowing season, Jones and White were one of only four pass-catching duos to each rack up 1,000 receiving yards. That season also marked the fifth straight year one of Ryan’s targets had made the Pro Bowl when Jones was awarded his first invitation. Jones continued his success last year when he set the franchise record for receiving yards in a season with 1,593.
WHAT’S IN STORE Ryan enters his first season with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and is looking for-ward to bringing new dynamics to the offense, including more bootlegs and plays on the edge. “It’s a physical game,” said Ryan. “I’ve got to be ready to go. That’s what you train all offseason for, trying to get yourself in the best shape possible. For me, what it’s all about is trying to make us the best offense we can be.” Photo courtesy of Atlanta Falcons.
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WH
O’S
HOT
WH
O’S
NOT
Julio Jones Brice RamseyCollege Football Runing GameLassiter Trojans Atlanta Braves
Atlanta’s top receiving target was rewarded this week with a massive $71.25 million con-tract with $47 million guar-anteed. The trade for Julio worked out for Atlanta as the Browns no longer have any of the five picks they received in the deal. Jones’ contract makes him the second-high-est paid receiver in the NFL behind Calvin Johnson.
UGA quarterback Brice Ramsey thought he would be a starter by now when he signed his scholarship back in 2013. What he prob-ably did not think is that a transfer from Virginia would come in and steal the job. Ramsey has plenty of time to earn more playing time and this should motivate the redshirt sophomore.
The much-anticipated 2015 college football season is underway. The season starts off in grand fashion with in-triguing matchups across the board. One of the best early matchups will go down in the Georgia Dome this Saturday as Auburn clashes with Lou-isville in the Chick-fil-A kick-off game.
The Falcons hoped to use a zone-blocking scheme to balance out a pass-happy offense the past few seasons but injuries to the running backs have thwarted the progress. The Falcons have averaged just 50 rushing yards per game this offsea-son and will have to enter the season without a dress rehearsal with the No.1 unit.
After a disastrous winless 2014 season, Lassiter has opened this season as one of the hottest teams in the state. The Trojans stunned Hillgrove to open the year and then snapped Kell’s 28-game regular season win-streak on Friday with a 27-9 victory. Kell did not score any offensive points in the loss, despite Las-siter’s 47.1 points per game allowed last year.
The embarrassment of los-ing 14 of 15 games is bad enough, but the Braves were forced back into the headlines after trading away another piece. Atlanta parted with Jonny Gomes during its 4-0 loss to Miami on Monday night and sent him to Kan-sas City. He left the game in the fifth inning, hugged his teammates in the dugout and began packing up his belongings in the clubhouse.
SCORE LISTBy Ned Kaish
NUMBERSBy Ned Kaish
LAMBERT NAMED STARTEROn Monday, Georgia coach Mark Richt named Virginia transfer Grayson Lambert the starter for the Bulldogs season opener at home against UL-Monroe. Lambert and redshirt sophomore Brice Ramsey had been battling throughout the preseason for the job. Lambert has two years of eligibility left. The next question now becomes how confident in Lambert is Richt? Lambert could be on a short leash if things don’t go well early in the season.
Archer did not disappoint the national TV audience on Saturday as they dominated Peachtree Ridge on ESPNU. Archer, nation’s No. 10 team, handled the Lions winning 26-10 behind the play of quarterback Will Beardon who finished the game with a touchdown on the ground and through the air. Archer will have the week off before putting their national ranking on the line against Grayson who is ranked No. 4 in the state.
ARCHER IMPRESSES
FALCONS RUNNING BACKSAs we inch closer to the regular season the Falcons still have a handful of questions on the offensive side of the ball including at running back. Hamstring injuries have kept both Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman sidelined most the preseason. Expect both running backs to be used early in the season before offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan finds his workhorse back in the new zone blocking system.
TEE IT UPGeorgia Tech will look to defend its Coastal Division title starting Thursday when the college football season kicks off as they host Alcorn State. Tech hopes to improve on its 11-3 record and ACC Championship game appearance last year as they work to contend for a playoff spot behind the play of dark horse Heisman Trophy contender Justin Thomas. Thomas finished last season with over 2,800 total yards of offense.
BRAVE AT LASTCuban born third baseman Hector Olivera was finally called up to the Braves on Tuesday when he made his first start against the Marlins. Unfortunately it was not the debut he was hoping for as he went 0-4. Olivera, who came over in a trade midseason from the Dodgers, is expected to be the third baseman of the future for the Braves.
? “
ANSWER ON PAGE 16 Matt Ryan after Julio Jones signed his
five-year deal to remain in Atlanta
TRIVIA QUESTION
SANITY AT LAST
HOW MANY WINS DID MATT RYAN
ACCUMULATE HIS FIRST FIVE SEASONS
IN THE NFL?
“I’m lucky to call him a teammate.”
By
Cra
ig S
ag
er I
I
1$47Million
28
19
3
10:11
22.3
18
Number of wins for the Braves in their last 15 games
Guaranteed to Julio Jones within his 5-year deal worth $71.2 million.
Kell’s regular season game winning streak that was snapped by Lassiter last Friday.
Games in a row Shelby Miller has pitched without a win even after posting a 2.62 ERA throughout the year.
Blocked punts by Walton linebacker Joey Goodman through two games, two of the which were returned for touchdowns.
New UGA starting quarterback Grayson Lambert’s touchdown to interception ratio last season at Virginia.
Points allowed by the Falcons this preseason after giving up only 13 points to Miami.
Outfielder Jonny Gomes ERA after pitching one inning of relief for the Braves against the Yankees.
South Forsyth High School Roswell High SchoolSocial Circle High School
Valdosta High School
Northview High School
Over 1000 installations nationwide since 1998
The third annual Chick-fil-A Battle of the Bor-ders went down in DeKalb County’s Hallford
Stadium on Saturday. For the second straight year, Florida took all but one game. Tucker’s 51-38 win over Godby was Georgia’s lone victory this year. COCONUT CREEK (FL) 41, MARIST 21 Coconut Creek, which never trailed, capped off its opening drive with a 1-yard touch-down run from Malek Young. The UGA-commit made his first varsity game in Georgia memo-rable as he added a 69-yard touchdown to give the visiting Cougars a 14-7 lead with 3:23 left in the first half. Marist was able to tie it 14-14 at the break after Spencer Taylor and Michael Addicks touchdown runs, but Young found the end zone a third time with an 8-yard run that made it 20-14. Coconut Creek pushed the lead to 34-21 with a 50-yard reception from Trayvon Mullen before scoring its final touchdown on a
T.J. Louis interception return for a touchdown.
HALLANDALE (FL) 34, CEDAR GROVE 26 Cedar Grove opened with a 2-yard touch-down run from Tre’ Shaw to take a 6-0 lead, but Hallandale’s senior wideout Joshua Hammond answered with three first half touchdowns to give the Chargers an 18-12 lead. Cedar Grove tied it at 18-18 with LaBron Morris’ second rushing touchdown of the game, but the Saints failed the sixth two-point conversion of the game and could not take the lead. Hallandale quarterback Tyler Huntley tossed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Zach Moss and a success-ful two-point conversion increased the lead to 26-18. Moss added a 21-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the third quarter and the Chargers took a 34-18 lead before Cedar Grove’s Morris found the end zone on a 4-yard run and pounded in the final points of the game on a two-point conversion.
TUCKER 51, GODBY (FL) 38 Tucker trailed 38-37 entering the final quarter but used two touchdown runs by Chris Broadwater and a game-sealing interception by Jeremiah Shelley to outscore the Cougars 14-0 in the final frame. Broadwater finished with three touchdowns, including a 7-yard run in the second quarter that gave Tucker a 24-18 half-time lead. Sam Bryant got Tucker started with the first two of the Tigers’ seven rushing scores in the game and kicker Adam Lippy connected on a 26-yard field goal to put Tucker up 17-6. Godby answered with a Darius Bradwell quar-terback keeper and Mike Carrigan touchdown run to take a brief 18-17 lead before Broadwa-ter helped Tucker close the half with a lead. Bradwell scampered in for a 32-yard score to open the second half and tied the game 24-24. Tucker countered with a 3-yard Gerry Vaughn touchdown to make it 31-24 but Michael Hud-son got Godby back in front 32-31 with a 5-yard rushing score and a successful Cougars two-point conversion. The Tigers were able to re-claim the lead after Kymani Campbell ran in a 56-yard touchdown but a bad snap on the point after kept Tucker’s lead at 37-32. With 33 sec-onds left in the third quarter, Samondre Jordan gave Godby its final lead of the game (38-37) with a 4-yard touchdown run before Tucker dominated the fourth quarter.
AMERICAN-HERITAGE, PLANTATION (FL) 36, STEPHENSON 8 In the fourth and final game of the Chick-
fil-A Battle of the Borders, American-Heritage stifled Stephenson’s offense and took a 19-2 lead into the half. The Patriots struck first with a Jason Brown quarterback sneak but the PAT was blocked by Stephenson and the lead re-mained 6-0 until midway through the second quarter when Laress Nelson hauled in a 19-yard touchdown pass. A bad snap on an Ameri-can-Heritage punt gave Stephenson a safety with 1:12 left in the half, but the Jaguars were picked off by Tyson Campbell, who returned it 60-yards for a touchdown with just 14 sec-onds left in the half to make it 19-2. Stephenson muffed a punt on its first possession of the sec-ond half and the Patriots took over on the Jag-uars’ 2-yard line before Khailil Herbert punched it in to make it 26-2. The Patriots added a field goal before Stephenson finally got back on the board with a 45-yard touchdown run by Anto-nio Brown with 10:24 left in the game. Herbert added a 12-yard touchdown run later in the fourth that pushed it to a 36-8 lead. Photos Courtesy of Itoro Umontuen, Ken Young, and Terrance Johnson.
PREP SPORTS
FLORIDA OUTSHINES DEKALB POWERS IN BATTLE OF THE BORDERSBY CRAIG SAGER II | [email protected]
11Vol. 11 Iss. 28 | August 27-September 2, 2015
A TWO-TOUCHDOWN DEFICIT IS NOTHING AFTER YOU’VE COME BACK FROM CANCER.
Know a young athlete who overcame a serious injury or illness? Nominatethem for Comeback Athlete of the Month at choa.org/comeback.
Throughout this entire process of “who will be the starting quarterback?” The Bulldogs
players and coaches have always been consis-tent on their answer, “it doesn’t matter.” Maybe it wasn’t in those exact terms and the context of that sentiment would come off as negative. However, Greyson Lambert, Brice Ramsey and Faton Bauta all were showered with compliments from Head Coach Mark Richt/players.. “To be able to learn a new system in the time frame that he had to learn it shows some maturity,” Richt said. “We talked about this last night after practice, some of the things that we talked about is maturity. What we might have seen on film at Virginia from the Virginia tape, that was certainly part of the reason we brought him in, but whatever we saw on the Virginia tape had nothing to do with him win-ning the job. Everything is based on what has happened at Georgia since day one of practice in the fall, that’s how the decision was made.
Georgia State (1-1) captured its first win of the season on a soggy pitch after a two
hour weather delay in men’s soccer on Sunday in a 2-1 victory over North Florida. Nomis Cisic found Andy Anglade, who chipped the ball over the Ospreys’ keeper’s head at the 87:37 mark for the game-winner. The Panthers struck first earlier in the game after a scoreless first half. Jad Elkhalil found the back of the net in the 54th minute after receiving an assist from Casey Shultis. The Ospreys quickly answered eight minutes later on a Drew Spragg equalizer. The hero of the match for the Panthers might have been redshirt freshman goalkeep-er Greyson Walldorff. The former Druid Hills standout made four saves on the day for his first road win. Georgia State returns to At-lanta for its home opener on Thursday evening against Mercer at 7 p.m.
RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY The women’s soccer team was not as lucky as the men’s team. The Panthers’ Sunday
Quarterback Justin Thomas will look to lead Georgia Tech to another Coastal Division
Championship in 2015, but this year Paul John-son’s Yellow Jackets will look to capture anoth-er title, the ACC Championship. Paul Johnson, in his eight season at the reigns, has his best passing quarterback re-turn in the triple option attack. Thomas threw for over 1,700 yards last season while also tal-lying over 1,000 on the ground. He will look for more the same this season for his coach. Johnson has high praise for his redshirt junior quarterback,“He has a great skill set,” said Johnson. “I think he’d be a really good quarter-back in any system, but his skill set really fits what we like to do.” Thomas will be working with a new group of skill players around him after Tech lost their top four rushers from last year as well as two receivers who were drafted in April. Senior A-back Broderick Snoddy will be expected to carry the load as the team’s leading returning
It’s finally time for football to be played in Fifth Third Bank Stadium, home of the Ken-
nesaw State Owls, but we will have to wait a few more weeks for that. Kennesaw State kicks off their season on September 3 on the road at East Tennessee State. The home opener will come on September 12 at 4 pm as the team takes on Edward Waters. The Owls will be led by Coach Brian Bohannon who will bring the triple option to Kennesaw after spending five seasons across town at Georgia Tech. Bohannon has entrusted the offense to offensive coordinator Grant Chestnut while the defense will be under the direction of Bri-an Newberry. The players aren’t the only ones ready to kick off the season, Bohannon knows the coaches are ready to see a different op-ponent as well. “It’s really what we have been working towards, is this first game. I can’t tell you how excited our kids are, they’re tired of practicing, they’re tired of hitting each other,
He covered a lot of ground in a pretty short time as far as figuring things out, so you have to give him credit for that.”
STANDING OUT Richt thinks that Lambert endeared him-self to the team with the way he came to cam-pus and jumped in with the team in a quick amount of time. Even though he is an upper-classman, redshirt sophomore Brice Ramsey and junior Faton Bauta have been here longer. He believes the team is 100 percent behind this decision. “I’m not concerned about the chemistry issue,” Richt said. “I think Greyson is a guy who is a team guy and a guy that worked his tail off. I think he gained the respect of the team, just as the other quarterbacks have over time.” We learned on Tuesday that the players were told of the decision after practice. The quar-terbacks found out before Monday’s session. “I like things settled down knowing who you’re going to play with so you can plan on that,” said running back Nick Chubb. “So, I’m happy that we have a quarterback going into the first game. I think that also depending on how he plays we still have two other quarter-backs that are very good who are right behind him. I don’t think the competition is over, I think we just needed a starter before the season.”
match in Jacksonville against UNF was ruled a no contest after four lightning delays and there has been no word on a scheduled makeup game. Instead, GSU will look forward to its next game of the season against Jacksonville State in Alabama on Friday.
STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR A 3-2 loss to Fresno State followed by a 3-0 loss to Murray State on Saturday denied the Panthers volleyball team from notching their elusive first win of the season. Geor-gia State is now 0-3. One bright spot at the Catamount Volleyball Classic was senior Eliza Zachary, who was named to the all-tourna-ment team. Zachary finished the tournament with 40 kills and 13 blocks. The Panthers lost in five sets to Fresno State 25-27, 25-21, 11-25, 25-19, 15-10. The Racers defeated Georgia State 25-6, 25-21, 25-20. Deidra Bohannon powered the Panthers in their second match, leading the team with 10 kills on .333 hitting.
THIS IS IT The Georgia State football season finally kicks off this Friday at the Georgia Dome at 3:30 p.m. The Charlotte 49ers will visit Atlanta and will face many of the same issues the Pan-thers have faced recently. This will be Char-lotte’s first year in the FBS and should pose an even matchup with the Panthers as both teams continue their growing pains of becoming a major Division One program.
rusher, besides Thomas. Snoddy played in 10 games last season before suffering a season ending leg injury. He rushed for 283 yards and three touchdowns in 10 games. Joining Snoddy at A-back will be junior Isiah Willis who had only two carries last season. Senior Patrick Skov, a Stanford transfer, will fill in the vacancy at B-back.
PAVING LANES The offensive line will be lead by three seniors, including seniors Errin Joe and Trey Braun. The offensive line helped the 2014 Jack-ets rush for 342.1 yards per game and average 37.9 points per game. On the edge wide receiv-ers, Michael Summers and Antonia Messick who combined for eight catches last season will look to step their role up with freshman and former Benedictine star Brad Stewart. Defensively, Georgia Tech’s strength starts on the defensive line. Preseason All-ACC selection defensive tackle Adam Gotsis returns to anchor the defense after finishing last season with 6.5 tackles for loss and three sacks. He will be joined by defensive end Ke-Shun Freeman, who tallied 4.5 sacks in 2014. In the back end of the defense, Demond Smith is the team’s returning leading tackler and will team up with Jamal Golden at safety. On the outside, DJ White will be the team’s lockdown cornerback after having four interceptions last season.
and they’re ready to go play somebody else…The same with our staff.” Offensively the Owls look to be led by Citadel transfer Trey White. White who played his high school football at St. Pius X in Atlanta is no stranger to the triple option having run it at both St. Pius X as well as the Citadel. In the backfield White should have some help from freshman Jae Bowen who finished his career at South Paulding High School with 3,388 yards and 41 touchdowns. He will likely be joined by senior Ryan God-high, whose brother Robbie was a star at Georgia Tech at the same position.
BUILDING BLOCKS Defensively expect Kennesaw State to run a 4-2-5 on defense. Linebacker Dez Billingslea will lead the charge. The 3-star prospect was the 11th ranked linebacker in last year’s class. In the secondary a pair of Cobb County products will be roaming. Tay-lor Henkle of Kell and Johnny Yoder of Las-siter will look to keep opposing teams from beating the Owls through the air. Kennesaw State will play 11 games in 2015 including six at Fifth Third Bank Stadium. They will also play two in state schools in Point University and Shorter. 2015 will be a building block year for the Owls, but don’t count this team out, they may just surprise you.
WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE GAME.
15Vol. 11 Iss. 28 | August 27-September 2, 2015
It has been a long time coming for one of the game’s greatest international ambassadors.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Hawks CEO Steve Koonin announced that Dikembe Mutombo will have his No. 55 jersey retired and raised in the raf-ters of Philips Arena on Nov. 24. Koonin also declared Sept. 1 has “Dikembe Mutombo Day.” The 7-foot-2 shot blocking connoisseur from the Congo was an eight-time All-Star, four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and an 18-year NBA vet. He will be just the fourth Hawk ever to have their jersey retired, joining Bob Pettit (9), Dominique Wilkins (21) and Lou Hudson (23). Like Pettit and Wilkins before him, Mu-tombo will be inducted into the Naismith Me-morial Basketball Hall of Fame next week. The finger waving shot blocker was brought to tears and was quoted saying, “The most surprising, as you can see from the tears in my eyes, is the announcement that was made (that my jersey will be retired),” Mutombo said. “It’s the most shocking to me. … I didn’t know the Hawks were
The Braves (54-78) have lost 14 of their last 15 games and seven straight. Nobody said
rebuilding would be easy, but the way Atlanta has played has been downright offensive. The slumping Yankees came to Atlanta over the weekend and humiliated the Braves 15-4, 3-1 and 20-6. Attendance, which has always been an issue, has plummeted to nearly less than 10,000 people on select games. The fan base ranks in the bottom five in the entire league for average attendance. Their latest loss came to the Marlins 7-1. Atlanta now holds just a game and a half lead over the Phillies for last place in the NL East. Manny Banuelos could only contribute 2.2 innings and allowed three runs off six hits. Hector Olivera, the 30-year old minor leaguer acquired in the 13-player trade between the Braves, Dodgers and Marlins at the deadline, finally made his debut after batting .178 in the Braves minor league system. Olivera went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
The Ravens bounced back from an 8-8 sea-son and missing the playoffs in 2013 to a
postseason return in 2014 and 10-6 record, de-spite a turbulent start to the season. Baltimore secured a wild-card spot and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-17 in the first round of the playoffs before losing a heart-breaker 35-31 to the eventual Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the Divi-sional Round. Offensively, quarterback Joe Flacco used his strong arm to balance out an offense that relied on Justin Forsett to pick up the void left by Ray Rice. The passing game overachieved with Steve Smith Sr. leading the charge. The veteran receiver proved doubters wrong last year with his 79 receptions, 1,065 yards and six touchdowns in the regular season. In the wild card round of the playoffs, Smith caught five passes for 101 yards, helping the Ravens defeat rival Pittsburgh for the first time ever in the playoffs. He caught another
A late surge by the Atlanta Dream (12-17) will not be enough to extend their playoff
berth streak to seven seasons. They ripped off a season-high three straight wins before fall-ing to Chicago in another high scoring close game, 98-96 on Saturday. In the loss Angel McCoughtry turned in one of her finest games of the year, scoring 33 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. The WNBA’s leading scorer Elena Delle Donne did not play due to a foot injury, but Atlanta was still unable to capitalize on the absence. Instead, six players scored in double figures for the Sky led by veteran Cap-pie Pondexter’s 22 points. Courtney Vander-sloot also added 17 points, six rebounds and seven assists. Matee Ajavon and Sancho Lyt-tle chipped 13 points apiece for Atlanta.
IRONWOMAN DeLisha Milton-Jones broke the WNBA record for games played on Friday night when she checked in against the Indiana Fever. Mil-ton-Jones, now 40, has played 17 years in the
going to retire my jersey. I can’t believe it. It’s go-ing to be a great day.” Over his five seasons in Atlanta, Mutom-bo made four All-Star teams. He averaged 11.9 points and 12.6 rebounds and captured three Defensive Player of the Year awards. Koonin, the vocal leader of the Hawks and one of the more interactive CEO’s in sports, was thrilled to be a part of the group leading the charge to honor Mutombo. “When you look at the history of the Hawks and you see a player who made such a positive contribution, who is going to be Hall of Famer and who resides in Atlanta, it was two simple (phone) calls,” Koonin said. “One to (general manager) Wes (Wilcox) and one to Bud (president of basketball operations/head coach Mike Budenholzer) saying what you think? They couldn’t have been more enthusiastic.”
A GLOBAL HERO The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation was founded in 1997. Mutombo is the Chairman and President of the foundation that’s mission state-ment reads: “The Dikembe Mutombo Founda-tion is dedicated to improving the health, edu-cation and quality of life for the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Founda-tion strives to accomplish this goal through an emphasis on primary health care and disease prevention, the promotion of health policy, health research and increased access to health care education for the people of the Congo.”
Justin Bour powered the Fins’ offense with a three-run blast in the 7th inning off Ryan Kelly. Justin Nicolino tossed seven scoreless innings to pick up his third win of the season.
TURNER FIELD DEATHS On Saturday night, the third Braves fan since 2008 died at the game after falling over the upper-level railing. He fell 40-feet to his death and left a pool of blood. Reports have come out suggesting that the man was intoxi-cated and had stood up to boo Alex Rodriguez when he came to bat. “We’re all dealing with the sadness and the tragedy of it, for the gentleman’s fam-ily and anybody who happened to witness it,” Braves President John Schuerholz said Sunday. “It’s difficult, and that’s what our focus is right now…trying to do everything we can to help the families deal with this as best as possible. Not only the family of the gentleman, but oth-ers who witnessed it, experienced it.” Gregory Kent Murrey is the deceased. He was 60 years old from Alpharetta. In 2013, a 30-year old man named Ronald Lee Homer Jr., jumped to his death and landed 85 feet below in the parking lot.
GOMES A GONER Jonny Gomes was shipped from the cellar to the penthouse on Monday as he was traded to the Kansas City Royals. Gomes hit .221 with seven homers and 22 RBIs for the Braves.
touchdown against the Pats in the Divisional Round and then announced on Aug. 10 that 2015 would be his last season. Baltimore recognized that with the loss of wide receiver Torrey Smith to San Francis-co the team needed to add a new deep threat and used their first-round pick to scoop up former UCF speed demon Breshad Perriman. The 6-foot-3, Lithonia-native will be asked to stretch the field with his elite blend of size and speed. The most significant change to the Ra-vens coaching staff this season came at of-fensive coordinator. Gary Kubiak is out and and Marc Trestman is in after serving as the Bears head coach the past two seasons. The offense will remain much of the same with the zone-run setting up Flacco’s deep ball, however, Trestman could also find ways to use Forsett and the other running backs more in the passing game. The Ravens have become synonymous with defense since joining the League in 1996 and this year’s unit boasts a trio of hard-hitting linebackers. Veterans Elvis Dumervil and Ter-rell Suggs, who chipped in 17 and 12 sacks, re-spectively last season, joined forces with fellow linebacker C.J. Mosley last season. The former Alabama star was Baltimore’s first round se-lection in 2014 and burst onto the scene with an outstanding rookie season. Mosley finished the season with 133 tackles and tied for the team lead with two interceptions.
league and broke the previous record held by Tina Thompson when she entered her 497th game. The opportunity to break the record was nearly lost when Atlanta waived her ear-lier in the season, but after a series of seven-day contracts, the Dream signed her full-time for the remainder of the season. She has been a staple in the WNBA nearly since its incep-tion back in 1996. Milton-Jones holds a career scoring average of 11.2 points per game.
ACROSS THE LEAGUE New York has been led by Tina Charles this season. The former UConn Huskie has averaged 17.8 points and 8.6 rebounds this season while Epiphanny Prince has added 15.8 points per game. The Liberty will enter the playoffs with the East’s No. 1 seed while Minnesota will hold the top spot in the West. Maya Moore paces the Lynx with 20.9 points per game and 6.9 rebounds. Mid-season ad-dition Sylvia Fowles has anchored the paint posting 14.5 points and 7.9 rebounds on aver-age. Veteran Seimone Augustus may be the X-factor, averaging just under 14 points.
FINISH STRONG It’s been a difficult season for the Dream, but over their last six games they have shown signs of life going 4-2. Atlanta finishes the season visiting the WNBA-leading New York Liberty on Tuesday then hosting Washington, Los Angeles and Indiana all at home before making a final road trip to Washington on September 13 to close out the year.
BALTIMORE RETURNS TO DOME FOR FINAL PRESEASON TEST
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