| By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com The local soccer teams finished up their regular season over the weekend. For most of the teams the final games served as a tuneup for the playoffs, but for Sandy Creek’s boys and girls it was a chance to end the season on a high note during their senior night games. Unfortunately, Northgate spoiled it for both the boys and girls. When Darrell Evans started his last job as head coach for the boys basketball team at Spalding High School, his mission was to build a successful program at the fledgling school. Now, four years later, Spalding is well on its way to becoming a force to be reckoned with and Evans felt it was time to move on. The Southern Crescent Lightning, Peachtree City’s new minor league professional men’s basketball team, will take the court at Starr’s Mill High School Friday night for their first game of the season. The game will come five days after their first practice, but head coach and general manager Litterial Green is confident that his team will be ready to play and will be highly competitive in what he thinks will be a very tough league. When a new school is trying to establish their athletic programs, coaches are looking for solid efforts from their players and signs of encouragement in practice and in games. A coach looks for moments to build on and hopes that by the end of the inaugural season there are more and more of those moments coming. Coach Shane Pulliam saw plenty of those moments throught Whitewater High School’s first soccer season as the team exceeded expectations and finished 11-3-2. When you enter the Southside Gym, home of Sebastian-Weiss Boxing, there is a sign that reads, “Welcome to our humble house of pain.” When Fayette County and McIntosh met earlier this season, fans felt like they’d lose their fingers to frostbite. At last Friday’s game, in much balmier weather, fans kept their hands busy with lots of clapping, even into extra innings. The Southern Crescent Lightning, the new World Basketball Association minor league team based in Peachtree City, is hosting auditions for team mascot and National Anthem singers today from 2-8 p.m. at the Sleep Inn Hotel in Peachtree City. Auditions for the mascot are open to males and females ages 16 and older, while auditions for National Anthem performers are open to all ages. Clayton College & State University runner Heather Krehbiel, a graduate of Starr’s Mill High, set another CCSU record last week in the Samford Twilight Invitational meet in Birmingham. | 