Varsity Baseball

Varsity Baseball – Head baseball coach Jason Bramlett sent in the following:

Congratulations to Mitchell Reed (Quality AB Award), Nick Mathews (Offensive Award), Clay Ogle (MVP), Tee Hull (Team Captain), and JD Sharp (Coaches’ Award) who were awarded these plaques Sunday, May 20^th, at the OCHS Baseball Banquet.

Congratulations to the following Patriots for making the 2012 All-Region Team! 1st Team: Clay Ogle(SS) 2nd Team: Tee Hull(OF), Nick Mathews(2B) Honorable Mention: Matt Beyatt(OF), Jacob Hester (UT), J.D. Sharp(1B)

Varisty Soccer

Soccer Update - Sean Atkinson was selected as an alternate to the All-Region First team and will, along with Griffin Giles and Laura Abney, be playing in a match today at Marist High School against other All-Region first team selectees.  Congratulations and good luck!

Boys Soccer

Boys Varsity Soccer - Head boys soccer coach Jim Norton said today that Griffin Giles was named to the All-Region first team and Zammy Mendez was named to the second team.  Giles played sweeper, a defensive position, and Mendez played keeper.  Contratulations to both players.

Varsity Track -

Congratulations to the boys track team for placing 3^rd at the state track meet this weekend in Jefferson. All five athletes who qualified for state placed in at least one event. Placers for the Patriots were

Maurice Freeman—State Champion in the High Jump, 3^rd in the 200 meter dash

Justin Whitman—3^rd in the 800 meter run

Kendrick Presley—4^th in the 110 meter hurdles

Josh Jarrells—4^th in the Triple Jump

4x400 meter relay (Josh Swain, Presley, Whitman, Freeman)—3^rd

Justin Whitman established a new school record in the 800 with a time of 1:58.39, and the 4x400 meter relay team set a new school record of 3:23.12, breaking the old record by more than 4 seconds.

OC's track team as done us proud all season.  For those seniors who will be moving on, good luck in your future.  For those of you who will be coming back next year, we look for big things in the spring. 

Girls Varisty Soccer

    Girls Varsity Soccer -   Pictured above from left to right is Lexi Miller, Jeri Wilcox and Laura Abney.  Abney was named to first team all region for girls soccer,  Wilcox was chosen for the second all region team and Miller received honorable mention to the all region team. 

     The all-region team is chosen by all of the coaches of the schools from the 8AA region at the conclusion of each year. 

     These three girls wil be seniors next year so OC's girls varsity soccer should be the team to beat next spring.  Congratulations to all three players. 

4-H State Modified Trap Competition

The Winners.

4-H Shotgun – OC’s 4-H shotgun team went to the Rock Eagle experiment station Saturday and won first place in the senior division, second place in the junior division and Ben Giles won seventh place in the senior division for individual honors. 

Coach Roger Grimes and Haley Lamey after shooting a perfect 25.

        For the last 18 years the experiment station has held the 4-H state modified trap competition.  This year 989 shooters descended on this small part of Putnam County.  Just like last year there were 13 stations to accommodate everyone plus one doubles station to decided ties.  When a shooter shoots a perfect 25 they go to the doubles station to shoot five pair of clay birds thrown at the same time.  Even on a good day this takes exceptional marksmanship so not many shooters pull off a perfect 10. 

Dusting a bird.

        OC’s shotgun team shared station five with Worth and Meriwether counties.   Meriwether County is east of Lagrange and home of Warm Springs.  Worth County is sandwiched between Albany (All-benny, for the uninitiated) and Tifton.  In the past, Worth would have put up three shooters, then OC would put up three shooters and Meriwether would follow suit. 

A hit.

The coaches got together and decided to let all of one county’s shooters for a particular division shoot and so on until everyone was done.  This worked out much better mainly because a team didn’t have to go looking for people to make sure they were at the station on time, and team’s intensity and drive could stay focused for everyone rather than three shooters here and three shooters there. 

OC’s junior division started the show with outstanding scores.  Logan Grimes, Carson Anthony, Colton Evans, Cade Massey, Dalton Ogle, Cullen Massey and Christopher Smith scored the following: 24, 24, 24, 24, 24, 19 and 23; practically unheard of for a junior team made up of middle schoolers.  A team’s score consists of the top five individual scores, which, in OC’s case, was five 24’s for a total of 120.  Unfortunately, none of these guys made it to the individual competition.  At the state meet a score of 24 is just not going to hold up.  Somebody is going to shoot a perfect 25. 

See the shot?

Nevertheless, OC’s junior team’s score held for the day to capture second place overall, just one point off the top score of 121.  By any measure this is outstanding.

OC’s senior team came up to the line later on in the morning for their turn.  Chance Fowler started off with a score of 23, which is a respectable score.  Bryce Massey, who won the junior division individual title last year with a perfect 25 and a perfect 10 at the doubles line, was up next.  Massey continued his winning ways with 25 broken targets.  Ben Giles, who was third in line and whose best score so far in the season was 24 shot all 25 birds for the first time.  Somebody had sprinkled pixie dust on OC.

The tie breaker - doubles.

Haley Lamey was fourth, and, like Giles, hadn’t shot 25 either.  But she came through like a real trooper shooting all the targets thrown for OC’s third perfect score.  Hunter Boring and Kelly Huff shot a decent 21 and 23 respectively to help OC’s cause.  Then Alex Long, who is new to the shotgun team but not new to shooting, dusted all 25 targets giving OC four shooters with perfect scores.  It doesn’t get any better than that.  It not only put OC in first place overall it put tons of pressure on other teams to try and best OC’s score. 

OC had two senior teams in competition, OC’s second senior team, consisting of D.J. Taylor, Haley Throne, Hannah Murphy, Shelly Evans and Zach Funk shot a team score that put them in fifth place overall.  Unfortunately their score didn’t hold up through the afternoon and they got bumped from the top ten. 

Bryce Massey and Coach Randy Gabriel at the doubles station.



It was an impressive sight to see four shooters, along with the coaches and family members, all from the same team, headed to the doubles station.  It had to be intimidating to the other teams to witness.  The doubles station is where ties are broken.  This year it was a tough go; only one person shot all ten, four shot nine and five broke eight.  For OC, Giles was in the group the broke eight. 

At the end of the meet, there was a five way shoot-out for seventh through tenth place for individual honors.  The original shooters that broke eight of the ten doubles were the contestants.  When Giles’ turn came, he broke nine of ten and this score held to place him in seventh place overall. 

The forgotten.

The OC 4-H shotgun team is coached by Randy Gabriel, Brett Fowler, Dwayne Massey and Roger Grimes.  OC’s continuing success at both the region and state meets is directly attributable to the dedication, hard work, knowledge and skill of these gentlemen.  Year in and year out there may be better teams, but there are no better coached teams. 

The best.

One caveat, under 4-H rules the members of the senior team that won first place honors are considered master shooters and cannot compete as a team again.  They can compete for individual honors, but not for team honors.  That is, their score won’t count for team scores. 

This year, however, Oglethorpe’s 4-H shotgun team is on top of the world, and rightly so. 

You can see all the pictures here:  http://hdgp.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=8515139

State AA Golf Tournament

Jim Beatty being presented with his second place medal. 

OC Golf - At the end of the day the OC golf team tied for third with Blessed Trinity in the state AA golf tournament at Waynesboro, GA.  In first was North Oconee at 303, second place was taken by Westminster with a score of 315, Oglethorpe and Blessed Trinity had 316.  One measly stroke kept OC out of a tie for second and a playoff to decide the issue.  One stroke. 

        OC’s Nathan Mallonee started on the 10^th tee a little after 8 a.m., Jonah Ingram was last teeing off at 10a.m.  In between Jake O’Bryan, Jim Beatty, Kory Lott and Ben Giles started their round.  We played with Blessed Trinity, Vidalia and, I believe, Pike County.  North Oconee started on the first tee.  I wouldn’t mention North Oconee except they have David Mackey, a freshman, who shot a seven under par 65 for the tournament.  The next closest score was Jim Beatty’s par 72.  As an aside, on the last hole Beatty had to come out of the sand and then make a ten foot putt for par, which he did, to the elation of the OC crowd watching him. 

Sunday Practice

        Anyway, the back nine was more difficult than the front nine.  But OC figured it was a good thing to face the most difficult side first.  By the time you reached the easier front nine, you’d be tired and not as mentally sharp.  But since you were on the easier side you’d make fewer mistakes.  There may be something to that because Giles shot a 56 on the back nine and a 43 on the front nine.   

        As OC’s players started finishing their round the scores went up on the board.  OC was looking good for a second place finish.  Everyone knew that North Oconee was going to win the tournament.  When the highest score that was counted is an 80, well, there’s little doubt about who’s going to win. 

        But OC was looking good.  People wanted to know where Oglethorpe was.  “Near Athens,” we’d say, and they would raise an eyebrow as if to say, “I didn’t know that.” 

After the match.

        OC was looking good for a second place finish, or tie.  Every time a new group finished either Coach Rock or Coach Mallonee went to the scoreboard to count strokes.  OC was looking better and better.  Most of the teams were scoring in the 320’s to 340’s.  Then a rumor came floating in that a Westminster player was sitting on a score of 80, provided he pared the next couple of holes.  If he kept his 80 then OC would lose by one stroke.  An 81 would tie and an 82 would give OC second place. 

        As it happened the rumor turned into fact and Westminster won second place, putting OC and Blessed Trinity tied for third.  GHSA will do a playoff for a second place tie, but not third.  Oh, well…

        One thing is certain; OC put the other schools that will stay in AA on notice that the Patriots will be a team to contend with next year.  All of OC’s star players come back next year.  Plus we have some up and coming eighth graders who swing a good club that will be on the team.  But for this year, third in the whole state is a good deal. 

        You can see the pictures here:   http://hdgp.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?e=8510078

State AA Golf Tournament

Boys Golf – The OC golfers came home with third place honors at the state tournament held in Waynesboro Monday.  Jim Beatty earned the second place individual low score medal. 

Check back with OCHS Sports Blog for the full story along with pictures.

Girls State Track and Field

Girl’s Track and Field – Coach Finch sent in the following:

        “Congratulations to Aubrey Fearnow who placed 3^rd in the state in the discus throw with a new personal best of 120’ 2”.  Fearnow also placed 7^th in the state in the shot put.  Congratulations also to Trenetta Smith who ran a new personal best time of 48.24 seconds in the 300 meter hurdles in her state semifinal heat.”

        The OC boys who qualified at sectionals will compete at the state meet in Jefferson this Saturday, May 12^th.