Friday Updates

OCHS 

Basketball:   Both boys and girls varsity basketball will meet East Jackson at the Eagles' home court Saturday night, Feburary 11th with the girls playing first at 6pm, and then the boys at 7:30pm.  If OC wins they move on to the region tournament.  Good luck!!

Soccer:  Both boys and girls varsity soccer teams will scrimmage against Madison County today at home starting with the girls at 5:30pm.  Then on Tuesday, February 14th, the soccer teams take on East Hall at home.  They round out the week with another home game against Greene County on Thursday, February 16th.  All game start with the girls at 5:30pm.

Wrestling:  OC's wrestlers are in Dublin today and tomorrow for state sectionals.  Coach Clifton said earlier this week that he was optomistic at the chances of Justin Whitman and Tee Hull making it to the state finals.  Good luck guys!!

Baseball:  Varsity baseball's season opener is an away game at Washington-Wilkes on Thursday, February 16th.   Baseball's first home game will be against Putnam Co on Tuesday, February 21st starting at 4:30pm.  Then at 1:00pm Wednesday, February 22nd the Patriots take on the Gladiators at Clarke Central. 

OCMS

Soccer:  Middle school soccer starts today, February 10th at Madison Co at 4:30pm, and continues through tomorrow at Madison Co starting at 10:00am. They are taking part in the 2012 Mustang Kickoff Classic in which teams from Hart, Madison, Elbert and Oglethorpe Counties will compete.  It should be a good tournament.

Varsity Basketball

Girls:  The Patriot varsity girls ended their regular season on a down note by losing to Hart County 56-43.

Latoria Royal would be the first to score for OC at 4:20 in the first quarter from the foul line.  After that Royal seemed to have a bulls eye on her back getting fouled twice more.  She made Hart pay for their indiscretion by going 4/6 at the line in the first quarter.  Hart fouled her once again in the second quarter, but after dropping another basket from the line Hart left her alone.  For the game Royal lead the team with 13, and three rebounds. 

        Aubry Fearnow, who had another fine defensive game with six points, seven rebounds and a steal, put up two first quarter points for OC.  Fearnow’s real contribution was slugging it out with Hart under the basket at both ends of the court. 

        Both Trenetta Smith and Jessica Pulliam pulled down four rebounds each.  Smith was the second highest scorer for OC with ten. 

        At the half OC was down 35-14.  When the third quarter started HC, who was up by 21, continued their full court press, which they started in the second.  In fact, Hart sustained their press nearly to the fourth quarter. 

        OC had 26 rebounds for the game.  Itika Howard and Taylor McDaniel both had three.  And Tanisha Eberheart had five points for the game. 

        As a side note, during halftime, Taylor McDaniel’s dad said that Taylor had five offers from Division I schools in softball and over 20 offers from Division II schools.  Congratulations Taylor. 

Boys:  The boys also finished the regular season by losing to Hart County 55-36.  Even so, OC put on quite a show throughout the game.

        One thing that the Hart County boys did that left a bad taste in the home crowd’s mouth was when pre-game practice was over, instead of putting the balls back in the basket in the corner of the gym they let them fall to the court and walked back to their bench without putting them in the basket.  The OC guys had to clean-up after them. 

        In the first quarter Maurice “Slim” Freeman showed the crowd what dunking was all about with three in a row.  Freeman’s first dunk came at the 2:40 mark of the quarter.  In the next 50 seconds Freeman would put in two more the last of which was a patented Slim Freeman Ally Oop.  Freeman was also OC’s top scorer with 16 on the night. 

        OC would finish the first quarter down by eight, 18-10.  The second quarter was pretty much a “we score – they score” quarter.  At the half OC was down by only ten, 28-18.

        Like the pre-game warm-up, the pre-third quarter warm-up saw Hart once again leave the ball on the court and walk back to their bench.  This time, however, the Ref’s rolled the balls back to the corner baskets.

        The third quarter was a different game from OC’s point of view.  Freeman had another dunk along with two more baskets of the regular kind.  Shaq Fleming generated some offense with four as did Josh Jarrels and Xavier Eberhart.  At 2:13 of the third OC pulled to within seven of Hart but that’s where OC’s shooting went cold.  In fact, it was so cold that OC could only manage 4 fourth quarter points and that following a 14 point third quarter.

        On the night Freeman was tops in scoring along with two rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal.  Eberhart had nine making him OC’s second highest scorer.  Eberhart had five rebounds and blocked two of Hart’s shots.  Jarrells, too, had five rebounds and four points for the night.  Fleming would put six on the board and had three rebounds and a steal. 

        As soon as information about the region tournament is published it will be posted here at OCHS Sports. 

Girls Varsity Soccer Updates

Girls Varsity Soccer From Coach Rindone - The girls have had an excellent two weeks at practice. They seemed to get back into the swing of things quickly and I was very impressed. Their touch, communication, and movement both on and off of the ball have improved from last year, and you can tell that the bulk of them were playing this fall. How they turn on the ball and the looks that they are making to their teammates have really stood out in the past two weeks

We are working on developing our speed both on and off of the ball. This is key to taking control of any game, and we need to make sure that we are on it for all 80 minutes of every game. Our defense has been working well with shifting together in the formation that they will be playing in this season. In addition, our outside wings in the midfield, Bailey Pledger and Alexis Miller, have been making some excellent looks to get to our targets, Katie Pilson and Laura Abney, up top.

The camaraderie of our team has really shown through in the past two weeks. You can tell that the girls have been playing together for a while based on attitudes, levels of commitment, support, and encouragement to one another.

The older girls have welcomed in the freshmen with open arms, and have been very, very encouraging to them during practice. I’m feeling a great sense of unity amongst the girls as we get ready to start the season, which is very encouraging. Our leaders for this year have emerged over the past two weeks. Senior Fabiola Rojas and juniors Heather Helmreich and Laura Abney will serve as captains for the team this season as chosen by their teammates and coaches.

We always have things that we can work on and improve, but Coach Gibbs and I have really seen a lot of talent come out in the past two weeks. These girls know the game, know how to play, and they do it well. Keeping our confidence levels up is a must as we head into the season. They know they have a lot of work ahead of them, and if they want to get somewhere they haven’t been, then they need to work like they never have before.

OCMS Wrestling Wrap-Up

Middle School Wrestling – The last wrestling match of the season for the OCMS wrestlers was at George Walton Academy in Monroe.  This tournament was the season finale for the Peach State Wrestling League of which Oglethorpe County is a part.   

        Social Circle proved to be the king of the hill during the tournament coming in first; OC came in fifth with four wrestlers winning medals.  “It was a very tough tournament,” OCMS wrestling Coach Sam Simpson said.  “Social Circle came in first, Morgan Co came in second Madison Co and Athens Christian tied for third and we came in fifth, and I was pleased with that.”  

        In the final tournament medalist for the Patriots included Trent Smith (75), fourth place; Trent Ashworth (147), fourth place; Cade Overstreet (171), fourth place and Dustin Todd (190) third place.  Coach Simpson said that since Todd is a seventh grader he is looking for great things from him next year, especially considering Todd has been wrestling “up”, that is, wrestling heavier competitors than him. 

        Another wrestler Coach Simpson was impressed with is sixth grader Trent Smith.  “Trent only weighs 61 pounds soaking wet.  The smallest class we have in the 75lb class so Trent was giving up 15 pounds in most of his matches.  I was proud of him winning fourth overall at the tournament,” Coach Simpson said. 

        Coach Simpson has been competing with 23 wrestlers all season five of which were eight graders.  He has twelve returning seventh graders and the remaining wrestlers are returning sixth graders.  So he’ll have a predominately eight grade wrestling team next year.  “You know, in wrestling you wrestle in a weight class, that means that a sixth grader may be wrestling an eighth grader, it just depends on who is in the weight class,” explains Coach Simpson.  “Social Circle had a mostly eight grade team so most of our guys were wrestling eighth graders; some of our sixth graders, too.  Since we’ll have a mostly eighth grade team next year I’m looking for good things from them.”

        Of the eight graders this year Coach Simpson said that Tyler Sharp, Trent Ashworth, Garrett McCormack and Tyler Hooper will probably go on to wrestle at the high school level.  They will be a good addition to Coach Cordell’s team if they do.  “Coach Cordell has a young team and has holes in several weight classes that these guy could fill, said Coach Simpson.  “So they might get to wrestle next year in these weight classes.”

        Coach Simpson works closely with Coach Cordell in planning what to teach the newcomers.  Coach Simpson said that Coach Cordell gives him about 15 things he wants the middle school guys to learn and that’s what Coach Simpson teaches.  On the other end, the younger end, Coach Simpson said they don’t actually go to the elementary school to recruit.  But they do have a USA wrestling program going in the county with about 25 wrestlers, many of which are younger than middle school. 

        In order to be competitive many sports now have club teams, summer workouts, etc. and middle school wrestling is no exception.  Although the dates are not yet finalized, Coach Simpson says there will be summer workout session for middle school wrestlers.  Usually it’s four weeks in durations, three or four days per week and they send out flyers to the elementary school and as young a first graders. 

        Another aspect of OC wrestling is the USA program, which is not affiliated with the school, starts kids much younger than middle school age.  Coach Simpson said he has several kids that not only wrestle or him but the USA program as well; Trent Smith who started wrestling two years ago and is a returning sixth grader along with Trent Ashworth among others.  USA wrestling meets two nights a week under Coach Cordell’s tutelage at the wrestling room at the high school.  They have meets on Sundays and it goes on all year long.  Coach Simpson says it’s a good place to get started in wrestling.  

        OCMS wrestling has always had a pretty good crowd of boys on the team.  Many of them are new and inexperienced.  But when they get their first win, which may take most of the season, there is a new sense of dedication on their part to work harder so they can win again.  Coach Simpson is looking forward to next year and so are many of the wrestlers.  The middle school Patriots should do well. 

       

         

Varsity Soccer

Varsity Soccer Report From Coach Norton - We’ve had a good 2 weeks of practice. Overall, there’s a good vibe amongst the players. We’ve been working a lot on playing with width and also basic defending.

We’re pretty good up the center of the field, but the outside positions are still being evaluated. We get Cody Flores back from wrestling this week so it will be our first time to have the whole team at practice together.

One of the concerns I have with the team is our depth. One injury or sickness to a couple players and we’re a lot weaker than we could be. We scrimmaged the girls’ team Friday and looked okay, but have got to play with more balance and width, using both sides of the field.

We also need to work on getting our forwards on the same page up top. Eli Johnson had a good week of practice learning defense and will see a lot of time there this season.

Our first real test is this Friday at home against Madison. I’ve heard they have a lot of experienced seniors, so it will definitely be a challenge, but give us a good idea of where we are before our real games start.

Both boys and girls teams play against Madison County Friday, February 10^th at home.  The girls start at 5:30pm and the boys start at 7:30pm.

OCMS Girls Basketball

OCMS Girls Basketball Team

Post Season Girls Basketball – Last year the middle school girl’s basketball team was extremely successful.  If memory serves they only lost one game and that was to St. Joseph’s in the tournament championship game at the end of the season.  Several of those girls moved on to play for the girl’s varsity basketball team this year, which meant that there was considerable pressure on both the remaining middle school girls and their coach, Keith Goodwin. 

        Coach Goodwin is not only the girls basketball coach he is also one of the assistant principal at the middle school, a position not known for providing a lot of time to coach.  "Beverly [Levine, OCMS Principal] knew that the basketball team meant a lot to the girls,” said Goodwin.  “So when we needed a girl’s basketball coach we notched out the time so I could do it.  I’ve been able to spend time with my daughter, Elizabeth, which I would otherwise not been able to do and I have built some good relationships with the kids, too.” 

        “When last season ended I made it known that on Monday’s I’d meet with anyone who wanted to play basketball,” Coach Goodwin remarked, concerning the end of the girl’s phenomenal season last year.  “That started from about March.  I didn’t want the kids to have to choose between something like track and basketball.  But we did that through the summer.  Sometimes we'd only have a couple of kids, other times maybe five or six. We had a basketball camp in the summer and once the softball teams were picked we started again in the fall.”      

OCMS Basketball Cheerleaders

        “I was pretty comfortable with where the girls were on progressing with their skills,” Coach Goodwin continues.  “The girls last year had a better understanding of basketball from a conceptual point of view, but I felt pretty good going into the season.  Then we were 9-1 and we got smoked by Athens Christian.  It was after that game that I realized just how well we were doing because we only had three girls coming back from last year that had any real basketball experience; and that was Kiah Bazzell, Amber Turner and Elizabeth Goodwin.”  Most of the other players that returned from last year didn’t have much floor experience Coach Goodwin said. 

        “The record is not as important as how they look on the court; how they look as a team, how they play as a team.  Do they have a good chemistry,” comment’s Goodwin.  “Athens Christian wasn’t particularly athletic but they were great as a team.  But one of the reasons we did so well was because of our girl’s hustle.  I never had a problem with their hustle, and that’s one of the reasons we won so many of those close games is because our girls out hustled them.”  This will bode well for those who want to play high school basketball.

        Coach Goodwin said that both Turner and Bazzell will certainly step up for high school.  “Both of them just love the game,” Goodwin said.  “I think Shondra Dewberry, Ashley Waller and Sierra Taylor will go up and give it a shot.  Waller didn’t get to play that much because this was her first year playing basketball but she is an exceptional athlete.  If she sticks with it she’ll make a big contribution.”  Coach Goodwin thinks that all of these girls will be good for the high school team.  He feels like they have the desire; they are coachable; they are willing to listen and learn and have the skills. 

        “As far as those coming back next year I think we have a strong group.  There will be nine players returning and all of them played.  Destinie Taylor and Tory Wiggins both had surgeries during the season so that slowed them up but they should be back strong next year.  Cori Rollings is going to be a top flight player, Gina Mattox played well, Bahria Jones is a good athlete who started a game for us,  Shermiah Baughns, who played as a sixth grader will be strong,  Alexis Wymbs played point guard.  She and Turner shared time at point guard, which is a high pressure position and because of the experience she got this year she’ll be better next year.  Brittany Harland, who is also a softball player, came a long way this season and by the end of the season was seeing a good bit of playing time. 

        “We should have a good core group going into next year,” said Coach Goodwin. 

        Coach Goodwin said they will probably play a similar schedule against similar teams next year as they did this year.  With the age and experience of the returning ball players next year should provide the rest of us with some exciting basketball.

   

       

Varsity Wrestling



OC wrestlers at the 8-AA Area Tournament.

Elberton – The Patriot varsity wrestlers concluded two days of competition in Elberton at the 8-AA Area Wrestling Tournament.  Out of the eight OC wrestlers four of them will move on to the sectionals next week.

Cody Flores

Justin Whitman

        To put things in a nutshell:  Justin Whitman went three rounds with a wrestler from Dawson County and won the match 14-6.  Whitman will wrestle in the section tournament.  Tee Hull came in fourth against a Banks County wrestler.  Hull will also wrestle in the sectional tournament.  Both Flores brothers, Matt and Cody, earned fifth place in their respective weight classes.  Matt Flores pinned his opponent with 29 seconds remaining in the second period. 

Fifth place wrestlers will go to the sectionals as alternates to wrestle in case one of the first through fourth place wrestlers in their weight class cannot compete.

Tee Hull

Congratulations go out to the OC wrestlers who made the tournament. 

       

Matt Flores