Marietta, GA
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Showcases and spotlights local high school sports and sports leagues. Recreational resources are also reviewed.
Players for the Pope Junior Greyhounds 13U Baseball Team will be held on Saturday, February 25th at Sewell Mill Baptist Church baseball field starting at 11:30 a.m. Players should be enrolled in the Pope High School district, in 6th-8th grade and must be age 13 or younger by April 30, 2012.
More information can be found at http://www.eteamz.com/13upopejrgreyhounds or contact Coach Wes Brock at 404-202-5843 or popejr13ubaseball@hotmail.com.
Mark your calendars! Four guided bird walks will take place at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park this Spring: Wednesday, April 18; Saturday, April 21; Wednesday, April 25; and Saturday, April 28, 2012. Each walk begins at the Battlefield’s visitor center parking lot at 7:30 a.m., rain or shine. The walk is approximately 2.5 miles in distance and takes about 3 hours.
Kennesaw Mountain is noted by natural scientists as one of the South’s most visited flyways. Many rare and beautiful birds have been observed in the park’s natural habitat. These birds are referred to as “Neotropical Migrants.” They, along with nearly 25% of all U.S. bird species, breed in North America, migrating and wintering in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Basin.
Bird walks are normally guided by either Giff Beaton or Chuck Saleeby. Beaton is the author of Birding Georgia, A Guide to Finding Birds in Georgia. He also periodically writes articles for various birding publications and over the past twelve years has made more than 800 birding trips through the trails of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. Beaton also developed a free bird checklist specifically for the park that is available upon request in the visitor center.
For more information on the upcoming bird walks, please call 770-427-4686 x0 between 8:30am and 5pm.
Upward Softball Season: Johnson Ferry Baptist Church is registering for girls ages 4-13. Cost is $99. For more information, call 678-784-5317 or visit www.johnsonferry.org/recreation.
Upward Baseball Season: Johnson Ferry Baptist Church is registering for boys ages 4-11. Cost is $99, or $95 for 5U tee-ball. For more information, call 678-784-5317 or visitwww.johnsonferry.org/recreation.
Pope Junior Lacrosse: Registration is open for girls in grades 1-7. No experience necessary. For more information, visit www.jrgreyhoundlax.com.
Register online today for the Atlanta Bulls Intelligent Youth Basketball Club 11U & 12U tryouts. Session 1 is February 8, 7pm-9pm. Session 2 is February 15, 7pm-9pm. They will be held at All Tournament Players Park, 3910 Canton Road, Marietta GA, 30066. To sign up or for more information visit www.atlantabulls.org or email c.smith@atlantabulls.org.
The Atlanta Bulls Intelligent Youth Basketball Club is a proud affiliate of The Syncere Youth Movement, a not-for-profit youth outreach program helping to enrich the minds and lives of the youth in the community. The club desires to bring the pride, tradition and sportsmanship back to the hardwood court where the young athlete, family, friends and fans can enjoy the game of basketball in the purest form.
Christi Nakajima and Katie Van Riper
When you think about high school sports, fencing is not usually first on the list. However, here in Georgia, that may be changing. You don’t need to be especially large or strong in order to fence. Fencing is a combination of strategy, movement and control. Anyone can learn to fence, and learning will promote fitness, sportsmanship, physical control and balance as well as self-confidence.
High school fencing is gaining an increasing following in the United States, evidenced by the establishment of state leagues, an increase in Junior level national competitors, and, in 2011, the establishment of the first annual National High School Championship in Cleveland, Ohio.
High School fencing in Georgia is a fast-growing activity, currently supported through the high schools as an athletic club. There has been a significant increase in fencing clubs and tournaments at the high school level in the last several years. The Georgia High School Fencing League (GHSFL) was founded in 2004 and currently numbers eleven schools and over 300 fencers. School clubs hold their own practices and come together once a month during the season to fence other member schools in épée (the most popular of the three fencing weapons). Additionally, the On Guard High School Fencing League of Georgia was created to allow
students to fence all three weapons (épée, foil and sabre). This league, formed in 2010, currently numbers seven schools and over 80 fencers.
Here in East Cobb, two high schools have fencing clubs that currently compete successfully in GHSFL tournaments, Pope High School (43 members) coached by David Eichler and Lassiter High School (25 members) coached by Andrew Quattrociocchi. They compete against each other and the following GHSFL high school clubs: Alpharetta, Centennial, Chattahoochee, Dunwoody, Johns Creek, Milton, North Springs, Northview, and Roswell.
This season’s GHSFL tournaments started in September 2011 and will end February 2012 with the championship tournaments. The Individual Championship for the 2011-12 season will be on February 4th at Northview High School. For both genders, the 84 highest ranked fencers who have also competed in at least three tournaments this season will qualify for the championship. The Team Championship for the 2011-12 season will be on February 11th at Chattahoochee High School. For each sex, the four schools with the most points will qualify for the championship. The final team ranking for the season will be the place earned in the Team Championship.
As of January 8, 2012, Pope High School as a combined team was ranked 2nd in the league with the women ranked 3rd and the men ranked 3rd. Lassiter High School as a combined team was ranked 9th with the women ranked 6th and the men ranked 10th.
In addition to the GHSFL tournaments five Pope fencers took part in the Georgia Division Qualifier for the Junior Olympics. Pope High school students, Christi Nakajima and Katie Van Riper, both qualified to participate in the 2012 Junior Olympics Fencing Championships being held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 18-20, President’s Day weekend. If you have never been a spectator at a fencing tournament you are missing out on a truly exciting sport. Modern fencing brings together yesterday’s traditions of discipline, respect, and honor with the fast-paced athletics of sports today.
Find the tournament schedules for our local East Cobb high schools at www.popefencing.org or other Georgia fencing events at www.askfred.net.
(Reprinted from the February 2012 issue of EAST COBBER. Written by Shawn DeMario. DeMario has lived in East Cobb for 17 years. She lives in the Walden subdivision with her husband, Matt, and three daughters: Emily, a senior at Pope High School; Anna, a sophomore at Pope High School; and Cameron, a seventh-grader at Hightower Trail Middle School, as well as “Fuzzhead,” their 11-year-old cat. Anna is a member of the Pope High School Fencing Club.)
There will be no 2012 season for the Atlanta Beat. Whether there is another Women’s Professional Soccer season is still to be determined.
WPS suspended the 2012 regular season on Monday, with the hope of making a return in 2013.
A disappointed owner and general manager Fitz Johnson said he appreciated all of the support the Kennesaw, Cobb County and Atlanta area communities have given his team the last two seasons. Johnson promises he is making every effort to bring back the Beat in 2013.
“I want to thank all of the fans, the sponsors and the Beat staff for their work over the past two years,” he said.
The loss of a full season is not only damaging to a franchise but also to the Kennesaw business community and Kennesaw State University — where the Beat play in the 8,300-seat KSU Soccer Stadium. And despite only winning six games in two years, the Beat had a growing fan base.
In a statement from Arlethia Perry-Johnson, vice president for external affairs at KSU, the school is disappointed with the loss of the Beat, but expects to move on.
“We are disappointed for the Atlanta Beat and the league, and think it is premature for us to have any other specific comments at this time about (Monday’s) news in that regard. However, we foresee no negative impact on the university, as the KSU Stadium and the sports park are used for many different activities.”
With regards to the five-year stadium lease between the Atlanta Beat and the university, Johnson said no action was taken Monday, but further talks were on the way.
“We haven’t gotten into it,” he said. “but I have a very good relationship with them. We’ll get together next week and figure out what we may do the spring. We don’t have a plan. We’re able to work together to try to fill the void.”
He did say that lack of revenue from the games means Beat employees will be furloughed this year.
With the league setting its sights on 2013, its next priority is fixing the things that have already made 2012 go awry.
Over the last 12 months, WPS has had a legal battle with a former magicJack owner Dan Borislow. WPS CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan said it was best that the league suspend play in order to focus on those legal issues.
“It’s certainly been a culmination of issues financially, having the wherewithal to move ahead this season,” O’Sullivan said during a league conference call. “It certainly would have been irresponsible this season to deal both with putting on a season and with the legal issue if we found ourselves at a point unable to move forward this season.
“Ownership feels that once and for all, this has to be something that is resolved … When you talk about an owner that does not have regards for league authority, speaks disparagingly toward media, sponsors and is detrimental to league business, those are things that are difficult to move past, which in this case it was. It was difficult to overcome that. The owners have really tried to come to resolution several times on these issues and were unable to.”
Over the course of the ‘11 season, the WPS and Borislow fought over various league rules and policies including not having a team website, playing in a stadium with a seating capacity of 1,500 instead of the U.S. Soccer-mandated 5,000, failure to market the team and disagreements in how to handle national sponsors.
Borislow was also cited in a grievance by the WPS players union for violations of the Standard Player Contract Provision, the FIFA Code of Ethics, WPS Media Policy and U.S. Soccer coaching requirements.
As a result, the WPS’ Board of Governors elected to terminate Borislow’s franchise on Oct. 27, 2011. Since then, Borislow filed a court injunction in the Palm Beach County, Fla. Court circuit to reinstate the team into WPS due to the league violating its own procedures for due process.
Palm Beach Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser ruled Jan. 9, that the league could not terminate Borislow’s franchise without following its own procedures. According to O’Sullivan, Sasser is expected to make a final ruling in a hearing on Wednesday as to a course of action.
On Jan. 18, in order to avoid further litigation, Borislow and the WPS agreed to an exhibition schedule with his magicJack team and the league for 2012 and 2013. Ultimately, according to a statement from the WPS, this was not acceptable to the league’s owners and was the reason for the league’s suspension of play in 2012.
Although the league pointed toward its litigation with Borislow as the reason for suspending its season, he responded to vasoccernews.com with his own statement.
“I still expect the WPS to live up to their agreement they made with us and recorded with the Judge (Sasser) a few weeks ago,” he said to the website. “I was also under the impression that Pat Fulmer, (the WPS’) lawyer, was donating her time or making a contribution to offset any legal expenses of the league.
“If the league follows through with our deal, I can’t imagine why there would be legal expenses. I hope to still put a team together but have to see what happens with a residency camp. magicJack stays committed to helping the U.S. add another Gold medal to it’s inventory. We will do practically anything to help the women achieve this.”
Moving forward, two teams – Boston and Western New York – have already announced via press release and Twitter that they are actively pursuing joining a semi-pro league, either the United Soccer League’s W-League or the Women’s Premier Soccer League.
When asked if the Beat is looking toward similar venues for 2012, Johnson, “We’re going to evaluate that. We do have some time. It’s so new that we need a chance to collect ourselves. We would not need a current roster that we have in place to move into WPSL or the W-League to see if that’s the direction we moved in.”
(Reprinted from the MDJ, January 31, 2012. Written by William Bretherton)
Alli Crenshaw and the Lassiter girls continued their control of the Cobb County Championships, but they only managed it by a 19.5-point cushion on heated rival Walton. MDJ staff file photo
Turnover is inevitable, but the Lassiter girls keep finding ways to get it done.
The Lady Trojans answered any questions that remained about their chances of winning their 12th Cobb County Championship in the last 13 years, despite losing their three best swimmers to graduation.
With depth its biggest asset, Lassiter survived Walton by winning the county meet Saturday with a score of 542 points, though the Lady Raiders were right behind them with 522.5 points. Kennesaw Mountain took third with 374 points, followed by Harrison (288) and Pope (268).
With Lassiter winning by a slim margin and needing all the points it could get, two swimmers emerged — Jordan Drake and Micaela Janco.
Not many expected Drake to win the 100-yard freestyle and 100 breaststroke. And Janco clinching the 50 freestyle was an upset, even by her standards.
“Those are two girls that jumped way out there,” Lassiter coach Glenn Meeden said. “And Jordan, oh my God!”
Drake was engaged in a tight race against Kennesaw Mountain’s Melissa Postoll in the 100 freestyle, and it appeared that Postoll’s head was in front at the finish. But it was Drake’s hand that touched first, clocking in at 52.25 seconds — just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Postoll.
Drake went on to beat Kennesaw Mountain’s Morgan Stephenson by nearly a second in the breaststroke, winning with an all-American time of 1:06.13.
Arguably the most impressive win for Lassiter was that of Janco, who only had the fourth-best time in the Friday’s preliminary behind Walton’s Charlotte Holz, North Cobb’s Julie Storch and Lassiter’s Ali Ramirez. But a strong start and a fast turn was all Janco needed to best all three of them Saturday with a time of 25.21.
“I wasn’t expecting to win that,” Janco said. “I just went out there, put my head down and gave it my all.”
Lassiter only won one relay — the 200 freestyle (1:39.84) — but it outscored Walton in all three. The Lady Trojans took second in the medley and 400 freestyle to Kennesaw Mountain, with Walton finishing third in both. In the 200 freestyle, Lassiter beat Walton by 17 hundredths of the second.
Nicole Prendes and Alli Crenshaw took third and fourth in the 200 freestyle, and Prendes’ second-place finish in the 100 backstroke was also another boost for Lassiter, as was Sarah Williford’s third-place finish in the 500 freestyle.
The highly anticipated 500 freestyle final between Harrison’s Madison Jacobi and Kennesaw Mountain’s Rebecca Postoll ended in favor of the latter. The Lady Mustangs freshman kicked early to take the lead after four turns, and her lead grew to a body’s length in the final 100 yards. She won in 4:51.07, besting Jacobi’s 4:55.15.
Jacobi did take the 200 freestyle with an all-American time of 1:52. Rebecca Postoll won the 200 individual medley (2:04.98) and Allatoona’s Aja Malone won the 100 butterfly with an all-American time of 56.29.
Melissa Postoll bounced back from her loss to Drake in the 100 freestyle to win the 100 backstroke in 58.06. She was also on Kennesaw Mountain’s 400 freestyle relay team — alongside Rebecca Postoll, Stephenson and Savannah Long — which won the 400 freestyle relay in an all-American time of 3:32.97.
The Walton boys won the Cobb County Championships for the second time in three years Saturday night at Mountain View Aquatic Center, but they did so very quietly.
Based on the success Lassiter’s swimmers were having in the individual events, and two of the three relays, Walton’s final team score was 69 points higher than the Trojans’.
Walton won the meet with 540 points, keeping Lassiter (471) at bay. Pope (348) was third, followed by Kennesaw Mountain (285) and Marietta (244).
Lassiter seemed to be the obvious favorite, based on the consistent success it was having.
Jimmy Yoder won the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle, setting meet records and all-American times of 1 minute, 39.33 seconds and 4:29.91, respectively. Zach Bunner also set a meet record in winning the 100 backstroke (50.73) and added another win in the 100 butterfly (50.95).
Lassiter added points by edging Pope to win the 200 freestyle relay (1:27.32) and it set a new meet record in winning the 400 freestyle relay (3:10.89).
Yet, Walton was still able to beat the Trojans by a safe distance.
David Sanchez’s win in Thursday’s diving competition, with an all-American score of 320, had a lot to do with the Raiders’ championship, and Walton opening Saturday’s finals with a win in the 200 medley relay also helped.
But the deciding factor was Walton having three swimmers in the top heat of both the 100 backstroke and the 100 breaststroke. Lassiter just had one.
“In the breaststroke, we had 64 points and (Lassiter) had 23. That’s what separated us,” Walton coach Sharon Loughran said. “Lassiter was winning races and we were hanging in there.”
The 200 medley relay, which started the final day, set the tone for Walton. The final leg of the medley, which was the freestyle, came down to the Raiders and Kennesaw Mountain. Davis Beauchamp outlasted Kennesaw Mountain’s Sam Schreer to win the race in 1:40.25.
“That was huge,” Beauchamp said. “It gave us a big boost to finish the meet. It also helped us get pumped up.”
Nathan Hufnagel also had a solid meet for the Raiders. He took second in the 200 individual medley (1:58.21) behind Marietta’s Sam Horvath (1:57.98). Hufnagel was also second in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.80) to Hillgrove’s Chris Lohff (1:00.53).
Walton and Lassiter were trading leads until the Raiders used their advantage to their advantage in both the backstroke and breaststroke.
The Raiders outscored Lassiter in the backstroke by having Jacob Williams, Campbell James and David Dingess place sixth, seventh and eighth. Walton added breaststroke points when Kelly took seventh, Ethan Pu placed 10th and Mark Walleshauser won the consolation heat.
Walton’s second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay was then enough to hold its lead.
“They just had more bodies,” Lassiter coach Glenn Meeden said. “That did it.”
Wheeler’s Sean Sloat was a two-time individual winner in both sprint freestyles. He set a new all-American time in the 50 freestyle (21.10) and won the 100 freestyle (47.10).
(Reprinted from the MDJ, January 29, 2012. Written by Adam Carrington)
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