The holiday tournaments continued last week and Fayette County’s boys improved to 8-4 on the season with wins over Luella and McIntosh in the Luella tournament. The Tigers defeated Luella 74-44 and got 24 points from Noel Johnson, 15 points, six assists and three steals from Brandon Boykin and 11 points and 20 rebounds from Derrick Walker. Quincy Carruthers also scored 11 points. In their 70-55 win over the Chiefs, Johnson scored 20 points and Boykin scored nine points, pulled in 10 rebounds and added seven assists and five steals, while Walker scored 16 points, Carruthers added 12 points and Terrance Turner scored 10 points and pulled in 11 rebounds.

The McIntosh Lady Chiefs basketball team is playing some great basketball this year and Coach David Dowse is hoping to see it continue into 2007. The team is 8-2, 4-2 in the region, and they recently won the Hwy. 78 Christmas tournament. The Lady Chiefs opened with a 66-51 win over Temple with Elyse Chubb leading the way with 23 points. Erin Justice added 18 points and Olivia Brasch chipped in 14. They followed that win with a 48-40 win over Lamar County. Chubb scored 18 points and Justice added 11 in the victory. In the championship game against Villa Rica, McIntosh won 48-45. Alex Smith was the Lady Chiefs’ leading scorer with 12 points while Justice added 11 and Chubb added 10.

Winter 2005-2006
• Male Basketball MVP - Channing Welch, Fayette County

Reader votes - Mike “Buck” Caldwell, Our Lady of Mercy, Kenny Reap, McIntosh

The Best of 2006 poll didn’t go exactly as planned. The Best of 2005 poll didn’t either, for that matter, but I trudged along anyway. What I had hoped was that my e-mail would light up with passionate pleas and heart-felt reasonable arguments for athletes to be recognized, but instead I got a few e-mails from some people who really tried to do the poll and the athletes justice and then a bunch of responses voting for a few categories or one or two people in particular. I guess the local high school sports scene is too vast for people to respond to all of the categories in a poll.

This week’s basketball schedule is fairly light as most teams finished their finals and went on the holiday break. A few teams played in Christmas tournaments this week and several more will play in tournaments next week.

The McIntosh Wrestlers traveled to Cobb County on Saturday to compete in the Falcon Duals Tournament held at Pebblebrook High School and came home with a second place Trophy. The Chiefs won their matches against Hill Grove 63-15, Pebblebrook 60-24 and Douglas County 63-18. McIntosh lost in the championship match to Lovett 30-47.

The Booth wrestling team traveled to Fayetteville last Friday and convincingly swept a duals meet against Flat Rock 63 – 36 and Fayette Middle School 60 – 32. The Warriors win against Flat Rock avenged and early season loss to the Eagles.

FCYSL U-10 Angels topped off a perfect regular season by winning the Kohl’s American Cup on Nov.

A lot of people will make New Year’s resolutions to get fit in 2007, but how many will follow through?

Carla Allen, owner of Fit 4 A New Life Fitness, is hoping a lot of women in Fayette County will follow through and she is planning on helping them with a Weight Loss Challenge.

Fayette County’s boys are 5-3 and the girls are 4-4. Their game last week with Northgate was rescheduled to Jan. 6 at home beginning with the girls game at 6 p.m. The boys will play in the Pro Player Classic in Griffin tomorrow and Friday. Their opening round opponent is North Clayton tomorrow at 8:15 p.m. The boys and girls are both scheduled to play in the Luella Classic on Dec. 28 and 29.

The Whitewater High School Varsity Baseball team recently held their third annual Baseball Santa.

On Saturday, Dec. 2, Tsunami Volleyball Inc., a non-profit girls’ Junior Olympic volleyball club based on the south side of Atlanta, teamed with the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities (AADD) to bring some holiday warmth and cheer to those in need. Over 50 players, coaches, and parents of the Tsunami family donated hundreds of bags of new and used clothing to the annual AADD clothing drive.

Santa is not the only one coming to town!
Get active with PTC Recreation Department as they switch to a new, improved registration system, Active.net!

As the end of the year approaches, it is time for one to reflect on all that one has experienced in the past year. This typically results in a “Best of” column and this year, The Citizen is seeking your input.

The National Soccer Coaches Association of America and adidas recently congratulated former Fayette County Lady Tiger soccer player Staci Pugh for her selection to the All South region team for 2006.

Tuesday night saw several teams square off against region opponents and many of the games saw the teams split.

Starr’s Mill’s boys and girls split with Creekside. The Lady Panthers (4-5) got their second win in a row as they defeated the Lady Seminoles 45-42. They defeated Eagle’s Landing 59-35 on Saturday. Marie Jubb and Chesley Savage each had nine points against Eagle’s Landing and Alexis Shaffer and Catherine Sanders each scored 10 against Creekside. The Lady Panthers never trailed in either game and every member of the team scored against Eagle’s Landing.

Wrestlers from East Coweta High School and Northgate have performed very well over the last week. Seven wrestlers from those two schools placed at the South Metro Invitational last weekend and nine of them won county titles at this week’s Coweta County Duals Championships.

The Starr’s Mill Panther’s men and women swim teams defeated Woodward Academy Thursday at Woodward. “This is a big win for us, we’ve never beat these guys before and it was something the seniors really wanted to do” Said Coach Joyce Larson.

The championship 18U game was decided by a difference of only one goal. The Highlanders won 2-1 over the Blue Aztec Mountain Gods. Ty Taylor scored a goal and had an assist and Steven Beardsell scored one goal. Austin Bingham also scored one goal and Zack Ward had one assist. Taylor also scored the winning goal the day before in the semi-final game during a shoot-out. The Highlanders took 16 shots on Doke Massa and the Blue Aztec Mountain Gods took 13 shots on Alex Gordon. Congratulations to Alex Brilliant for winning the President’s Cup Award and Ryan Routh for winning the Gretzky Award (most assists - 11). Alex Gordon took home the Williams Body Works Goalie Award with a save percentage of 88.61%. Regular season standings: 1st – Blue Aztec Mountain Gods, 2nd - Highlanders; point leaders - Beardsell, Routh and Cody Hammock.

Chelsea Stephens, Lauren Cartwright, Nicole Roddenbery, and Lauren Scott of Peachtree City’s Southern Crescent Aquatic Team became the fastest 200 Medley Relay in Georgia history on Dec. 8 at the Georgia State Senior Championships held at the Georgia Tech Olympic Pool.

On a cold weekend, people were glad to be indoors watching high school basketball and the results for local teams were mixed.

McIntosh hosted the South Metro Invitational wrestling tournament last Friday and Saturday and wrestlers from local teams did well. Place winners from the Fayette County area high schools were:

The Citizen was chronicling the week to week progress of our former athletes now playing college football but space began to run short and illness and vacations played havoc on the updates.

The Peachtree City Youth Soccer Association will open registration for the 2007 spring season soon.
Recreation players will be able to register online beginning Monday, Dec. 18. Select players will be required to attend one of the following registration sessions to be held at Kedron Fieldhouse and Aquatic Center. Registration will take place on Saturday, Dec. 16 from 9-11 a.m., Tuesday, Dec.19 from 6:30-8:30 p.m, Tuesday, Jan. 2 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 6 from 9-11 a.m.

McIntosh High School will be the site for one of the season’s largest and most competitive wrestling tournaments in the Atlanta Metro Area. Thirty-one teams from the South Atlanta Metro area will be competing in the South Metro Tournament starting today at 5 p.m. and continuing on through Saturday. Area teams competing include McIntosh, Starr’s Mill, Sandy Creek, Fayette County, East Coweta, Newnan, Northgate, Whitewater and Woodward.

Tuesday night is always a great night for basketball and this Tuesday was no exception. Perhaps the best games, and the most significant, were the matches between McIntosh and Whitewater.

Two local volleyball players, both juniors, made the All-State volleyball team: Starr’s Mill’s Mary Chaudoin and McIntosh’s Leigh Moyer.

The Southern Crescent Aquatic Team celebrate their Georgia Senior State Championship qualifiers that will be competing at the Georgia Tech Olympic Pool December 8-10.

The final All-American awards for the fall season were announced on Tuesday. Led by first team All-American Nicole Degner, Berry had earned 14 All-American awards during the fall season.