Graylin Ward became the first SouthSide Pioneers athlete to compete at a third consecutive national championship meet in the team’s five-year history. Ward, a freshman at Northgate High School, took fourth in the nation with a mark of 5’7’ in the Youth Boys High Jump competition at the USA Track & Field Youth National Junior Olympics Championships held July 31 at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD.
Ward will be this year’s recipient of the team’s 2006 Athlete of the Year Award.

Joy Ferrell, a senior at Westminster High School, took seventh in the nation in the Intermediate Girls Javelin Throw (102’ 10”), 12th in the Heptathlon (3589 pts.), and 22nd in the Triple Jump (34’) at the 2006 AAU Junior Olympis National Championships at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA. Her brother Joshua, a Sub-Youth contender out of Pathway Christian School, took 14th in the nation in the Javelin Throw (83- 9”), 17th in the Triple Jump (31’ 4.5”), 20th in the Outdoor Pentathlon (1502 pts.), and 23rd in the High Jump (4’6”).

Other competitors at this event were the Bantam Boys 4x100M Relay team (Kobie Lain, Khari Lain, Jovonte Lain, and Jamal from Burch Elementary School). Kobie Lain also competed in the Bantam Boys 800M run. The Intermediate Boys 4x400M Relay team also competed with Jonathan Ross from Sandy Creek High School, who posted a personal best split time of 54 seconds, Theo Echols (Starr’s Mill High School), Thomas Frierson (Whitewater High School), and David Mathis from Sandy Creek. Terrell Tripp (Starr’s Mill), who played an integral part in getting the team to the national qualifiers as the alternate for Mathis who was injured throughout the regular season, also accompanied the team. Mathis was honored by Tripp’s sportsmanship.

The SouthSide Pioneers AAU team participants were sponsored in part by Realtors Danny Brown (Atlanta’s Best Realty), Danielle Mathis (Coldwell Banker Bullard Realty), Michael and Sharon DeHaven of Tyrone, and John and Pat Ross of Fairburn. Brown and will receive this year’s Community Partnership Awards from the team at its Awards Banquet on Saturday, Sept. 23.
The SouthSide Pioneers Track & Field Club seek volunteer coaches for next year’s summer season who be able to accompany them to the 2007 State Games of America at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO and to the 2007 Youth Peace Games in Africa next summer.

Sponsorships are welcome and inquiries can be directed to: sspioneers@netzero.com or FCTA, Inc. P.O. Box 1207 Fayetteville, GA 30214.

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