The college football season has started and a number of former Fayette athletes represented themselves well on the football field.

Friday night’s match-ups:

East Coweta Indians @ Buford Wolves, 7:30 p.m.
East Coweta is coming off a 7-5 season. They made the state playoffs last year but lost in the second round to Stephenson. They have 13 seniors on the team this year, all expected to lead their teammates and show them what Indian football is all about and the 26 juniors, who will gain a lot of experience this season, are eager to learn.

The 2006 Peachtree City Triathlon was held last Saturday and many consider it the best event in the race’s history.

Sharpsburg’s Natalie Pluskota recently competed in the National Hard Courts tennis tournament in San Diego, Calif. She was unseeded entering the tournament and ranked 125th. Her performance in the tournament boosted her to a ranking of 83rd in the nation.

The weather has played a bit of havoc with the high school softball schedule but some local teams have been able to get in some region games recently.

The volleyball season is still in its early phases, but team’s are starting to show their mettle.

East Coweta has produced wins over Central, Carroll, Lithia Springs, North Cobb and Hiram. The Lady Indians lost to Holy Innocents on Tuesday night, 25-16, 25-10 and played at Lagrange last night after the paper went to press.

Gym South Gymnastics and Cheerleading in Fayetteville is hosting a National Gymnastics Day fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network on Sept. 9, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. There will be performances by the Atlanta Cheer Force, Gym South’s competition cheerleading team, and Fayette County High School cheerleaders. There will also be demonstrations by the Gym South boys and girls gymnastics teams.

Starr’s Mill ran at the Walton Stage Races at Gainesville College last weekend and both the boys and girls placed ninth. There were 21 teams in the girls varsity division and 27 in the varsity boys division.

The south side of Atlanta now has a state of the art, indoor, year-round swim and dive facility appropriately named the Steve Lundquist Aquatic Center and conveniently located off Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro, Ga.

Steve Brown’s Picks:

Fayette County vs. Mt. Zion, Jonesboro
Fayette County will grind them up into little football sausages!

The Fayette County Tigers, led by head coach Tommy Webb, are excited about the 2006 season and the team and their fans have expectations on improving on some recent disappointing seasons.

McIntosh High School has a new head coach, Dwight Jones, but the question on the mind of every fan of the Chiefs is, will the results be any different?

Starr’s Mill is arguably the most successful team in the region. In fact, little argument could be made to dispute that. The team has been in contention for region titles almost every year and won them in 2002, 2004 and 2005, giving them entry into the state playoffs.

It will never be this good again for the Whitewater football program.

Sandy Creek made the AAAA playoffs the past four years. That won’t happen this year, mainly because the Patriots have dropped to Class AAA.

Last season ended way too early for the players and coaching staff at Landmark Christian School. Though they won their fourth region title in a row, the War Eagles were upset by Temple in the first round of the state playoffs with a heart-breaking loss in the final moments of the game.

The Our Lady of Mercy football team is on their third head coach in the last three years, which means the team’s upperclassmen, despite having good coaches, haven’t had any consistency during their football careers. Bryan Pinabell, a former defensive coordinator at St. Pius, is looking to establish a winning tradition at the school and the upperclassmen will play a large part in helping him achieve that goal.

There will be a meeting tomorrow night, Aug. 30 at 7:30 pm at Reality Climbing for all interested climbers and parents who would like to hear more about the upcoming season for their climbing team.

Call Friday night’s games what you wish, scrimmages, jamborees, practice games, it’s still football and the excitement around many of the local schools is palpable. The regular season gets underway next week but these games will serve as introduction to the 2006 teams and an indicator on what a team’s strengths are and what they have to work on.

Run Fit Sports in Peachtree City will welcome Peachtree City resident Scott Ludwig, his training partner Al Barker and Paula May, his crew chief during the 2003 Badwater Ultramarathon, to a clinic on ultra-running on Saturday, Aug. 26.

Due to conflicting scheduling the Starr’s Mill Panther Prowl will be rescheduled from Saturday, August 26, to a future date in the fall to be announced in the next few days.

This Peachtree City team, Adlington-Peachtree City, won the Georgia State Championship in 7.0 Mixed Doubles this past weekend in Augusta, Ga and are headed for the sectionals in Cary NC in October 2006.

The 2006 cross country season gets started this weekend with the Early Bird Invitational and the Gainesville College Stage Races. As the first official races of the year, fans will get a sense of where local runners and their teams will stand. This should be a very competitive season in the county, region and state and teams from Fayette County should be contending for the top spot in races throughout the year.

The high school softball season got underway last week and things have gone well for some teams and not as well for others.

Martial Arts America/East West Karate with their three locations in Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Newnan are offering a free “20 Ways To Show Respect To Your Teacher Workshop” for children ages 4 and older.

• Georgia Tech wide receiver and Sandy Creek graduate Calvin Johnson is one of 35 players named to the preseason watch list for 2006 Walter Camp Player of the Year award, announced Friday by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. The Walter Camp Player of the Year award is nation’s fourth-oldest individual college football accolade.

The county has made a name for itself as a volleyball power with Starr’s Mill and Landmark Christian each with state titles in their trophy cases and teams like McIntosh, Sandy Creek and Fayette County making the state playoffs and being tough opponents throughout the season. But what will happen when Starr’s Mill, McIntosh and Fayette County are all in the same region and their opponents in the season include reigning state champion Woodward Academy and teams such as Sandy Creek and Landmark Christian? One thing is for sure, you’ll have a compelling season with great games happening nearly every week and you can also bet that the area tournament will be excellent as well.

In recent years, the high schools in Fayette County have fielded very competitive softball teams. Fayette County won the state title in 2002 and Starr’s Mill has gone deep in the playoffs twice since then. Last year, Fayette County, Starr’s Mill and Whitewater all made the state playoffs and this year, all three teams are in the same region, along with very tough Northgate and McIntosh teams.

• Georgia’s top ranked AAU Intermediate Girls 4x800 relay team, which consists of Michelle Stegall (Starrs Mill), Jada Berry (Fayette County), Kiana Courtney(Sandy Creek), and Kia Andrews (Whitewater), brought medals back from the 2006 AAU Junior Olympics, held in Norfolk, VA.

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.