The World Basketball Association will hold its Free Agent League Tryouts on March 24-25 at Life University in Marietta, Georgia. This camp will be conducted in order to give free agents an opportunity to be exposed to the 14 teams in the WBA. There will be a Free Agent Selection Draft held directly after the camp. The registration fee is $150 (before Feb. 28 and the fee must accompany registration form. Late registration is $175 and the walk-up fee is $200.

The 18th annual Fayette County Chamber of Commerce golf tournament is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29. Registration and lunch is at 10:45 a.m. and the shotgun start is at 11:45 a.m. Dinner and awards presentations will be held immediately after the tournament. The entry fee for the four person/ Ft. Lauderdale tournament is $125 and includes cart, green fees, lunch, range balls and dinner. Mulligans are two for $15. Phone 770-461-9983 or visit www.FayetteChamber.org.

Pepsi Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run (PHR) is the official skills competition of Major League Baseball. PHR is a great way for youth organizations nationwide to put their town on the map and allow children in their community the opportunity to compete at a Major League Ballpark. Organizations interested in hosting a local competition may visit www.mlb.com/phr or call 770-641-7415.

The Landmark Christian School Lady War Eagles won the region 5-A title on Saturday night by defeating Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy 41-40. The win gives Landmark a home game against Trion to open the Class A tournament next Saturday.

Friday night saw mixed results for the local basketball teams. Landmark Christian and Sandy Creek’s girls both won to put themselves in their respective region championship games, while Fayette County’s boys picked up a win over Mundy’s Mill to snap up the third seed from region 4-AAAAA. In other games, the Starr’s Mill’s boys and girls and Sandy Creek’s boys lost.

The Sandy Creek Patriots (12-14) needed a win over Lithia Springs on Thursday afternoon to guarantee a return trip to the AAAA state playoffs.

The state wrestling tournaments started yesterday at the Arena at the Gwinnett Center.

Local schools will be represented in their respective classifications. Starr’s Mill has 12 wrestlers in the AAAAA tournament, while Fayette County has seven and East Coweta has nine. In the AAAA tournament, McIntosh will have four wrestlers competing, while Whitewater will have seven and Sandy Creek and Northgate will each have six. Landmark Christian will have three wrestlers in the Class A tournament and Our Lady of Mercy has one.

The McIntosh High School men’s and women’s swim teams finished in the top tier at the Metro Atlanta Swim and Dive Meet at Westminster High School Saturday. For the women, who finished 13th out of 52 schools, junior Nicole Roddenberry took second in the 200 individual medley and fifth in the 100 breaststroke. They also just missed the finals with an 11th place finish in the 400 freestyle relay with Roddenberry, junior Rose Tortora, sophomore Keaton Hannon and freshman Ariane Leblond.

The Panthers have 12 wrestlers in the state tournament, five of whom brought home the gold as area champs.

The Fayette County High School varsity basketball team had a 23-1 record heading into tonight's match against Starr's Mill. Tonight, they added one more loss to that record and now know that they will open the AAAAA state tournament on the road next week.

The Starr’s Mill Lady Panther varsity basketball team will return to the AAAAA state tournament for the second straight year. They picked up a 49-44 win over Mundy’s Mill on Tuesday afternoon to claim one of the final four spots in the region 4-AAAAA tournament. Alexis Shaffer led the team in scoring with 21 points. The win puts Starr’s Mill in a game against Newnan on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The winner of that game will host a state playoff game the following week. The Lady Panthers have lost to Newnan twice this season, once by 19 points and once by 10 points.

The Fayette County (23-1) and Starr’s Mill (12-14) varsity boys basketball teams have battled on the court twice this year and the Tigers, ranked fifth in AAAAA, have had the edge, winning both games by six points.

The regular season of the high school basketball season ended over the weekend and the post-season, in the form of region basketball tournaments, has begun.

Fayette Biking for Life (FBL) is hosting an open meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Fayette County Public Library in Fayetteville and encourages all to attend.

If you think that you are one of South Metro’s best lax players, try out to become a member of the only select lacrosse team in south Metro Atlanta.

• Fayetteville’s Josh Blackman, a junior at the United States Naval Academy and member of the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Team, won the rings at the James Madison Invitational over the weekend with a season high score of 9.35. He is ranked sixth nationally on the rings.

The third time was the charm for the Starr’s Mill varsity boys basketball team. They defeated Lovejoy, a team that had defeated Starr's Mill twice this season, 60-53 in the first round of the region 4-AAAAA tournament, earning them a spot in the AAAAA state tournament next week. The Panthers trailed 16-7 at the end of the first quarter but went on a 19-2 run in the second quarter and held Lovejoy to 10 total points in the second and third quarter. Mark Harris led the team in scoring with 28 points, while Spencer Shelton added 11.

Monday, Feb. 6
Region 5-A girls - Our Lady of Mercy High School
• Our Lady of Mercy vs. Greenforest Christian, 5:30 p.m.

The regular season of the high school basketball season ended over the weekend and the post-season, in the form of region basketball tournaments, has begun.

Starr’s Mill placed second in the area 4-AAAAA wrestling tournament over the weekend. The Panthers scored 204 total points, finishing behind Union Grove’s 219 but ahead of Fayette County’s 115.

Five seniors from Sandy Creek’s football team signed letters of intent on National Signing Day this past Wednesday. Head coach Chip Walker stated that the scholarships that the five young men signed on Wednesday totaled close to $500,000.

Landmark Christian School senior Zechariah Glaize has received an academic scholarship and signed a letter of intent to play football for Dartmouth College. Glaize was a first team All-Region in both 2004 and 2005.

Meghann Pinter of Landmark Christian School signed a letter of intent this week to play golf for the Bulldogs of Concordia University in Nebraska.

The Starr’s Mill boys and girls swim team combined to capture their sixth straight county swimming championship.

Season ends this weekend, tournaments start on Monday

The only thing that can make a win over a rival any better is if it is done in a close game. On Tuesday night, McIntosh’s boys edged out Sandy Creek, which vaulted the Chiefs over the Patriots in the sub-region standings, while Our Lady of Mercy’s boys picked up their first ever win over Landmark Christian School, setting up a tie in the sub region between the two teams.

In the Bowdon Invitational, Northgate placed fifth overall and had four weight class champions in the tournament. The champs were Paul Sanford (119), Josh Crager (125), Brandon Jordan (130) and Drew Garner (275). Scott Ricker (145) placed second.

Starr’s Mill High School had seven soccer players sign letters of intent on Wednesday afternoon.

A number of local athletes got in on the act on National Signing Day, which took place this past Wednesday. It was the first day that athletes could sign letters of intent to accept a scholarship from a university to play a sport there.

Nine boys and girls from Peachtree City, ages 10 to 14, were named local champions of the 2006 Knights of Columbus Free Throw Championship and have earned the right to compete at the district level. Council 8081 in Peachtree City sponsored the local competition at McInstosh High School. All youngsters ages 10 to 14 were eligible to participate.

The McIntosh High School JV Wrestling Team celebrated the end of a strong season by capturing the second place trophy at the Alexander JV Duals this past weekend. Paulding High School won the tournament with Whitewater taking third.