By Marty Kirkland
martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com
July 23, 2008 09:48 pm
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Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed the two weekly series of stories we introduced this summer in “No Offseason” and “Catching up With ... ” Although we’re retiring those series for now with the school year and, thus, regularly scheduled prep and college sports about to crank up in the next few weeks, you’ll see variations on both of those themes in the future.
Obviously, the prep athletes we featured in “No Offseason” — along with many of their teammates — will be back on our pages before you know it with the Georgia High School Association’s first day for official practice for fall sports on Aug. 1, a little more than a week away. In addition to football teams moving from the weight room and skeleton drills to the practice field and full contact, competition cheerleading, cross country, softball and volleyball head to their respective practice arenas the same day.
It won’t be long after that before competition starts, either, with softball and volleyball allowed to hold their first contests on Aug. 15, cheerleading the next day and cross country two days after that.
Murray County will kick off the area’s football season a bit earlier than recent years, hosting East Hall on Aug. 23, and everyone else jumps in the following weekend as Northwest Whitfield heads to Southeast and Dalton hosts Calhoun on Aug. 29. Christian Heritage, playing once again in the Georgia Football League, will open at home the next day.
Our weekly prep football publication, TOUCHDOWN!, will be back to keep you up-to-date every Thursday (starting Aug. 28) with what’s happening and what’s ahead on the gridiron, and you can look for our preseason football guide on Aug. 22.
As for the area’s former prep standouts now making their way in college athletics, we don’t want to overlook them, either.
Exactly how we’ll keep you informed on them hasn’t been determined, but we want you to know what’s happening at the next level, too. Some schools are better than others at updating us and doing the same to their athletic Web sites, so you’re always welcome to let us know directly if you have information on an area athlete doing well in college.
Feel free to write me, Daily Citizen sports editor Larry Fleming (larryfleming@daltoncitizen.com) or sports writer Adam Krohn (adamkrohn@daltoncitizen.com) if you have news or notes in that regard. We’ll be happy to share the information with the community.
n The summer tradition of watching the Atlanta Braves and (pretty much) counting on a victory seems to be long gone with a season that keeps getting uglier.
Just three years after claiming a 14th straight division title, the Braves seem to be steaming in the other direction, flirting with the prospect of compiling a record that says, “Hey, remember the ‘80s?” and being saved from the cellar perhaps only by the ineptitude of the Washington Nationals — who, it just so happens, seem to have no problem handling themselves against Atlanta.
You might be safer now picking the Braves as the likely victims of this season’s second no-hitter in the Major Leagues; prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Florida Marlins, Atlanta had been held to two or fewer hits in three of its previous 11 contests.
Even before the season, it didn’t take much thinking to see the problems with an aging pitching staff. Factor in flatlining years at the plate from the likes of Jeff Francouer and others, a notable number of injuries even outside that aching rotation and a persistent inability to win the close ones, and all the ingredients for a disappointing year seem to be in the mixing bowl.
The supernova start by Chipper Jones was a nice distraction for fans and Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens and Jorge Campillo have all been bright spots on the mound at times, but that’s still a far cry from the team that once turned in the regular season victories with as much ease as one might drop a postcard in the mailbox.
Of course it might not matter too much to this state’s sports fans about a month from now. The Bulldogs have a much-vaunted football team intent on winning a national championship, the Jackets have a new coach and a totally revamped offense and the Falcons — they sure hope, at least — have a new start of their own.
All of which should provide more than enough of a distraction from the Braves, no matter how disastrous things are at that point.
n Speaking of making titles routine, Dalton’s Gary McPherson could tell you a thing or two about that.
The local race car driver is in a familiar spot this summer, sitting on top of the Super Late Model points standings at Chatsworth’s North Georgia Speedway, where he’s often the man to beat.
Through July 13, his 758 points had him holding a 70-point edge over Jake Knowles and 142 better than Derek Ellis in third. With the chunk of the season’s schedule in the rearview mirror, McPherson might be cruising toward his 14th title.
After a rainy start to the season, things have finally picked up at North Georgia Speedway, where racing is scheduled, as usual, for this Friday.
For more information on the track, points or future races, check out northgeorgiaspeedway.com.
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