Monday, January 30, 2012

Updates

Varsity Wrestling – Wrestling coach Justin Cordell said today that OC will be competing in Elberton on Friday and Saturday, February 3rd and 4th instead of Jefferson as the schedule indicates.  The Area Duels, to be held at The Inferno, will determine who goes to the sectionals. 
In an effort to get his team ready, the Patriot wrestlers competed at Clarke Central this past weekend.  Although OC didn’t do all that well against the AAAA schools, Coach Cordell was pleased nonetheless.  “What I wanted to do was get them primed for this weekend.  We’re going to need a good effort from everyone to advance to the sectionals.  But we can do it if everyone does well,” said Cordell.
Baseball – Today was the first day of official GHSA sanctioned baseball practice.  Coaches Bramlett and Clifton had both the varsity and JV teams on the field for tryouts.  The day was absolutely beautiful, the temperature was around 65 with a light breeze, and the sun was bright with no clouds.  The field looked good from the parking lot behind the gym and the kids were making good use of the facility.  The season will start soon and there are high hopes for success. 

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Varsity Basketball

Girls Varsity Basketball – It was Senior Night at OC Friday night, but that didn’t stop the Jackson County Lady Panthers defeating the Lady Patriots 75-26.
OC takes a time out.
        Seniors Kristen Baker, Aubry Fearnow and Taylor McDaniel were honored with plaques, goodie bags, flowers and balloons before the start of the game Friday night.  Considering the result of the game it was the most memorable event of the evening for the girls. 
        Jackson County started the game aggressively and kept it up until the final seconds of the third quarter when they were leading 61-18. 
It’s not professional to inject personal opinions into news or sports reports.   However…
 By the end of the first quarter Jackson Co clearly had command of the game and the girls coach could have subbed out his starters for the girls on the bench.  But no, it appeared he didn’t do that; running the score up on OC until it was ridiculous.  Other teams have done the same thing this season. 
Strange critters in the stands for Senior Night.
I’m told it’s because at the end of the season if there is a tie between the top teams then point differentials become important.  If that’s so then a new tie breaker must be found.  It’s neither fair nor sportsmanlike to stomp a team in the face once they are down.  Now back to the game…
By halftime Jackson Co lead 38-17 and on the night Jackson hit nine three pointers.  To add insult to injury, Tanisha Eberheart caught an elbow in the eye that put her on her back but was called for a foul. 
On the evening freshman Jessica Pulliam had six points followed by another freshman, Trenetta Smith, with five.  OC had 13 rebounds four of which belonged to Taylor McDaniel.  OC travels to North Oconee Friday, February 3rd.
Boys Varsity Basketball – The boys have a two game winning streak running.  Last Tuesday they defeated East Jackson 70-56 and Friday night they avenged their 47-35 loss earlier in the season to Jackson County by a similar 48-37 win.
OC Wins!
        Seniors Shaq Fleming, Javon Jenkins, Maurice Freeman, Josh Jarrells and Jarrett Lackey were honored prior to the start of the girl’s varsity game.  They were introduced with their parents and their high school career highlighted. 
        Both OC and Jackson Co started rather slow offensively.  By 3:46 in the quarter the score was only 4-2 OC.  Shortly after, Xavier Eberhart (12 points) got open under the basket scoring 2 on a pass from Maurice Freeman (10 points, with two ally oops).  On Jackson’s inbound Shaq Freeman 13 points and OC’s high scorer) knocked the ball loose, which allowed Clay Ogle (three points) to pass the ball to Eberhart for another two points.  And so it went.  OC finished the quarter up 12-4 and not one foul on the board. 
The fourth referee.
        OC went on an offensive hiatus in the second quarter.  It wasn’t until the 4:15 mark before OC put some second quarter points on the board.  Nevertheless, the Patriots would go into the locker room at halftime ahead 17-9.
        It would be the third quarter before OC finally took the game in hand when their offense put 15 points in the box.  Shaq Fleming had seven, one of which was a three pointer and Ogle hit a three pointer, too.  Freeman, Josh Jarrells and Eberhart would put more up more OC points ending the quarter with a comfortable 32-16 lead.
OC kept up the offensive pressure when Freeman thrilled the crowd with two of his patented ally oops, Shaq Fleming and Eberhart put more points on OC’s side, two of which was from an Eberhart dunk.  OC finished the quarter with 16 more points concluding their 48-37 win.
Josh Jarrells had four points with five rebounds and Eberhart had three steals.
The Patriots face North Oconee next Friday night, February 3rd at North Oconee. 

       

       

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Editorial

Hancock vs. Warren – The Augusta Chronicle reported yesterday that the Hancock County Grand Jury returned a no bill regarding the fight between Hancock Central and Warren County high school football players October 14th of last year.  The Jury decided that “no indictment be returned against anyone”.
        Ocmulgee District Attorney Fred Bright said that both Warren and Hancock football teams blame the other for throwing the first punch.  Also, the Warren players could not identify the Hancock player that hit Warren head football coach David Daniel.  However, Bright said the GBI report states a 17 year-old Hancock player did admit to hitting Daniel, twice in the face with his fist, but only after Daniel had twice hit the player in the chest and then in the face.  Bright also said that the evidence makes it clear that Daniel was hit by a fist not a helmet, which corresponds to what the Hancock player said he did.
        The GBI report states that Daniel told EMT personnel that he was accidently hit by one of his own players but Bright emphasized that one of the Hancock players admitted hitting Daniel.  
        Another facet of the fight that night was Warren’s contention that Hancock had locked them out of the dressing room.  The GBI report repudiates this.  According to the report the Warren team manager had the key in her possession the whole time. 
        Bright said that a week before some Warren County players attended a Hancock Central football game since Warren had a bye week.  During that visit the Warren players went to the visitors’ locker room and taunted the Hancock players.  The Warren players were escorted from the field.  Bright did not say if the GBI report made any mention of assistant coach Marleau Blount’s cell phone texts to Warren County players in the week prior to the game.  Blount was Warren County head football coach until he lost his job over questionable eligibility requirements of some of his players.    
        The Augusta paper says that Warren County School Superintendent Carole Jean Carey expects the results from a civil lawsuit to be quite different from the Hancock grand jury. 
        The news report would lead one to believe that Warren County is not as innocent as first believed.  Further, it would appear that Daniel may have been pushing and shoving Hancock players.  Perhaps his intentions were good, that is, he wanted to stop the fight.  But considering the behavior of some of his team’s players the week before at a Hancock ballgame, Hancock’s response is not the big surprise as this writer first believed.  No, I don’t condone fighting as a way of settling a score, as Hancock County Sheriff Tomlyn Primus said, “Anytime that a player is injured along with a coach, nobody wins.”  Nevertheless, you don’t go kicking the dog and then whine when you get bitten. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Golf Preview

OCHS Golf – Golf coach Ed Rock, who many people know is one of the counselors at OCHS, also coached soccer for 28 years at the high school level.  Mr. Phillip Todd, former principal at OCHS came to Coach Rock three years ago and told him that the golf coach had resigned.  “Okay,” said Coach Rock, “I’ll be coaching golf next year.”  When you go into his office there are two framed pictures on the wall, one is a fairway with a bunker running the length of the fairway down the left hand side and the other is of the club house at St. Andrews golf course, Scotland. 
        “It just happens that when I first came (2010) we had two real good golfers, Nathan Mallonee and Jim Beatty,” said Coach Rock.  “In that year we had those guys and Chris Uggla and Cory Lott and a couple of other guys.  In that year they went 12-1 in dual matches.” [A dual match in high school golf is the top six players of two schools.  They are paired 1-2 vs. 1-2, 3-4 vs. 3-4 and 5-6 vs. 5-6.  They play nine holes of golf at the home team’s local golf course.  The four top scores out of the six players wins.] 
        Last year the golf team, which still had Beatty and Mallonee, went 10-3 on the season.  During the Region Tournament at Traditions Golf Course in Braselton, which consisted of 13 teams and 78 golfers, Mallonee won the Region Championship by shooting one under par 71.  Although OC didn’t qualify as a team to participate in the state championship tournament, Mallonee, by being Region Champion, did qualify on an individual basis (like they do in Cross Country).  Mallonee finished tied for 6th at the state tournament out of a field of 100 golfers.  Both Mallonee and Beatty are juniors and will anchor OC’s golfing team again this year.
        “One of the problems I learned,” says Coach Rock, “is that the kids can’t be consistent over 18 holes.  They might do well over nine but they can’t hold it together over the whole course.  That’s why when we went to tournaments [Tournaments are different than matches because a tournament may last two days but always consists of 18 holes of golf.] we didn’t do well. Jim and Nathan were young at the time and even though they could shoot in the low and mid 80’s, you need better scores than that in golf to do well as a team. To do well in the region tournament and these other tournaments you have to have three players shooting in the seventies and one player shooting around 85 and we’ve never had that.”
        “Now this year it’s going to be different,” continues Coach Rock.  “This year Beatty and Mallonee are juniors and we have a student who transferred from Morgan County who was their number two golfer, Jake O’Brien, so we have three really good golfers.  Mallonee is really exceptional, he shoots under par.  This other kid, O’Brien, just recently played in a tournament at St. Simons and shot a 69 and 79.  So we have three really good golfers.”  If one of the other guys can shoot in the mid 80’s then OC has a chance to win or place in the region tournament. 
        In order for OC’s team to get into the state tournament they have to be one of the top two in the region tournament.  For golf the region is not broken down into two sub-regions like baseball and football enjoy.  In golf all the region teams go to the region tournament and only the top two teams from that tournament go to the state tournament.  The exception is if, like Nathan Mallonee, a player wins the tournament but his team does not qualify to move on, that player still qualifies for the state tournament.   
        Coach Rock has tried to give his players more tournament experience by arranging the regular season schedule to include more one and two day tournaments.  “When you’re playing dual matches it’s only nine holes, Coach Rock said.  “That’s because they start around 4pm and it starts getting dark so they only have time for nine holes.  But I’ve scheduled more tournaments this year because I want them to be exposed to playing 18 holes, so when they get to the region tournament they have the experience and are prepared to hold it together for 18 holes.”
        “It’s going to be interesting this year,” said Coach Rock.  “We have Jim Beatty coming back, along with Nathan Mallonee and Jake O’Brien.  Those golfers play a lot of golf out of the season and can shoot in the 70’s and break par.  So if we can get somebody to shoot in the 80’s we’ll have a good chance of being one of the top two in the region and going to the state tournament as a team.” 
        OC may have seven or eight players this year but you can only have six players compete in a match.  Coach Rock said that what they usually do is have a match among themselves to decide who plays in the scheduled match. 
        OC will be playing at Jennings Mill Country Club this year.  Since several of the players are also members the golf team will be able to play four days a week during the season, which is a plus for the team.  “Most high school teams can only practice two or three days a week,” comments Coach Rock.  “But we are going to practice four days a week and then play a match.” 
        When asked who he thought would be the team to beat in the region for this year Coach Rock said, without hesitation, North Oconee.  “They have a kid, David Mackey, who’s really phenomenal. But Nathan’s pretty close.”  Coach Rock is also optimistic about the new region alignment.  He feel’s OC should do well next year. 
        But for this year OC’s success at the region level will depend on that fourth player Coach Rock keeps talking about.  “It could be Kory Lott. He’s been in the program since he was a freshman and he’s a senior now,” said Coach Rock.  In any case, Coach Rock’s golf team is in a pretty good position at the start of the season.  Two of their big guns are coming back as juniors and a third is up from Morgan County.  With consistency acquired through the tournaments Coach Rock has scheduled OC as the potential to do well at the region tournament and find a team spot in the state tournament. 
        OC’s first match will be Wednesday, February 29th, against North Oconee at Jennings Mill Country Club.  The golfers will pay in nine regular season matches or tournaments concluding with the Morgan County tournament April 14th. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Boys Soccer Preview


Boys Soccer – The Oglethorpe boys’ soccer team was 4-8 for the season last year.  In some respects the difficulties the team experienced can be placed at the feet of last year’s seniors.  “Some of those guys thought they were better than they were,” boys soccer head coach Jim Norton said.  “Some of them played only two years and thought they knew everything. They butted heads with Coach Colquitt (who is Coach Norton’s assistant this year) [The seniors went on strike, too, in an effort to force Coach Colquitt to change his mind about a style of play decision].  They weren’t real good at leading and I don’t think any of the guys this year will miss them.  I like a lot of the guys personally, but I don’t think they made good team players.”
        The flip side of that according to Coach Norton are the younger guys, some of which have been playing varsity since ninth grade.  “The younger guys will step right in to the spots the seniors had. You can plug OT (Otoniel Padilla) in at forward and not lose anything,” remarks Coach Norton.  “On the other side you can put Joshua Tuttle or Cody Flores and not miss a thing.  They’ve played a long time and know the game.”
        “What we are going to do is give the guys on the field more responsibility, we are going to give them more of a say of what happens on the field,” Coach Norton said when asked how he is going to improve the team.  “My coaching philosophy is it’s a player’s game.  It’s not something I need to control.  We will provide them with a framework to practice and get better, but ultimately players decide it on the field.  The more we preach that to them, the more responsibility we give them, then they will take ownership of what happens on the field.  This isn’t like basketball or football where you can call plays from the sidelines.  Soccer is too fluid so the kids on the field are going to have to take ownership.  If they want it they’ll do it.  And if they don’t want it, it’ll be just like last year.”
        The soccer folks, both boys and girls, have been going through conditioning for the past couple of weeks.  “There’s been a good response from the younger guys,” said Coach Norton.  “Some of the guys are working and can’t participate.  I can feel a better unity between the guys.  They all get along and nobody is picking on each other.  It’s a good fun group.” 
        Coach Norton can also see a difference since the weight room and the lifting program has been in place.  Norton says that not only is it important that the players have leg strength but upper body strength is just as vital.  “When you have to challenge somebody for the ball you need a strong core to deal with that. Plus you’ll have better balance.” 
        Coach Norton also thinks that a varied training regimen is necessary for soccer.  “Speed training is good for straight ahead speed. But soccer players will run flat out, then trot, then walk, and then run flat out again.  They have to run for forty minutes, get a break then run for forty minutes again.  So while speed training is good we also need endurance training.  We had maybe half the team run cross country this year.  So while they might not increase their running speed considerably, they will increase their endurance.” 
        If one of the problem areas last year was on field leadership then Coach Norton is looking at two or three people to step-up in that regard this year.  “Cody Boarders may not always be the most vocal leader but he will lead by example because of the effort he puts in the game.  Then there is Sean Atkinson and Griffin Giles.  Two kids who have been playing club; basically the blue print of how you become better soccer players.” 
[Along with Giles, Christian Jarecki, Ezra Underwood and Zammie Mendez, all OCHS soccer team members, played club soccer for Oconee Futbol Club this past fall under the leadership of Coach Ed Rock.  Their team won their division championship with a season record of 9 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss. Sean Atkinson played club ball for Athens United.]
        Regarding the younger players Coach Norton is looking forward to working with them; mentioning Kyle Yeargin, Nick Sanchez, Louis Vasquez and Lee Boswell as players with potential. 
        OC’s region foes will not change this year. Teams like Jackson and East Jackson, Jefferson, North Oconee and Elbert will be on the menu once again.  “I don’t see any big difference in skill,” remarked Coach Norton.  “What I see is a big difference in athleticism and hustle. If we can out hustle people, if we are missing a little bit of skill but out hustle teams then we’ll do okay. We should be able to beat Hart again this year.  We should be able to be Elbert, too.  We’ll be playing Jefferson, they’ve gotten a lot better, but playing them on our field and not one of those little Rec fields might help us.  Jackson was good last year and they’ll be good this year.” 
        OC will start this year against Madison Co.  “We played them last year so we’ll play them again this year,” Coach Norton said when asked about the pre-region lineup.  “We’ll be playing East Hall.  Greene County we’re playing to give us a chance to see what they look like since they will be in our region next year.  The same is true for Riverside Military Academy; they are in our region so we can see what they have.  We have a double header with Riverside so we can get some playing time for our younger guys.  The players on our varsity team are at a point where they will probably get 80 minutes a game.  I don’t see a lot of subbing in and out.  So this will get our, what I call our reserve team, some playing time.” 
        OC will play a pre-region game against Social Circle and Washington-Wilkes as well.  The Social Circle game will give OC a preview of things to come when the new region comes into effect next year.  Washington-Wilkes, on the other hand, just started a soccer program this year.  Moreover, their soccer team, reportedly, is co-ed, which means that only the boys can play against WW. 
        There will be a parent meeting on Thursday night, January 26th, at 5:30pm in the media center at the high school for parents of the boy’s soccer team.  The first game will be on Friday, February 10th, at home against Madison Co. 


Monday, January 23, 2012

Girls Soccer Preview


Girls Soccer – The girls’ varsity soccer team went from three wins two years ago to winning nine games thus earning a spot in the region tournament in Fannin County last year. “It was good to see the girls benefit from their hard work,” commented girl’s head soccer coach Teresa Rindone.  “They realize that they are not out there to just kick the ball around, they have talent and can compete with teams like North Oconee and Jackson Co.” 
        Coach Rindone, a middle school language arts/social studies teacher, has been head coach for three years.  She was also the middle school soccer coach for two years previous to being head varsity coach; which is to say that a core group of 11 juniors have never had another soccer coach. “It’s been very beneficial,” remarks Rindone, “they know my tendencies and how things work. The sophomores, too, I coached for two years at the middle school.  There are three incoming freshmen that look really good and I coached them for a year at the middle school.” 
        With the bulk of the team coming back this year Coach Rindone feels like the teams major strengths are intact. “We only lost one senior, Alex Orlowsky.  She played club with a lot of the girls who learned her position and grew from the experience, so our defense should be set in the back.  Plus these girls have been playing together for a long time.  They know how each other plays and are picking up on each other's tendencies, they know how read each other on offense.  Laura Abney and Jordan Pringle both ran cross country this year and that will help us with speed.  Plus, many of the girls played club soccer and the younger girls played Rec. soccer.  So they were getting touches on the ball.  Soccer is one of those sports where if you’re not training all year round you just won’t get any better at it.”
        “One of the things we have to improve on is not letting other teams psych us out," says Coach Rindone.  “As an example East Jackson just psych’s us out.  I don’t know why.  We get these mental blocks.  Sometimes we get scored on early and then it’s a matter of will we come back or are we going to play a purely defensive game.  When we played Fannin Co in the playoffs we went down two points in the first ten minutes.  On the sidelines I can’t do anything, I just had to wait and see if they were going to crumble or if they were going to come back.  [Evidently they didn’t crumble that much scoring 4 goals in their losing effort.]  It’s just something we are aware of and working to overcome.”
        Unlike, say, basketball, where a coach can call a time out and talk to his team, making adjustments to an opponent’s style of play, soccer is a more fluid game.  The coach can stand on the sidelines and shout instructions, but the game and on field situations change so fast that it’s really up to the players to make the necessary adjustments “on the fly.”  That’s why on-field leadership is so important in soccer. 
        “In the back [defensive positions] we have Heather Helmreich, Jeri Wilcox and Colleen Fallon, says Coach Rindone.  “I look to them to provide leadership.  I’ve watch them in the club games and during conditioning and seen how they communicate with some of the younger girls.  In the mid-field Fabolia Rojas, who is a senior and one of our most improved players will be one of strong points for the other players.  Up front we are looking for Laura Abney to provide direction.  We are looking for those girls to provide leadership both on and off the field.” 
        From the sophomore ranks Coach Rindone says the Katie Pilson and Jordan Pringle are stepping up in a leadership role.  “Katie does a good job of helping everyone keep a good mental attitude”, remarks Coach Rindone.  “Jordan works real well with Laura up front and she’s a very good player.  As far as freshmen go we have three that I’m looking at.  Sarah Chastain, who will probably play in the middle with Fabolia [Rojas], Brianna Basinger, who has been training as a keeper with a trainer in Athens and Allison Miller who will be a key player up top.”
        Coach Rindone was somewhat surprised by the varsity girl’s success last year.  “When I came over from the middle school,” says Rindone, “I didn’t think we’d do that great.  One reason is because the seniors had been playing together for a while and we had two different mentalities about how the game should be played.  We had those seniors and we had a large group of ninth graders and it didn’t mix very well.  I didn’t think we’d grow as much last year.  We went from a three win season to a nine win season plus we score fifty some-odd goals last year.  We went to Fannin County for the region playoff and we got beat.  But the girls looked at each other and said this was the best game we’ve played.  We made the region playoffs this year, how are we going to respond next year?”
        Oglethorpe’s girls’ soccer team is in the enviable position of being one the region teams-to-beat this year.  “Yeah, that’s right,” remarks Coach Rindone with a smile.  “I told the girls at the end of the season last year and again at conditioning that it’s harder to stay at the top than to get to the top.  That’s not to say that it didn’t take hard work to get there, but you’re one of the top four in the region and it’s going to be harder to stay there.  I know Jefferson is out to get us because we put them out of the region playoffs.  North Oconee is going to be looking at us real close.  Jackson Co we beat once and lost to once so they are looking at us.  But it’s nice to be a contender now.”
        “The girls know they are going to have to work twice as hard now,” says Coach Rindone.  “From going to other games this fall and talking to other coaches, the other girls know who our girls, they pick them out.”
        Coach Rindone has seen a lot of personal growth and strong friendships on her team.  “If we don’t’ do as well as we did last year I hope the girls won’t be too disappointed but they know nothing good ever comes easy without hard work,” says Coach Rindone.  “They also know that if they want to repeat last year they will have to get themselves there.”
        Coach Rindone will be assisted by Jennifer Gibbs, a teacher at the middle school, and Jake Wilcox will assist on a part time basis. 
        OC’s first game will be a scrimmage against Madison County at home on Friday, February 10th.  
        There will be a parent meeting of the girls’ soccer team at 6pm on Thursday, January 26th, in the media center.  However, if the boys meeting in the media center (scheduled to start at 5:30pm) is no completed, then the girls will meet in the cafeteria. 

       



       

Varsity Wrestling

OC wrestlers were winners at the CRSA Duals this weekend.

Wrestling - The wrestling team had a good weekend at the CSRA Duals in Wilkes County.  They finished the day 4 and 1 and took home their second trophy of the year with a 3rd place finish.  

Oglethorpe County started the day giving up four weight classes, but defeated Grovetown 48-12, with big wins coming from Cody Flores and Tee Hull.  Greene County was the next opponent for the patriots.  Oglethorpe County had big wins from Dustin Morton (106 lbs), Matt Flores (220lbs), and Andrew Maro (152lbs), defeating Greene County 42-39.  

The next match the Patriots fought hard but lost to Burke County.  Against Burke County, Justin Whitman kept his great season going with a 9-8 win in 4 overtimes to improve to 35-1 on the season.   

The Patriots rebounded with a 48-18 win over Richmond Academy.  This win put the Patriots in a battle for third and fourth with Dodge county.  The match was filled with pins on both sides with big wins coming from Joey Daniels (195 lbs), Hunter Eubanks (113 lbs), Justin Whitman (132 lbs) and Tee Hull (138 lbs).  The match finished with a tie score 42-42.  

The match then went to criteria set up by the Georgia High School Association in determining the winner.  The official finally determined the winner after 9 criteria had been completed with Oglethorpe coming out on top with a 1pt advantage on first points scored.  It was a great day for the Patriot Wrestling team.

Many thanks to head wrestling coach Dustin Cordell for the story and the picture.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Baseball Preview

Baseball – Last year OC’s baseball team had a tough year in terms of wins and losses.  This will be the last season OC will have to face teams like Elbert Co, North Oconee, Jackson Co etc. Those teams will move up to the AAA classification while the Patriots will stay at the AA level.  Nevertheless, as head baseball coach Jason Bramlett says, “You have to play the cards dealt you.” 
        Coach Bramlett, who has been coaching high school baseball for 10 years, with the last five as head coach at Oglethorpe County High School said, “Last year was a tough year.  It seems like we have a good year then a tough year. We went 6-19 but I felt like we played a lot better at the end.  What really hurt us was getting out of a big inning, that one play on the field or that one pitch we needed to get off the field.  I was proud of the way our guys finished up. So I feel like we can move into this year with a pretty good outlook.”
        “One of the things we have to do is be consistent on defense”, says Coach Bramlett. “We have to do the basics right.  It’s always nice to see a player make an outstanding defensive play, but if we make the routine defensive plays all the time we’ll win games. We are also working on being more aggressive on the base paths.  We work on that every year and this is still a ‘work-in-progress’ and the guys coming back will be pretty good at that.” 
        Another facet of the game Coach Bramlett keeps up with is performance at the plate.  It’s not just a batting average anymore.  It’s what a player does at the plate and how a player gets on base.  Bramlett says that a player might be hitting .300, but that means that seven out of ten times he didn’t get a hit.  So what did he do those seven times?  “Did he move a runner or strike out?” explains Coach Bramlett.  “Are you doing things to help the team along the way, and that’s the whole point.  So if we don’t get a hit we have to make our at-bats productive.  Does a runner get on base from a walk or an error, or being hit by a pitch?  And did he move a runner already on base?” 
        In the field Bramlett doesn’t want to see a lot of walks, he wants opponents to have to handle the ball making plays.  “It’s not just our athletes but athletes across the state (referring to inconsistent routine plays), says Bramlett.  “Make them make the play.  Make other people try and get you out.”  Coach Bramlett feels that the other team will make mistakes which will benefit Oglethorpe. 
        Coach Bramlett lost three seniors from last year but has four returning seniors this year, Tee Hull, J. D. Sharp, Christian Conrad and J.R. LaFluer.  “We have a big nucleus of sophomore/junior class,” says Coach Bramlett.  “We have 11 returning players this year.  I’ve been looking at that for the past couple of weeks and that should be something that’s very good for us.  That means there will be competition at a lot of different positions. That’s what you want, you want these guys coming out here and pushing each other and working hard. I don’t know where anybody is going to play.  It’s going to be a puzzle.  But it’s a good problem to have.  The more versatile they can be the better off we’ll be.”
With so many underclassmen Coach Bramlett will be looking to his seniors to provide leadership on the field.  “We expect the seniors to provide leadership,” remarks Bramlett.  “But at the same time we don’t mind if a sophomore or a junior steps up.  We have a pretty good chemistry among our guys.  We do look to the juniors and senior but we encourage anybody to lead.  If they see you working hard and doing the right things those guys will follow what you’re doing.”    
When asked about his JV team Coach Bramlett was optimistic.  “JV is looking good, they did pretty well last year going 5-3. We had a few rainouts that we couldn’t reschedule but that’s how that is,” says Bramlett.  “We have a couple of guys who may challenge for varsity spots and we have a couple of guys who may float between JV and varsity.  This year is also the first year that the middle school will have a baseball team, so we won’t be carrying any eight graders.
One of the challenges that OC faces this season is the stiff competition of the present region.  “Nine of the thirteen teams in the region will move up to AAA next year”, Coach Bramlett said. “It’s a tough region, especially our side of the sub-region.  Hart Co won the region last season, they have a tough baseball team.  I expect North Oconee, Elbert, Hart and Jefferson to be tough again this year.  To work in to our region tournament we’ve got to beat the teams we aren’t supposed to be and still beat those even with us or behind us.”
“We open our region schedule against North Oconee”, continues Coach Bramlett.  “They’re going to be tough but we did manage to beat them last year. Our region schedule will be different this year because we are playing everybody back to back.  This is something the region coaches decided to do to make sure that one team was not throwing their ace pitcher against another team every time.” 
Regarding the new region line-up for next year Coach Bramlett thinks that OC will be competitive.  “We’re playing teams that we’ve played in the past, they are more local.  We have Green Co, Social Circle and Washington-Wilkes in our sub-region.  We should do pretty well if we have a good year this year especially since our big junior class will be seniors,” says coach Bramlett. 
The Patriots have eight games scheduled before their region opener against North Oconee.  The season opener will be against Washington-Wilkes on Thursday, February 16th at WW.  OC’s first home game will be the following Tuesday, February 21, against Putnam Co. 





         

       

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Season Preview

Starting tomorrow evening I will post the first of three preseason interviews with baseball head coach Jason Bramlett, girls soccer head coach Teresa Rindone and boys soccer head coach Jim Norton.  Baseball will be Sunday evening, girl’s soccer will be Monday evening and boy’s soccer will be Tuesday evening. 

Varsity Basketball

Girls Basketball – The Lady Patriots hosted the Lady Blue Devils Friday night.  Even though Elbert won the game 63-31, for nearly the first half of the game the varsity girls stayed with Elbert.
Jessica Pulliam looking for points.
        OC really looked good the first quarter.  Everything that OC threw up went in the basket.  In fact, OC held the lead until the last 56 seconds of the first quarter when Elbert pulled ahead on a foul shot.  However, OC stepped up and tied the game at 15 each when the buzzer ended the quarter.
        OC continued to do well deep into the second quarter, Trenetta Smith finally got on the board with a basket, Latoria Royal and Taylor McDaniel continued putting points on the board as did Tanisha Eberheart. 
Time Out! For the Lady Patriots and Coach Ellis.
        At 3:56 left in the second quarter Elbert scored seven unanswered points in 35 seconds while at the same time somebody put a hex on OC’s goal thus shutting down any Patriot offense the remainder of the game.   
        OC would only score eight more points for the entire second half, the same amount they scored in the second quarter.  Kristen Baker would be OC’s high scorer of the game followed by Royal then McDaniel and Smith.  Emily Barnett, Eberheart, Aubry Fearnow and Jessical Pulliam would each put a basket on the board. 
Oglethorpe would post 17 rebounds for the game five of which belonged to McDaniels and four more going to Pulliam.  The remaining rebounds would be spread across five different players.  OC would also mark ten steals and five blocked shots.
Boys Basketball – The Elbert County boy’s varsity took Oglethorpe to school on how to play basketball winning the game 78-36. 
Shaq Fleming setting up the play.
For much of the first quarter both teams played hard, fast basketball but neither could really gain control of the game.  The quarter ended with OC only behind by five but if every shot either side threw up had went in the score would have been much higher for both teams.  But whatever offensive hex that plagued the OC girls it spilled over onto the boys.
By the second quarter Elbert had found their stride and the basket.  That’s not to say that OC couldn’t move the ball down the court or make shots at the basket, but it was like someone had put a stopper on OC’s goal because nothing would go through. 
Clay Ogle against two Elbert defenders.
Clay Ogle made several fast break trips from one end of the court to the other and not one lay-up would go in.  The same thing happened with Xavier Eberhart.  He’d get the rebound and head to the other end, it was beautiful, but he would have better luck at hitting the lottery than getting the ball to fall through the net.  OC’s effort at tipping the ball in after a missed lay-up was no better.  OC could touch the ball two, three, four times and it refused to go in for points.  Elbert on the other hand, if they missed a lay-up, they always seemed to get the tip in no matter how many times it took.
On the evening Eberhart was high scorer with 11 with Maurice Freeman and Josh Jarrells close behind with eight each.  Shaq Fleming had four, Ogle and Javon Jenkins both had two and Jay Fleming rounded out OC’s scoring with a fourth quarter foul shot. 
Freeman, Eberhart and Gordon would each pull down four of OC’s 17 rebounds and Freeman would have six blocked shots.
Both the varsity boys and girls travel to East Jackson on Tuesday, January 24. 

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Mid-Week Updates

OCHS – Wrestling:  The Patriot wrestlers have a tournament at Washington-Wilkes on Saturday, January 21st.
Girls Basketball:  The OC girls traveled to Jefferson Tuesday night and lost 48-29.  For the first half of the game the Lady Patriots did well going into half time tied with Jefferson 12-12.  Jefferson opened things up in the third quarter allowing OC only two points.  Even so, OC scored fifteen in the fourth but it wasn’t enough.
        Kristen Baker was high scorer with nine; Trenetta Smith followed with eight, Aubrey Fearnow had four while Tanisha Eberheart, Taylor McDaniel and Jessica Pulliam had two each.  Thanks to Coach Ellis for the updates.
Boys Basketball:  Jefferson defeated the OC boy’s team 52-31.  According to the Athens paper Clay Ogle was high scorer for OC with nine.
        OC hosts Elbert Co this Friday, January 20th.  OC travels to East Jackson on Tuesday, January 24th. 
Preview – I interviewed baseball head coach Jason Bramlett and girls head soccer coach Teresa Rindone today regarding their upcoming seasons.  Check back here for the interview series. 
        Baseball practice and tryouts start on Monday, January 30th. 
        Soccer practice and tryouts start on Monday, January 23rd.  Also, there will be a soccer parent meeting on Thursday, January 26th, time to be determined.          

OCMS – The middle school Patriot hoopsters travel to Athens Academy to face the Spartans Thursday, January 19th.  Then on Saturday, January 21st they face off against Athens Christian at home at 10:30am.  The middle school wrestlers take part in the wrestling league tournament at George Walton Academy Saturday, January 21st.  This will be the final tournament of the season for the wrestlers. 




Tuesday, January 17, 2012

OCMS Wrestling

OCMS – The middle school wrestlers were in action again Tuesday afternoon taking on Madison Co and Athens Christian.  After all was said and done the middle school Patriots split the match winning against the Eagles and losing to the Red Raiders.
Wrestling action at OCMS.
        OC’s first match against ACS saw pins by Dillion Nation (80), Josh Norman (85) and Hayden Fleeman (157).  Also picking up wins for OC due to forfeit were Trent Smith (75), Trent Ashworth (147), Cade Overstreet (171), Jonathan Ash (190) and Dustin Todd (176). 
        The resulting team score gave the Patriots a one point win over Athens Christian.
        It was a different story when OC met Madison Co on the mat.  Josh Norman (85), Hayden Fleeman (157) and Dustin Todd (176) were winners against their Raider opponent.  However, Madison Co had wrestlers in every weight category so OC couldn’t gain points from forfeit. 
        The Patriots will be wrestling this Saturday, January 21st, at George Walton Academy in the season ending League Tournament. 
        You can see a few pictures here:  http://www.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=8385972