LIVE BLOG: Spartans vs. Tigers for the Class AAA state boys basketball championship

UPDATE: Watch video from the victory celebration

It's 8:58 on a championship Saturday night in Macon. The Glenn Hills team is warming up.

There is 3:00 left to go until the starters are announced. Estimated start time is 9:06 P.M. from The Macon Coliseum.

It's the Carver-Columbus (22-9) Tigers vs. the Glenn Hills Spartans (28-2) from Macon.

Check back for periodic scoring updates on the blog.

9:14 PM: Carver takes an early lead. CC 7, GH 2. 4:57 1Q.

9:17 PM: TV Timeout. CC 8, GH 2 4:22 1Q

9:25 PM CC 15, GH 14. End of 1Q.

Both teams turning the ball over. GH has four TO's. CC has six TOs. Reggie Middleton (5 pts, 3 assists, 3 rebounds) is playing very well for GH. Shawn Allen has 4 points off the bench for Glenn Hills.

The Spartans are in foul trouble. Starters Jihad McCloud and Jerel Stephenson both have two fouls.

9:35 PM. Another TV timeout. GH 23, CC 19. 4:16 left in 2Q.

The Spartans continue to play superb defense during the postseason. Carver has nine turnovers.

9:48 PM. Halftime. Stat parade time. Glenn Hills is up 33-24.

The Spartans have made 7 of their 20 shots. They've ripped down 16 rebounds and turned the ball over 13 times. I'll use a fan's quote to tell everyone about what Reggie Middleton is doing for the Spartans right now.

"Keep carrying them on your back Reggie," a very vocal Spartan fan just behind me said during the quarter. "Keep carrying them."

He's right. Middleton has 13 points, four assists and three rebounds. He's 6-for-6 from the free throw line despite playing with a bandaged-up thumb that he hurt against Hart County in the semifinals last night.

Other big plusses for the Glenn Hills championship bid are reserves Shawn Allen and Andre White. Allen has six points and three rebounds. White has five points.

Glenn Hills standouts Chris Reynolds and Jerel Stephenson have just six points combined. The good works of Mr. Allen and Mr. White and picking up the slack for those future college players.

I like Jihad McCloud more and more every time I see him. He has no points but five rebounds at the half. Not bad for a 5-foot-9 hustling guard that can jump with anyone he wants to. His effort level is also a part of a fine defensive effort so far.

As for Carver, things aren't so hot. They have 15 turnovers and their leading scorer has three fouls at the break. But all-world linebacker Jarvis Jones has 10 points to lead the Tigers. Carver is being denied on the offensive end by the Spartans. The reiging Class AAA football champions are shooting just 6-for-23 at the break. They are also 0-for-5 from three-point range. The Tigers do have 13 rebounds.

9:59 PM. GH 35, GH 28. 6:09 left in 3Q.

10:03 PM. Media timeout. GH 36, CC 30. 4:37 left in 3Q.

Carver starting point guard Emilio Johnson now has four fouls. He'll sit and watch for a while.

10:08 PM. Timeout. GH 41, CC 31. Spartans fans might want to go to Burger King and pick up a few crowns for the family.

I may look like a complete goof for saying this so early, but I don't see any way that the Spartans let this one slip away tonight.

10:20 PM GH 47, CC 41. E3Q.

10:28 PM Stephenson has fouled out for GH. But it still looks good for the Augusta folks. GH 55, CC 47. 3:43 left to go in the game.

I can't say enough how well Shawn Allen is playing tonight with Chris Reynolds and Jerel Stephenson both having off nights. Allen has 14 points and seven rebounds.

10:35 PM: It's getting tighter. GH 58, CC 51. 2:23 left to go.

Jihad McCloud has just fouled out for Glenn Hills. Future Florida State wide receiver Jarmon Fortson has also fouled out for the Tigers.

Middleton just drained two free throws to keep the Tigers at bay.

10:38 PM: GH 59, CC 53. Middleton just missed his first free thow a minute back. He was nine for nine until that miss. There is 1:25 left to play in the game.

10:42 PM: GH 59, CC 55. :55 left

10:42 PM: GH 59, CC 55. :48 left.

There's 48 seconds left until a possible GH state title. Who's happy about that?

10:43 PM: GH 61, CC 55. Allen just nailed two big free throws. :33 left.

10:46 PM: GH 63, CC 57. :08

10:47 PM: Final. GH 64, CC 57.

UPDATE: Watch video from the victory celebration

Glenn Hills boys and girls at the Class AAA semifinals in Macon.

The Carrollton fans have already started in on the Glenn Hills team. They began heckling the Glenn Hills girls during warm-ups today. They were counting up missed shots in a row for the Lady Spartans.

It was pretty much the only noise in the building while the Spartan girls warmed up early.

It's 3:58 PM. The Glenn Hills girls are dressed in Carolina blue. Carrollton's Lady Trojans are in white.  The starting lineups are going on right now.

Next up: Carrollton (28-2) vs. Glenn Hills (22-8) from the Macon Coliseum.

Conventional wisdom and a smattering of opinion from sportswriters around the state says the Lady Spartans are the underdogs in this one. The Lady Trojans only give up 35 points per game this year.

Glenn Hills senior guard Ciara Lyons averages 24 points per game on her own.

One of those strengths will have to give. Check back soon for an update.

4:06 PM UPDATE: Carrollton 5, Glenn Hills 5. 1Q 5:45

4:12 PM UPDATE: Carrollton 15, Glenn Hills 8. 1Q 1:56

4:20 UPDATE: Carrollton 16, Glenn Hills 13. E1Q.

Carrollton's fan base is at least three times as loud as the Glenn Hills crowd. With both teams at the state semifinal, that was unexpected. Carrollton's Karisma Boykin is controlling this game in the early going. She had 11 points in the first quarter.

4:25 PM: Carrollton's taking over. CHS 22, GH 13. 5:51 2Q

I'll quote a fellow media member sitting next to me at press row right now.

"Wow," that writer said. "Carrollton is running Glenn Hills off the floor."

4:35 P.M. HALFTIME. CHS 32, GH 25.

It's a good thing Jessica Morton of Glenn Hills got hot in the second quater. It could have been worse. Morton hit two treys in that quarter to keep it tight. The Lady Spartans were down as much as 13 points at one point in the second quarter.

Lyons leads all Glenn Hills scorers with her seven points at the half.  

4:50 PM UPDATE: CHS 39, GH 27. 4:32 3Q

4:58 PM UPDATE: CHS 47, GH 32. 1:17 3Q

5:00 PM UPDATE: CHS 47, GH 32. End of the 3Q.

Not good for the Spartans. Down 15 points with eight minutes to go. Ciara Lyons also has three fouls.

5:20 UPDATE. Not happening for the Lady Spartans. CHS 63, GH 44. Final.

I found it odd Carrollton was still shooting three-pointers with its second team and blowout tick minutes squad in during the final minutes. Not a shining example of gamesmanship or sportsmanship in my book.

5:45 PM UPDATE: Good news for Spartan fans. The boys are up 10-4 with 4:27 left in the first quarter. Jihad McCloud has two dunks. The Spartan boys appear very determined right now.

This is already as much intensity as they have played with all season.

5:54 PM: Glenn Hills boys 18, Hart County 12. E1Q

Glenn Hills senior Chris Reynolds had a great first quarter. He had eight points and three rebounds.

6:10 PM UPDATE: GH 24, HC 22. HALF.

Interesting end to the half. Jerel Stephenson missed a shot off a soaring drive into the paint. The ball was promptly collected and hoisted into the air by Hart senior center Quint Clinkscales. He let it go in the outer semi-circle before his own free throw line.

We see this all the time. Well, sort of. I bet all the TV videographers who were sitting idle with their cameras sheathed on press row wish they were rolling on that one.

That heave looked like a hot air balloon rising up and up as it zinged its way down court. And since I'm taking the time to tell you about it, you know what happened.

His answered prayer gave his team a momentum jolt heading into the half. Will the buzzer-beater be enough to spark a team that's been a step behind Glenn Hills for most of the half?

6:34 PM UPDATE: Glenn Hills 40, Hart County 30. E3Q

6:55 PM UPDATE: The looooongest quarter in history is still going on. Hart County is fouling Glenn Hills non-stop whenever one of its players has the ball.

GH 54, HC 38. 2:00 4Q

7:00 PM UPDATE. Glenn Hills 61, Hart County 45.

Spartans face Carver of Columbus (22-9) tomorrow night at 8:45 PM. Do the team a favor and fill up the gas tank and come out and support a hard-working bunch of coaches and players that sure deserves the support.

Carver-Columbus also won the Class AAA state football championship this year. Several of the key Tigers have started for both teams.

Glenn Hills and its shiny 28-2 record has to be considered the favorite to bring home the first state basketball title in the history of its boys program tomorrow night.

Glenn Hills sweeps its games in the state quarterfinals on Saturday.

Today just might be the greatest day in Glenn Hills basketball history.

Its girls program rolled to an easy 48-36 win in the Class AAA semifinals and its boys team followed that up with a 56-44 win against Washington County.

Both teams move on to the Class AAA semifinals next Friday at The Macon Coliseum. The Lady Spartans (22-8) take the court at 4 p.m. to face Carrollton (28-2) to kick off the Class AAA girls action. The Spartans (27-2) will then take on Hart County (23-5) at 5:30 p.m. for the right to play in the Class AAA finals on Saturday.

How's this for irony? The last time the boys team made the state semifinals was 1986. Hart County was the opponent then, too. The Bulldogs knocked Glenn Hills out 60-59 on their way to winning the Class AAA state title.

We're in the third quarter of the other area matchup of interest at Columbus State University and the news is not good for Hephzibah fans.

Unbeaten Kendrick holds a 47-39 lead over the Lady Rebels with 1:18 left to play in the third quarter.

8:30 PM UPDATE: Kendrick 65, Hephzibah 57 with 2:25 left to play.

8:51 PM UPDATE: Kendrick 73, Hephzibah 65. Final.  The Lady Rebels wrap their season with a 27-3 record and a spot in the Class AAA Elite Eight.

There are only two Augusta area teams left in the GHSA tournament. Both teams play at Glenn Hills. That's a pretty impressive feat for a school around this time of year.

National Signing Day: Your inside scoop

9:45 AM: Let's get the news out of the way first. Cornelius Washington had a Signing Day ceremony at 9:00 in the cafeteria of Burke County High School.

The big drama of his morning was looking for a pen. A nice pen. Washington had to ask a few visitors for one.

"I hadn't really worried about this thing at all until this morning," Washington said, who committed to Georgia back in the summer of 2006.  "Then I woke up and got nervous. I just wanted everything to go perfect. We were finally crossing all the "i's" and dotting those "t's" and I didn't want anything to go wrong. If the pen weren't working or the fax machine was broken at the school, then I was probably going to lose it."

He was the first of the area trio heading to Georgia to celebrate the moment with family and friends, but the last to get his official scholarship papers in. Washington's fax didn't leave the high school through the efforts of BCHS Office Manager Nancy Pearce until 9:25 A.M.

She faxed it to Damon Evans' office and not to the football offices just off Selig Circle. Hopefully, someone is manning that fax and can re-direct it to the right fax station at team headquarters.

If there's a reason the Bulldogs haven't gotten his fax yet, that's why.

Next up: A.J. Harmon of Jefferson County High School. The Parade All-American is set to sign at 11:00 AM at the school media center.

But that's as close to a dog and pony show as it gets in the news business. Harmon's grand-in-aid was faxed from Jefferson County High School at 8:45 A.M. earlier this morning. His work was already done and all those Clemson fears were finally put to rest with that fax confirmation tone.

"I tipped my hat to that fax," Harmon said after signing it. "It was all over. I felt like I was delivering a baby."

Sanders Commings from Westside already had his fax in, too. His paperwork was sent to the University of Georgia's football office at 8:20 A.M. That's certainly going to take a lot of the drama out of Commings's 1:30 signing ceremony at the school, but we'll still be there.

I'll be back to update the blog after I get to Westside.

OVERTIME: A few extra points on new Greenbrier coach Brian Smith

Sometimes there's a lot more story than what runs in the paper. Not so much the nuts and bolts of a particular event, but maybe a little extra color or a little bit more detail.

I learned a few other interesting things about Coach Smith while chatting him up after he was named the team's next head football coach at Greenbrier on Friday. They are the sort of things that the parent of a young person who's going to play football for Smith at Greenbrier might find interesting to know, too.

Smith is a former letterman at North Augusta. He starred at linebacker for the Yellow Jackets and was named the team's most valuable player after his senior year. He graduated from North Augusta in 1987 after playing for Coach Hubert Morris.

Smith graduated from Presbyterian College with a business degree in 1991 and soon took a position with The Department of Veterans Affairs in Augusta right out of college.

Needless to say, he's the only coach in the area who can tell you the limitations of the Tampa Cover 2 and how much is too much to pay for a hip replacement for a soldier.  

"I worked in the accounting office eight hours a day crunching numbers," Smith said, who has four children. "That you can say wasn't my real cup of tea and I soon got called into education. Education and coaching was where my heart was. It was where my passion in life was. So I decided to follow that passion."

Smith, 38, played fullback at Prebyterian because "he was too short" to play linebacker. Smith was a three-year letterman at Presbyterian. Smith points out longtime Blue Hose coach Cally Gault as a tremendous influence in that decision.

"Coach Gault wasn't coaching then," Smith said. "But he was basically one of the reasons I decided to go to Presbyterian. He talked to me before I went there."

The last few years on his resume read like a tennis match.

Smith was an assistant at Greenbrier this season. He was a teacher only at North Augusta during the 2006 season. He was an assistant coach at North Augusta coaching the running backs for the 2005 season. Smith was an assistant coach at Greenbrier coaching the defensive backs for the 2004 season.  

"I've been back and forth," he said. "It gets a little confusing."

Smith logged several years with the Jackets as the team's strength coach during his eight seasons there, and he was promoted to defensive coordinator for the 2003 season.

Smith said Greenbrier will continue to run the spread offense and Rodney Holder will most likely call the plays and serve as offensive coordinator next season. There may be a little more option to it, though. Smith also favors the 3-4 defense.

"We are going to be multiple on defense but based in the 3-4," Smith said. "I believe in the 3-4 and bringing a lot of pressure and mixing up about six or seven coverages."

Perhaps the most interesting thing was when I asked if the other candidates would be back. All of the finalists were assistant coaches on Scott Chadwick's staff last year.

Those sort of things can have a way of being awkward. Smith indicated it will not be a problem. It's also the first sign of what kind of leader he just may be.

He holds both men in high esteem. He praised their expertise and loyalty. Smith wanted Hunt back as defensive coordinator. He made a point to mention what he thinks about the former Cross Creek head coach.

“What I appreciate the most about Kevin is the experience he brings to the table,” Smith said. “I am very high on him as a coach, but I think even more of him as a person. I cannot say enough about his character. If Kevin would have been named the head coach here instead of myself, I would not have had any problems with that decision.”

Think about all the jobs you've gotten in your own life. The ones you really wanted or needed at the time. How often would you have said the "other candidate" who didn't get the job was just as deserving as you were?

That about empties out my notebook on Smith. As an aside on Chadwick, I really wish things would have worked out better for him at Greenbrier.

Maybe it was politics. Maybe it was just not being a part of the coaching fraternity at Greenbrier. Maybe it was the teams and coaches in Georgia are a little more talented than the ones he faced in Maryland. Maybe it was simply the grades and eligibility issues that signaled to everyone it was more friction than fun for all involved.  

Maybe it is a little of all those things. Maybe it is none of those things. Coach Chadwick always impressed me with his late-night attention to detail while preparing for an opponent during a typical week. There were a few times where he was putting in teacher hours, coach hours and then newspaperman hours.

"I just want to do all I can to make sure this team has its best chance to win," Chadwick said at around 11 p.m. in his office one night during his first season.

That attitude had me believing he was going to be a winner here.

But the fact is Chadwick went 40-10 in four seasons at Lackey (Md.) and had his team in the state title game two times in that span. And now he's left our area never having shown he could do those same things here.

This is a man's career that got sidetracked a bit while coaching in our area. He showed he could coach with the Evans win last year and the Brunswick win this year. But those were just blips. It's a shame the Chadwick coaching chapter is closed in our area and we never really got to see what he could do at Greenbrier.

Our young people need more good coaches. Not one less.

Laney's new football schedule should carry an "R" rating.

I just got my hands on a copy on the new Region 3-AA football schedule. It does not look pretty if you're a fan of the Laney Wildcats. It is a full region schedule.

That means no Josey versus Laney game next fall unless it is in a scrimmage setting. That's not the first or last bit of frustration Wildcats fans will have with this new schedule.

The first four games of the season might as well be the Class AA playoffs. Those four teams each went to the state playoffs last year and return vital skill position personnel.

Here's the damage:

Aug. 29: Jefferson County at Laney (Likely loss with the Bostic kid back at JC, Laney falls to 0-1)

Sept. 5: Screven County at Laney (Toss-up even though Laney lost to SC in 07. But I do not think a Laney team that finished 2007 poorly and graduated its top two linemen should be favored here. Especially with no clear-cut quarterback returning to face a stacked SC team. Laney falls to 0-2.)

Sept. 12: Dublin at Laney (Loss. Dublin is Dublin. 'Nuff said. Laney 0-3)

Sept. 19: Off week (Much needed. After a potential 0-3 start, the attitudes of the team this week will dictate the course of the season.)

Sept. 26:  Laney at Dodge County (Dodge went 9-3 and won a playoff game last year. They'd have beaten Laney last year. But we'll call this one a Laney win. The off-week will help. So will program tradition. Laney's players thrive on adversity. The record rises to 1-3.)

Oct. 3: Toombs County at Laney: (Toss-up. Toombs also went to the playoffs last year. But the Wildcats are still the better program, Laney improves to 2-3.)

Oct. 10: Laney at Bleckley County: ('Cats go to Cochran to face a team that's won as many playoff games (2) as the Wildcats have the last three seasons. But let's also give Laney another win and put them at 3-3 here.)

Oct. 17: Vidalia at Laney: (Coach Lee Chomskis has got the Indians heading in the right direction. But the Indians were 5-5 last year, so I'll also give Laney the edge. The definition of a tough schedule is when the Vidalia game can be seen as one of the more winnable games on the docket. This win gets them to 4-3.)

Oct. 24: Laney at Swainsboro: (Let's call this another loss. Swainsboro won the region in which the 'Cats finished fourth in last year and return better skill personnel. That and the road trip should drop Laney to 4-4).

Oct. 31: East Laurens at Laney: (Another 2007 playoff team. Laney should probably be very beat-up by this point but feisty enough to pull off a tough win. This game could very well determine a playoff spot. Laney HAS to win here to get to 5-4.)

Nov. 7: Laney at Southeast Bulloch: (SEB went 2-8 last year. Cruel twist puts the easiest game of the year in the final week. Laney could even be eliminated from the playoffs by this point even with a 6-4 record.)

Here's the half-full prediction: 6-4

Here's the half-empty prediction: 4-6

Here's the best they can do: 8-2

These shark-infested waters make that playing in Class AAAA thing seem sort of logical in a warped way. Laney would have lost no more than 2-3 games by any stretch of the imagination had it chose to play in Class AAAA with the rest of Richmond County this fall. This has really just blew up in their faces as far as football goes.

Keep in mind this will be a Laney team still trying to find a quarterback that lost four of its last six games last year, including three in a row.

The bottom line is Laney resides in one of THE tough regions in the state now. If you're a Laney player, forget about playing that new video game system you got for Christmas and go to the weight room. Now. Bring a teammate or three with you. Better yet bring 12 teammates. Then hit the field afterward for a 7-on-7 session.

This team could have another Robert Dunn and a J.K. Sabb on the roster in 2008 and still lose twice.

It's the schedule that doesn't need the coaching staff to bring along a pacifier, but a sledgehammer. They'll need an All-Star team to earn a home playoff game in 2008. Keep in mind this is a region that Laney ASKED to be placed in.

Laney will have to finish strong by wining four out of its last six to make the playoffs this fall.

Here's a thought: How will this region placement choice be judged if Laney goes 4-6 or 5-5 next year and fails to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999? What will the athletic department's bank balance looks like next fall if the team loses six or seven games next year?

Will the Laney faithful stay away from that beautiful new stadium if the team loses four out of its first five games? We shall see.

Is your football team free on August 29? Have I got a date for you!

WANTED: A FOOTBALL GAME

Thomson coach Luther Welsh has let his fingers do enough walking. He just can't get anyone talking about playing his team this fall.

"I can't get anybody to play me," Welsh said. "I've called all over Georgia. We need a football game for the 29th of August. I can't find nobody in Georgia that wants to play me. If anyone needs a game, please call."

That would be the first game of the Thomson season. This new region realignment has really done an end-around on his scheduling. He does not have any prospects as of today for Aug. 29 this fall.

"Maybe I can find somebody across the river," Welsh said. "I don't care what classification it is. I really don't care where it is. I just need the ball game."

Welsh's Bulldogs are easily one of the top five programs in the area. Their fans travel (READ: GATE RECEIPTS $$$) very well. His team is not terribly stacked next year. It's not like the Georgia teams are cowering in fear at the thought of lining up with a juggernaut.

He has a solid team returning next year, but not a potential state champion team by any means. Truth be told, every head coach in the area is having scheduling nightmares right now after the latest reclassification in Georgia.

"Everybody throughout Georgia won't play me or they have already got games," Welsh said. "I don't know what it is. I can't get anybody to call me back."

Thomson head coach Luther Welsh can be reached at (706) 986-4200. He'll be happy to take your call. You'll get the chance to face a well-coached team with discipline and a veteran coaching staff that knows the game and the right way to play the game.

Welsh holds the Georgia record for games coached. His first season was back at Warren County in 1957. Welsh won his 300th career game last year against Washington-Wilkes.

If they have the schedule flexibility, I'd say that games against Aiken, North Augusta, Silver Bluff, South Aiken and Strom Thurmond would be ideal suitors. Maybe even Allendale-Fairfax, Bamberg-Erhardt or Blackville-Hilda.

Hmm. I wonder if Byrnes High School is available?

So please, call the man. It's January. Pass the word to your school's AD or head football coach. Help a gentleman finish out his schedule.

 UPDATE ON MON. JAN 14: Well, Thomson found their game. They will play Buford. Wow. That's probably one of the top 10 programs in the state and in any classification. Easy. Buford is an AA school, but with the resources and players to fare quite well in Class AAAA or AAAAA. The team has made a habit of putting the sons of former Atlanta Falcons on the field in recent years.

Guys like Scott Case and T.J. Pridemore had sons and the apples fell right below the tree.

I'd have to say Thomson would be the underdog even if they faced the Wolves in The Brickyard. At least the Bulldogs got their opening filled.

New Georgia High School regions are announced.

Laney and Greenbrier fans, get ready to set the cruise control.

That's the initial reaction after the Georgia High School Association announced its region realignments for the 2008-2010 school years in regard to athletic competition. Both schools find themselves all alone in a new region packed with unfamiliar rivals.

Greenbrier's move to Class AAAAA sees it paired up with the likes of M.L. King, Redan and Stephenson in Region 2-AAAAA. The Wolfpack should clean up in baseball, but face the opposite end of the spectrum on the football field in the fall. It will mean at least a three-hour trip on a school bus up I-20 to play those region games. Greenbrier's new region mates are all in Metro Atlanta.

Laney stays in Class AA but will get ready to face a region dominated with schools from Macon in the new Region 4-AA. The Wildcats will compete with the likes of Central-Macon, Greene County, Henry County, Monticello, Northwest Macon, Putnam County and Southwest Macon for playoff berths in GHSA competition. Several of those schools are moving down from Class AAA slots this year.

Richmond County gets its wish and will have its own Augusta-based region. Butler, Cross Creek, Evans, Lakeside and Richmond Academy will be in one half of the new Region 3-AAAA. Glenn Hills, Harlem, Hephzibah, Josey and Westside will be in the other side of the divided region.

Burke County sees itself paired up with local rivals like Baldwin, Thomson and Washington County in the new Region 3-AAA. It should make for good nights at the ticket booth, but hard-fought playoff berths. The addition of West Laurens to a region that also contains Liberty County and Richmond Hill means a region with travel and tough games in region play.

Laney's old region rivals get a particularly tough home in the new Region 3-AA. This will be another sub-divided region. Jefferson County, Screven County, Southeast Bulloch and Swainsboro will all stay put in the same region, but will welcome in Tattnall County on its side of the region. The real downer is the other half of the region. That's where the schools will see the likes of Bleckley County, Dodge County, Dublin, East Laurens, Toombs and Vidalia standing in the way of postseason play on the state level.

Aquinas, Lincoln County and Warren County also find themselves in a split region in Class A. Washington-Wilkes joins a new Region 4-A that's essentially the same membership of the old Region 7-A. The other half of Region 4-A will contain the likes of Georgia Military, Hancock Central, Twiggs County and Wilkinson County dropping down from Class AA. 

The 4-A designation for those schools is for all sports except for football. Those teams will all be in Region 7-A in regard to GHSA football competition.

For a complete list of all the new regions click below:

http://ghsa.net/files/documents/Region_Alignments_2008-2010.pdf

These regions are by no means concrete. Schools have until December 14 to file a written appeal seeking a lateral transfer to another region in their respective classification.

The GHSA's reclassification committee will hear those appeals on Dec. 17 at its offices in Thomaston. The full executive committee of the GHSA will then meet on Jan. 10 to ratify the reclassification and realignment decisions. These placements will not be considered finalized until that date.

Class AAAA? Could be on the way for Richmond County.

Some folks are mad. They have every right to be.   

It has to do with the Richmond County Board of Education and athletics. There is a proposal generated in-house to move all of the county schools to Class AAAA for Georgia High School Association competition. The state’s teams are being reclassified and re-aligned for the 2008-2010 school years over the next 60 days. 

Every Richmond County school besides Laney will ask the GHSA to move to Class AAAA. That’s the proposal for realignment that was faxed to the GHSA yesterday. Laney will stay in Class AA. Everyone else moves to Class AAAA with Richmond Academy. The Musketeers are the only school in the county with Class AAAA numbers.  

Josey and Westside will hop two classes. Butler, Cross Creek, Glenn Hills and Hephzibah will play up one class. It likely means a region that includes Evans and Lakeside, with even a chance Harlem could move up to Class AAAA. Every GHSA school in our area except those in Class A will be affected by this move.  

“The big reasons for moving the schools to one class were transportation and financial issues,” Richmond County Board of Education athletic director George Bailey said. “Four years ago we allowed the schools to play in their own regions. Our gate receipts have plummeted those four years. We have not made a lot of money on those gates. The out-of-town schools in the regions just did not bring people to our games.”  

The current shortfall in football ticket revenue will be helped. There will be fewer off nights with crowds from Glynn Academy, Metter or Screven County opting not to take the long road trip. No county teams will make return trips to those respective schools. That’s a credible reason give the cost of gasoline these days. 

“One of the things at the top of the list behind this idea was travel,” Bailey said. “Our county schools and teams were just tired of those long bus rides and road trips.” 

It may allow control of a GHSA region. The Board of Education could tell its athletics directors and coaches how to vote on region matters. They can set schedules up in the county’s best interests. They can organize security officers in a more effective manner.  

There’s some good to the plan. But here’s the ace of spades when it comes to bad.  It’s a decision influenced by things that affect the adult world. Revenue and travel are things for adults to worry about. Count me among the group that believes that every prep athletic decision should be done with one thing foremost in mind: Kids.  

“You hate to say finances may be one of the driving forces,” Bailey said. “But state policies detail how schools can spend money. There are things we can only purchase through gate receipts like uniforms, equipment and paying the officials. Our officiating bill this year is going to be in the neighborhood of $180,000 for all the sports. The board of education can’t come in if we fall short of the gate monies that we need. We can’t come in and help out to buy uniforms for all these teams.”

The county high school teams rely on big crowds for proper funding.

“If those numbers don’t change, what you are going to have to start doing is cutting back the number of people you allow on a team,” Bailey said. “Instead of allowing a football coach to have 60, 70 or 80 kids we’ll have to have to cut it back to 40 or 50. Because that’s all the uniforms we can afford to buy for each team.”

Josey and Westside would be total underdogs from the outset.  

“You’ve essentially told those schools and those coaches to forget about winning a state championship,” one Richmond County coach told me last week. 

No area coach worth their whistle will be able to look a team in the eye on the first day of practice and identify a goal of winning a state title. It just won’t happen. Evans and its 1820 students would dominate a Class AAAA region of Richmond County teams. 

Here’s an example: Let’s say one of the best Josey or Westside in recent years made the state playoffs this year. They’d be facing a Class AAAA school like Evans faced last week. Lee County High School has 1774 students. The Trojans must have had 100 players suited up last Friday. They had at least 13 coaches in white polo shirts.  

If they had faced the Eagles, the other sideline would have lined up a total of 40 players. There would maybe have been six Josey coaches. Josey is slotted with 917 students. Westside is slotted with 902. Class AAA Glenn Hills moves up to Class AAAA with 983 students in its own right. That’s almost double the amount of student population. 

“It will be a David and Goliath thing,” Westside baseball and football coach Gerald Barnes said. “I’m not saying it can’t be done. We will try the best that we can. I don’t want the size of the schools to be a factor to our kids if that happens.” 

Football teams are driven by student population. That gives a Lee County twice as good a chance as having a good team at its school than Glenn Hills, Josey or Westside. It’s like a lottery ticket. One school just has more chances to have a lot of good players. 

One aftershock of the proposal is it will increase the disparity of Richmond County’s budgeted coaching slots for its teams. Class AAAA schools routinely field coaching staffs with anywhere to 12 to 15 coaches. Richmond County’s teams would be out-manned in that area, too. The county’s schools may have up to five paid assistants. 

The county’s Class AAA teams like Butler, Cross Creek and Hephzibah will be moving up to face a disadvantage in those areas, too. Those schools chances to win a playoff game in all sports will be reduced, not enhanced.

“I thought the whole purpose of classification was to have schools of the same size compete against one another in the postseason?” Hephzibah girls basketball coach Wendell Lofton said. “Why have classes at all then?” 

This is cash flow winning out over state rings. A bottom lines trumping success in postseason play. Playoff exposure helps scholarship chances. 

“Making the playoffs and a state championship ring is not the sole purpose we have in mind for athletic activities,” Bailey said. “Our first and foremost reason for athletics is to provide the most opportunities for all our students to be successful. We want to be able to offer all the athletic opportunities we can to all our students.” 

If the ability to simply field teams is compromised, the issue is more complex. If this is a mode of survival instead of profit, that’s a better reason for the move.  

The Savannah area has done this for years. The Chatham County schools played 1-2 classes up in regards to classification. Most of the schools have Class AAA or AAAA numbers, but they’ve been Class AAAAA since the GHSA went to five classes in 2000. No team from Chatham County has won a state football playoff game since. 

Laney was proposed to move up to Class AAAA last week. That school’s 629 students would have had a greater chore than Josey and Westside. I’m surprised those schools took a pass at staying where they belonged when Laney chose to stay Class AA. It’s an inequality. The only place for a youth to play football in the county if you want to win state playoff games and get noticed will now be with the Laney Wildcats. 

“Laney did not feel like it would be competitive,” Bailey said. “This wasn’t something where we were forcing the schools to move. If so, all the schools would have been in the Quad-A proposal.” 

Why not just play up to Class AAA? That would have left ARC alone in Class AAAA. The majority of the county schools would have stayed in AAA. Josey, Laney and Westside would have been the only ones to play up. Those schools would not have been as out-manned in AAA as they are under this new plan.  

The other fallout will be teams like Burke County, Thomson and Washington County may land in the same region with Baldwin and Jones County. That’s a tough region.  

This will not simply be a football issue. But football is where the numbers gap will be felt the most in athletic competition. Barnes will lead a baseball team that can win Class AAAA games in the area if it has pitching. But the ride to the state finals in 2005 won’t happen again. 

Richmond County’s top basketball team will suffer once it reaches state play. Hephzibah will face schools with up to 600 more students to draw players from. 

“It will prevent us from going deep,” Lofton said. “I want my kids exposed to the state playoffs in Albany and Macon. We will go to the second round and then we go home. Are we doing this in regard to what’s best for the children or something else? We are in the business of helping children I do believe.” 

If the new plan is approved, I’d suggest Richmond County use some of their savings to sponsor a splendid region championship trophy. Make sure it rivals the size of the Class AAAA state championship trophy. 

They’ll be the small school with the big trophy trounced in the first round of the playoffs every year. But they’ll have a big trophy. At least they won’t be slighted in that regard.  

EXTRA POINTS: Jefferson Co. 27, Burke Co. 17

BURKE COUNTY EXTRA POINTS

I think Burke coach Eric Parker is living a life that's a little too close to what UGA coach Mark Richt went through last year. He has given up the play calling. He's become more of a CEO of the entire football team.

And he's got a two-headed quarterback monster right now, which some might say means he has no quarterback at all. It seems a lot like the Joe Tereshinski III question that Richt had on his mind around this time last year. He can go with a senior who hasn't played a whole lot that shows a good grasp of the offense or with the talented newcomer who will likely take his lumps.  

He'll likely be trying to figure out the Bobby Burum vs. Tyler Hammett question for a few weeks. Both have their selling points.

Burum is a good kid. Good athlete, too. Solid head on his shoulders. His future is bright in both basketball and football. But I expected the junior to be more productive running the show for the Bears against Jefferson.

He looked like the varsity quarterback in his debut that he was against the Warriors. I expected him to find more creases in the run game. Especially after hearing he ran for more than 100 yards in a scrimmage against the suddenly very imposing Warren County Screaming Devils last month.

Burum had four carries for five yards on a night where every Burke runner found no joy. The Bears barely averaged a yard per carry against Jefferson County.

The other half of the rotation was senior Tyler Hammett. Hammett has a decent arm and an extraordinary head. He's an all-world academic who is one of the very top, if not the top, students in his class.

That sort of thing translates well to football, too. His coaches at Burke County consider him a coach on the field. He can read defenses and adjust his protections. He just didn't play as fast as his mind works last Friday night.

But the knock on him physically is he's slow and coming off a knee injury. He's going to have to really own the pocket. I don't see how he can get to the corner and move against teams that decide they should just come after him.

The main problem is the best thing either of those two young men should do is be a game manager. Protect the football. Protect the right to punt. To give up on a play that's not there and let the other weapons on offense make the plays.

That sounds good, but I don't know if Burke has a lot of weapons right now. There's not really a standout running back on the roster. Maybe Terrell Brigham can be that X-factor at receiver, but he's still very young.   

I compare their situation right now to Travis Murphy at North Augusta. He's making the transition to varsity starter look real easy. The difference is Murphy has weapons all over the place. His receiving corps is probably the best in the area. He has a back that's averaging 165 yards per game on the ground right now. It makes his job real easy.

I hear a voice of reason pinging in the back of my head saying it's a whole new offensive system with an entire new terminology at Burke County. The Bears might have to go through similar growing pains to what North Augusta went through last year with new coach Dan Pippin. But maybe that's an extreme example as the Bears don't play a schedule as tough as the one the Jackets had last year.

The jury is still out on the Bears. It's hard for anyone to start breaking them down since everything is so new. It was just one game. And all the things that seemed like knocks on their squad might simply be because Jefferson's team is very good this year.

There is just not enough on-field data to make really strong case about what's up with this revamped team as of yet.

I'll wait until after the Glenn Hills game to start coming up with concrete thoughts about this team. Screven County will be a good test this week. The Gamecocks found a way to have two 100-yard runners in a loss to Statesboro last week. The Devils only have the top-rated defensive tackle prospect in America on their team. And they still got two backs over the 100-yard mark.

I think it's a toss-up game. Maybe even a slight lean to Screven County. I don't think the notion that Screven County will be playing a level up in classification will be a factor. The Gamecocks are a Class AA team with Class AAA numbers.

JEFFERSON COUNTY EXTRA POINTS

The first thing that comes to my mind whenever I watch the Warriors is this team deserves more support. The stands were not even a quarter full when play began Friday. Rain is no excuse. Show me rain that will keep a football fan away from Friday Night Football and I will show you a dictionary.

That's not the definition of what I call a fan.

Real football fans don't let a steady drizzle keep them away from a season opener after waiting through nine months for a new season. Real fans would get to a game even if they needed a canoe to reach the bleachers. Jefferson County is a real team without real fans. Or maybe one without a lot of real fans.

I don't know if I'm missing something, but I cannot fathom what is more interesting to do on a Friday night anywhere in Jefferson Country rather than watch this team play ball. 

Did they build a rural Disneyland somewhere and forget to put up a billboard? Do 50 Cent and Kanye West have an impromptu concert at a selected hay field every Friday just outside the county line? Does Carrie Underwood decide to play the same local honky tonk every Friday?

This is a good team that deserves better. They've sent more players to Division I-A and I-AA college football than any other area program over the last five years. This was a game last Friday that featured TWO of the top 100 prospects in America on the same field. That team deserves better fans.

Support your team, people. These kids and their coaches work AS HARD as any team in the area. They win. They've won region titles in back-to-back seasons. They've won 18 of their last 21 regular season games. The players on this team are bused home after practice. Their coaches aid in driving the buses. It means most of the top personnel on this team did not get home until at least 9:00 at night. That bus ride is a two-hour round trip for a coach after a long school day and after evening practice. Everyone endures all this to make sure this school has a good team.

Then they go out on their home field every Friday and see more fans in the visiting stands. They see their own stands barely halfway full, at that.

What will it take? Does this team need to win a state title to get support? The one knock is that this program has yet to win a playoff game. But the home playoff crowds are underwhelming, too. That type of wait-and-see attitude is the wrong route to take when it comes to hard-working young people.

I wonder if the folks in Jefferson County know how good they have it. I can call roll among area programs like Aquinas, Butler, Cross Creek, Evans, Glenn Hills, Greenbrier, Harlem, Hephzibah, Josey, Lakeside, Richmond Academy and Westside that would swap rosters with them in a heartbeat. Their fans would love just one season like the ones most Jefferson County locals have chosen to ignore for the last three years.

Enough about that. I really like Barry Bostic at quarterback. He made several big plays in the run game and another on the run in the passing game that very few area quarterbacks can do. He's smart and fast and accurate. I can think of maybe five quarterbacks in the area I'd take over the sophomore passer (5-foot-11, 170 pounds) right now.

But I'll wait until the kid plays a few more games before I put him on my All-Area watch list at the moment. I do not expect that showing to be an abberation but a sign of things to come.

Burke County coach Eric Parker was right when he said this may be one of the best Jefferson County teams he's faced. They've got Bostic. They've got all-everything lineman A.J. Harmon looking more like a road grader than a football player with every passing day. They've got a fine halfback in Lamar Brown and a superb receiver in Marcus Mayo.

The defense will always be tough to run against with Harmon up front and Johndrick Beasely at LB. Throw in Terrance Davis at safety and all three levels of the Jefferson County defense will be tough to crack this fall.

Now if they can only do something about all those penalties and brain freezes in the special teams, then they'd really have something to write about.

EXTRA POINTS: North Augusta 27, Strom Thurmond 17

NORTH AUGUSTA EXTRA POINTS

The sky couldn’t be any brighter for North Augusta right now. Last year’s 1-10 season seems like a bad memory blotted out with the promise of a potential redemption year.

The Yellow Jackets (1-0) raised the curtain on their season and beat their rival for the first time since 2003. They found at least four impact players capable of starring in a big game.

Junior linebacker Brett Johnson was credited with 21 tackles. He had 130 tackles last year and is already on the short list of the best linebackers in the area.

Junior running back Tidy Johnson could also be all-region material. He displayed a strong burst into the line and ran decisively. He often made the first defender miss and broke out a few spin moves worthy of a PlayStation3 controller. He carried the ball 19 times for 160 yards. He tore off big gains of 11, 11, 13, 39 and 72 yards.

Senior receivers Dave Dixon and Marcus Thurmond were the fastest players on the field. Thurmond beat man coverage for a 21-yard score and added a 25-yard gain on a reverse. Dixon caught three passes for 42 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown.

Then there’s Travis Murphy.

The first-year quarterback displayed good touch on the deep ball. He completed 10 of 17 passes for 138 yards with four touchdowns. No interceptions. His arm was the catalyst for the 27 unanswered points that secured the 27-17 comeback victory.

There’s also the matter of not relenting to a favored team down 17-0 at home in a game delayed almost two hours to lightning. North Augusta also seemed to be the better conditioned team in a game that ended shortly before midnight. 

Both traits speak volumes about the character and work ethic of this team. The emotional reward of Friday’s performance should stay with the Jackets for the remainder of the season.

The Yellow Jackets seems capable of making a run at a winning season, but they don’t need to go into the world-beater category just yet.

They did fumble the ball four times. They did give up 193 rushing yards to two Rebel runners. North Augusta also did not make a single first down on four of its first five possessions of the game.

STROM THURMOND EXTRA POINTS

The initial impression for Strom Thurmond is troubling.

It could have been an off night. Maybe the Jackets will prove to be one of the area’s better teams. That said, opening night exposed several flaws in what was supposed to be one of the area’s better teams this fall.

There were the seven times the Rebels put the ball on the ground. They lost five of those fumbles. The center-to-quarterback exchange is not yet a certainty.

There was the other hat-tossing matter of Strom Thurmond’s attempts to punt the football. Cord Butler went to his knee twice to field snaps on fourth down. He was ruled down immediately when his knee touched the ground. That was at least 60 yards of field position that the Rebels gave away. The Rebels fielded a kickoff inside their 25 that was inches away from going out of bounds.

It was one of those nights.

First off, the Rebels need more athletes on offense. Aramis Hillary and Oquendo Curry looked like star players surrounded by extras brought in off the street.

Hillary went 14-for-26 through the air on a night where his receivers let him down. There were at least four dropped passes. But Hillary let the fallout of an evaporated 17-0 halftime lead rattle him. Or at least stir his temper. It was a tough situation for a prep quarterback to stay composed in.

The quarterback with maybe the best intangibles in the area let his frustration show on the sideline. It’s one thing to be competitive. It’s another to maintain your composure. The quarterback has to keep it together to set the example. He’s got to be a positive anchor amid the storms circling his team.

The 6-foot-2, 216-pounder has showed ample poise on the field the last three seasons. It was nothing worth going into detail about. But it was clear he lost some of that poise with that 17-0 lead.

That may be directly attributed to circumstance. There might be no more receivers left on the team for the area’s top returning passer to work with.                                                                                                                     

His receiver corps came into the game minus a starter who had been kicked off the team. “Pooh” Williams, the team's top receiver, will not return from knee surgery for another month. Senior receiver Josh Painter left the game after re-aggravating a shoulder injury on his first reception of the night.                                                            

The lack of options reduced Hillary’s options to dink-and-dunk status in the passing game. The play-calling was also not that creative. Those calls seemed to rely on Hillary’s legs far too often. Hillary is not his older brother Coco. Coco Hillary was as much a threat to run as pass during his two All-Area seasons under center.                  

The current quarterback for the Rebels does not have the same skill set even though he’s clearly talented in his own right. Aramis Hillary has college scholarships offers from teams like Middle Tennesse and Missisippi State because of a pair of legs that are best served for buying time in the pocket for his receivers to find a crease. That is especially vital right now because his receivers looks like they need all the extra seconds they can get to break open.   

The defense looked more like blue painter’s tape than the famed “Blue Steel.” They could not stop the run or the pass. North Augusta’s Tidy Johnson ran for 160 yards. They gave up four touchdowns passes to a first-year QB.                                                                                                                              

The Rebels should expect their opponents to see this film and lick their chops about the ability to beat man coverage in the passing game. They look especially vulnerable to corner routes.

Brighter days will come for the Rebels. Curry (107 rushing yards) and Hillary (86 rushing yards) will make certain of that. But Lee Sawyer must see a slew of things to correct.

He also sees a schedule that reads Batesburg-Leesville, Laney, South Aiken and Silver Bluff over the next few weeks. The team that showed up Friday will be lucky to be 2-3 after that portion of the schedule. The Laney and South Aiken games seem like losses. The Batesburg-Leesville and Silver Bluff games seem like toss-ups.

Then again, no one really knows until Friday night. Most expected the Rebels to roll by at least two touchdowns against North Augusta.

That was before we saw what each team looked like under the lights. The game left a whole batch of evidence that suggests how each team will wind up this season. 

BOTTOM LINES

As with any game, it’s never as bad or as good as it seems. There’s always the little things to correct that matter so much in the big games against top competition.

Region play has always been much less of a challenge for the Rebels compared to their ultra-tough non-region schedule the last few years. This team is still plenty good enough to reach the playoffs considering the region it plays in.

This roster should be watching the recovery of top receiver “Pooh” Williams very closely over the next month. A big-play man in the passing game will go a long way toward aiding a lot of the team’s ills on Friday night.

Things are not as bad as they seem for the Rebels. If they had cut down on those fumbles, they still might have held on for a slim victory. Keep in mind the Yellow Jackets are a higher-classification team that looks to be improved this fall.

As for the Yellow Jackets, the first two weeks of the season must have them chomping at the bit. They should definitely be seen as a playoff contender in their region after what has taken place so far over the first two weeks of the season.

Aiken looks down. Way down. South Aiken looks like it will have trouble scoring points against any team without Calvin Fuller.

Dan Pippin showed again Friday he can still prepare a team to play well and play hard under the toughest of circumstances. The Yellow Jackets seem to have enough to contend for a playoff spot this year.

Greenbrier vs. North Augusta. Is it just fantasy baseball?

Imagine a game between Greenbrier and North Augusta next season. It's easy if we all try.

Greenbrier is a two-time defending Georgia state champion. North Augusta is the odds-on favorite to win the Class AAAA state championship in South Carolina next year.

The Yellow Jackets only lose one starter and return a brilliant core of players including the reigning South Carolina State Player of the Year in pitcher Marty Gantt.

North Augusta coach Vic Radcliff would love to see it happen.

"We want to play the best teams around," Radcliff said last month. "We'd like to play Greenbrier. That's a great team and a great program. Playing a team like that would only make us better in the long run."

Greenbrier coach Rodney Holder is also thinking about it. He even dropped the suggestion the two teams meet at Lake Olmstead Stadium.

The game would be any area baseball fan's dream. Radcliff would love to see it. Holder would love to see it. The Augusta baseball community is drooling over the thought of seeing it.

Imagine it: North Augusta's Gantt on the mound vs. Greenbrier senior southpaw Nolan Belcher. Belcher has been the most effective pitcher on three state championship teams along his high school career.

The two second cousins are the two best high school lefthanders in either area code. At least. I'd place the over-under for combined strikeouts in that game at 22. At least.

That contest would fill Lake Olmstead Stadium. So it would be profitable for both schools. That game would also generate a lot of excitement and would go down as one of the top regular season games in the area's baseball history.

If there's ever a spring baseball game that would be a lock for the front of the sports page, that would be it. As long as they don't schedule it during the first week of April.

It's not news yet. Just a good idea dancing in the head of both coaches. The schedules for both schools have yet to be finalized. Here's a hope that both teams find a way to work that out one out.

Is A.J. Harmon a Clemson Tiger? The answer is yes. For now.

A.J. Harmon is an interesting young man.

He could have his heart set on joining the Clemson Tigers in the fall of 2008. Or he could have just chosen a suitor for now the same way a high school lad decides to go steady with a certain pretty girl.

We all know how long that can last.

Harmon is committed to the Tigers today. It may or may not mean the engaging young lineman is done looking around.

The 6-foot-6, 325-pound Harmon committed to the Tigers late Friday night.

“It was around nine,” Harmon said. “Right when I got back from camp at Clemson.”

But Harmon did say he will still take his official visits later this fall.

“I am still going on my official to Athens because of Coach Richt and Coach G (Georgia defensive line coach Rodney Garner) because there’s nothing bad at all about Georgia really,” Harmon said. “I know I will visit Georgia later in the fall. I am thinking about visiting Auburn. I am going to take that Tennessee visit. I am going to go to Michigan.”

That showed a little instability in his decision. He later reversed course.

“Those are all visits and a chance to go visit a place I’ve never been,” he said. “That’s a trip to go see a place I’ve never been. I will take advantage of that. If Southern California was to give me an offer, I’d go visit that school because I want to take that trip to L.A.”

That decision is a contrast to a choice made by another local standout in Burke County’s Cornelius Washington. Washington told his coaching staff at Burke County to tell the nation’s other top football programs not to waste their time.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Washington saw no need to take official visits or look into any other school. Even when stellar programs like Florida called.

That’s even though he’s listed as a Top 100 National Prospect on the same recruiting services as Harmon.

What Harmon is doing is the norm. What Washington has chosen to do is not. Each was an independent decision made by a youth in a man’s body with the free will to do whatever they feel is best.

But the definition of solid in this crazed recruiting world is what Washington is doing. Not Harmon’s current commitment to Clemson.

When speaking to him at length, it seems he is content with Clemson. The Tigers have been his private favorite all along.

“Clemson was the second school to offer me after Auburn did,” Harmon said. “Georgia came in with their offer later than Clemson. (Harmon said Georgia offered him at the Tennessee game last year.) Clemson just had more time with me. If Georgia would have offered me first before Clemson then I would probably be with Georgia today.”

Harmon has always said his favorites were Clemson and Georgia. But he did tell me after National Signing Day this year if he would have had to sign with a team last February, his choice would have been Georgia.

I suggested to him on Monday that he made his decision sound like a hard-fought game. He agreed. Especially when I added it seemed to me like Clemson edged by Bulldogs by a 50-49 margin.

“I can tell you this,” he said. “If anything happens to Tommy Bowden or (Clemson defensive line coach) Chris Rumph or recruiting coordinator Billy Napier, then I will de-commit from Clemson and commit to Georgia. I’m committed to Clemson, but what I am really committed to is those three men at Clemson. Not the school. I know Mark Richt is not going anywhere at Georgia. I know he’s stable in Athens. If there’s not the same thing at Clemson with those three guys when I sign in 2008, then I will go to Georgia.”

There are times when the congenial giant is as perplexing as he is talented.

Harmon said it took the cumulative trust he’s placed in those three men to earn his commitment. If one of those is replaced, expect him to fall out of love with Clemson.

“Clemson just told him they would make sure he is taken care of academically,” Jefferson County coach J.B. Arnold said.

That initially sounded a little fishy.

When I asked Arnold to clarify those remarks, he suggested Clemson has convinced Harmon they would make it a priority he stay on track for graduation. Harmon made it sound like those men had guaranteed to play personal grade watchdog when it came to his degree progress.

There’s another twist to his recruiting story. The recruiting experts who feed information to willing subscribers on the Internet say he’s an offensive guard. Rivals.com lists him as the top offensive guard in the Class of 2008.

Even his current head coach finds that funny.

“I’m not one of those recruiting experts,” Jefferson County coach J.B. Arnold said. “A.J. has never lined up one snap at offensive guard for us. Those experts are doing a lot of projecting.”

Harmon forced 12 fumbles last year, including eight in one game against region runner-up Swainsboro. Arnold said four of those were on quarterback-center exchanges and three came on hand-offs. Another came when drilled his 6-foot-6 frame into a runner.

That’s an awful lot of production to place on the shelf. Harmon's commitment to Clemson is at the defensive tackle spot.

I broached the offensive or defensive line subject with just about every region coach who’s faced his Warriors the last three years. The universal consensus was he was a much better player on the defensive line.

One well-respected area coach said Harmon was not worth a buttered biscuit to play on his offensive line. That same coach said he had every ingredient to be a big-time defensive tackle at a big-time football program.

I will place my stock in their counsel.

Maybe he could be a great offensive guard. I’ve seen Harmon play about seven full games over three years at Jefferson County. His instincts are a better fit for the aggressive nature of a defensive tackle. He changes the game more -- even with his size -- at defensive tackle.

Maybe those recruiting genuises can spot the next great offensive guard from just combine work and individual one-on-one drills. Or snippets of highlight tape. I applaud them if they can. That's a rare talent.

My concern about their evaluation method is they are not doing their projecting by watching Harmon play football games live.

Production on the field seems to be more integral to the process than a smattering of game tape of the best 20 plays culled from a season.

So when I’m asked about where Harmon is going these days, I will say the process is not over. Arnold even said he will not try to deter the college coaches that call to stop recruiting him. Harmon has not told him to do so.

I’ll use a golf analogy: Clemson’s in the lead. UGA is a stroke behind. No one is in the clubhouse. Everyone is still on the course. Anything can happen.

It looks good for the Tigers, but my feeling is their work is reeling in the area’s biggest fish is far from over.

All I needed to hear was this: "I'm done," Harmon said. "I'm soooo Clemson Tiger-bound I'm building a miniature of Frank Howard's rock in my metal shop class this fall. Tell all those other schools to save their stamps. No more letters! Quit calling me. Stop text messaging me. I am going to paint my toenails orange and purple, bro."

I did not hear that. Or anything close to that. So I will keep checking in on Harmon. I'll enjoy tracking this story over the next eight months.

Harmon's a fun guy to talk to. I'm still not sold he has made up his mind.

Thomson loses a mighty fine Bulldog.

He wore jersey No. 44. He will be missed.

Thomson defensive coordinator John Barnett felt so moved about the passing of former Thomson Bulldog Jerry Winfrey that he was compelled to share a few stories.

Barnett learned of his death just after the Thomson team concluded its opening weight workout of the summer grind.

 "There's one less of the fraternity tonight," Barnett wrote in an e-mail tribute to a former rock of one of his defenses. "One less old dog."

This former Bulldog died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 39.

"Seems the kid who played with so much heart was finally let down by that heart that led him to be one of the greatest to ever wear the Black and Gold," Barnett wrote.

Folks, I know Coach Barnett. I know him enough to know Thomson's coaches throw around compliments the way cheerleaders throw around manhole covers. They respect every Thomson player. Especially on their championship teams.

But they don't get in the ranking business. They do not single out. So to hear Barnett say something like that, that truly means something.

Here's a few tidbits about the way Jerry Winfrey lived across his 39 years:

• He was 5-foot-10 and weighed 185 pounds. Barnett said it was 185 of the most solid pounds you would ever see on a football field.

• Turn the clock back to 1980. Winfrey played on two undefeated R.L. Norris Ram teams. He played on two undefeated Thomson High JV teams in 1982 and 1983. Winfrey then played linebacker in 1984 and 1985 on two undefeated state championship teams.

• Just for those who were not blessed at Math, that's six straight years that Winfrey's teams went undefeated. See a pattern? Let's just say that Winfrey's playing status on those teams and that perfect record was no meer coincidence.

• Winfrey made the All-State team in 1985. 

• He was the Defensive MVP in the Georgia High School All-Star Game. Larry Munson even made a comment during the live telecast that the little linebacker from Thomson was all over the field.

• Winfrey went on to play two years of college football at Northeast Oklahoma Junior College (easily one of the finest JUCO programs in the nation at the time) and then later played for two seasons at Hawaii. Hawaii? What an experience that must have been.

• Winfrey policed himself in practice and would do push-ups for mistakes. He didn't wait for his coaches to call him out, though. He adminstired his retribution for his gaffes. Barnett would have to ask him what he did wrong because he did not see the error in his techinque.

• Winfrey would be furious if his team did not scrimmage live in full pads on Tuesday and Wednesday of each game week.

• He weighed 185. He bench pressed 425.

• He intercepted a pass to seal the state title game win against Marist. 

Barnett shared a great vignette. It came during a game at Westside during his junior year. Winfrey was suffering from severe cramps.

But to know Winfrey was to know that cramps was not the thing to sideline Winfrey. Maybe an H-bomb. But not cramps.

"We finally packed the back of his pants with ice and he limped back onto the field and intercepted a pass in the final minutes of a 52-22 win," Barnett wrote. "As he was running the interception back, ice flew from his pants when he was tackled."

The words are the echo of a player from a generation long gone.

I've been covering high school football teams or playing on them for the last 15 years of my life. Think of the famous Rudy from the Notre Dame teams of the early 70s. That's the one the movie of the same name was about. But then bless that character with more god-given skill and raw determination than three football players should have.  That's the imagine in my mind I have about Jerry Winfrey.

There have been very few Jerry Winfreys. There are even fewer now.  

"I just wish the players we have today could have seen the way he did it," Barnett said. "God bless you, Jerry."

I wish I could have been around to see him his heyday. That would have been a heck of a story.

"There's one less Old Dog tonight," Barnett wrote. "But there will be a 'Ghost of the Bricks' helping us win next year."

Anyone have any more to share about the man? Consider this an online guestbook. I know his time on this Earth wasn't long, but 39 years is long enough for a man to make quite a few ripples in life's pond. 

Anyone else out there got any more Jerry Winfrey stories? I'm thankful to Coach Barnett to giving me a window into a life that's now gone.

If the words of men and the reputation of his peers mean something in this life, then Jerry Winfrey left behind quite a legacy.

I'd love to hear more about this man. I think they players of this era could learn from him. Consider it a public service.

He will be missed. But the words of Coach Barnett are a good start to make sure he is never forgotten. I hope he tells every one of his future linebackers at Thomson about this man.

Class AAAA State Championship Series -- Live from Greenbrier

This blog will be updated live from the Class AAAA state championship series between Heritage and Greenbrier.

Scroll down to the bottom of the blog for the most recent updates from the Class AAAA state title series in Evans.

Pre-game observation #1: It looks like most of the Greenbrier team shaved their heads for today's series. I mean the fellas looked like a Great Clips commercial standing down the third-base line during the national anthem. Nothing like team unity and ticked-off girlfriends. I'm sure the boys get away it because of the "everyone's doing it" and the "it's for the state title series" comebacks.

That's a good kind of peer pressure. I guess.

Pre-game observation #2: Wow, the Heritage fans can really buy up the gas and take a ride down I-20. This crowd is bigger than last year's state final against Marist. Easy.

"We're excited," Heritage fan June Brayton said. "It's been a long time for us. But I'm excited and nervous. I love our boys. We've got a good team. But I am a little nervous. And I am even a Florida Gators fan. And we're not supposed to be the nervous type." 

It's also the biggest crowd that I have seen here in my four seasons of covering Greenbrier baseball for the Chronicle.

Recap of the top of the first: Greenbrier senior Brandon Cumpton needed 15 pitches to get out of the first inning. He stuck out leadoff Patriot Brent Allen. He then forced a 1-0 grounder to second for the next out of the inning.

Heritage freshman Tyler Austin had a great at-bat getting a chance to look through just about every pitch in Cumton's repertoire. Cumpton finally got him on a shallow foul pop to right.

Going into the bottom of the first inning in Game One: Greenbrier 0, Heritage 0

4:15 PM: Greenbrier is already getting to Heritage senior righty Taylor Whitenton. Leadoff wolf Jeff Rowland smacked a first-pitch fastball to center. Nolan Belcher then ripped an 0-2 pitch to center for another single.

Greenbrier's Pat McGowan stuck on trying to sacrifice those boys over. Brandon Cumpton walked. The bases are currently full for Wolfpack junior Ryan Cato.

Lots of drama already.

Heritage escaped that jam in the bottom of the first. Cato grounded out to second and left the bases loaded.

End of the first inning: Greenbrier 0, Heritage 0

3:25 PM: Two things. The Heritage fans apparently love their coach.

"God bless Casey Teal," one section of what appeared to be students shouted in his direction at the end of the first. "The man. The myth. We love you Coach Teal."

It's a series already. One throng of Heritage fans are complaining about the vocal nature of the Greenbrier dugout.

"Where are your pom poms and skirts boys?" the Heritage booster behind my firt-base line seat said. "You guys sure can cheer." 

Truth be told, Greenbrier's dugout is doing a good impersonation of a softball dugout.

But I am not going to shoot them down for being pumped up. After all, this is the state championships and not just another region square dance with Richmond Academy.

Cumpton walked the first Patriot up in the top of the second. Heritage sacrificed him to second. Then the future Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket on the mound for the home team struck out Heritage freshman Theo Griffin.

Heritage starting pitcher Taylor Whitenton is sitting on second with two out. Senior Taylor Eisenman is up with a 3-1 count for the visiting team.

Cumpton didn't let that walk hurt him. He induced another grounder to second to get out of the inning.

Middle of the second inning: Greenbrier 0, Heritage 0

Greenbrier's first hitter to the plate was hit by a pitch. But Whitenton is wiggling out of trouble. He's got back-to-back outs and due to a fielders' choice he has a runner at first.

Jeff Rowland is up. He just crushed a double. I don't think there's a better leadoff hitter in the state. He now has hits in five of his last eight playoff at-bats. I mean, the kid used to sleep with his bat growing up. That's what he told me.

It seems his bat shares the same affection for the young man his team call J-Ro.

Belcher was walked intentionally to load the bases. There are two outs. Junior OF/P Pat McGowan is up for the Pack.

McGowan walked to score Damien Lucree. Lucree reached on that fielder's choice. Brandon Cumpton is up with the bases loaded. Cumpton leads the Greenbrier team in RBI.

Cumpton swung and missed at strike three. Whitenton did his job. But Cumpton reached first on a passed ball. Rowland came home.

A two-run lead looks pretty daunting with Cumpton on the mound now. Russ Winter struck out looking to end the Greenbrier threat.  

End of the second; Greenbrier 2, Heritage 0

4:55 PM: Here's a nomination for the Greenbrier concession stand as the top food service station in the state playoffs. Any sport.

What the Greenbrier facility lacks in bleachers it seems to make up for with taste-bud teases. I mean, the P.A. announced just stated that they have sweet tea and lemonade at the concession stand.

That's on top of the Logan's Roadhouse peanuts. the Dippin' Dots ice cream and the standard hot dog, Powerade, cheeseburger, nachos, candy and hamburger fare.

Top of the third inning update: Cumpton just got touched up for his first hit of the day. And an extra-base hit at that. Heritage junior catcher Chunk Smith (great name for a catcher) just doubled with one out.

Leadoff hitter Brent Allen just singled. Smith's pinch-runner was held up at third.

We're in the top of the third inning. Heritage has runners at the corners with one out.

Greenbrier 2, Heritage 0

Cumpton just threw wide of the bag trying to nip Allen at first. Heritage pinch runner Joseph Lester strolled home from third with an easy run.

That's a free 90 feet for the Patriots. That's what Marist coach Mike Strickland said was the kind of play that would decide this series.

Cumpton has one out. Heritage has a runner at second. Trent Dooley just singled.

But Allen was thrown out by Game Two starter Nolan Belcher from right. One hop. No cut. Allen was out by three steps.

We're still in the top of the third. Two out. Dooley is at first. Heritage freshman third baseman Tyler Austin  is up.

Greenbrier 2, Heritage 1

Cumpton just gave up another 90 feet. His wild pitch moved Dooley up to second and in scoring position. 

He recovered with the next Patriot. He had to go to his tush to glove a foul ball just wide of the third-base line. He lost the ball, but found it at the last moment. That's it for the Pats in the top of the third.

Junior Ryan Cato comes up first in the bottom of the inning. It's the 5-6-7 hitters in the Greenbrier lineup.

Consider Cumpton lucky for that turn. He allowed three hits. One of those was a double. He also threw it to the chain-link fence in right on a botched pick-off attempt. He even hit the backstop with a wild pitch.

One run amidst all that bad stuff is a pretty fair trade if I'm the pitcher and the home team.

End of the third inning: Consider Taylor Whitenton and his Patriots to be ten feet tall right now. His squad got a boost by scratching out that lone run in the top of the third off Cumpton.

Whitenton struck out the side. He's up first for his team in the top of the fourth.

We're heading to the top of the fourth inning. Greenbrier 2, Heritage 1.

Cumpton appears to have settled into a mini-groove. He put Heritage down in order with two strikeouts. He's given up three hits, one run and struck out four so far on the day.

Here's a nugget as to just how big the crowd has swelled to at Greenbrier today: There are at least 70 fans sitting in chairs or looking through the chain-link fence from the outfield. There may even be 100.

We're now in the bottom of the fourth. There is one out. Greenbrier base-hit machine Jeff Rowland is up. Greenbrier leads Heritage 2-1.

It looks like Whitenton is feeling the same ills that got to Cumpton in the top of third.

He walked Rowland. Then threw it wide of the first-base bag. Rowland advanced to second. He then threw a wild pitch to Belcher. That moved Rowland up to third.

He's currently still working on Belcher. Belcher has hit two balls to right foul that went about 650 feet. Just a bit foul.

Whitenton just hit Belcher in the left thigh with a pitch. Those are three free 90-feet plays for the Wolfpack in the bottom of this inning.

Here's a thought: Every run today has been a giveaway so far. Greenbrier scored its two runs on a passed ball and a walk. Heritage's came on an errant Cumpton pick-off try to first.

It sure looks like that Mike Strickland at Marist knows his baseball. He called this when speaking to him earlier in the week.

Scratch that. McGowan just got his second RBI and erased the aforementioned "giveaway" theory. He sacrificed Rowland home from third.

Still in the bottom of the fourth. There are two out. Belcher is still sitting at first.

Greenbrier 3, Heritage 1.

OK, I've seen enough of the Heritage team to come up with this fact. I don't think they can beat Greenbrier today. The team is just not sound enough defensively to hang with the elite pitching Greenbrier brings to bear.

They give away too many easy outs. Maybe they are just not ready for the level of pressure that comes with a state title series.

The Wolfpack's fourth run was the by-product of more gaffes that give Wolfpack runners free trips from station-to-station on the bases.

Belcher stole second and then took third as the throw from Heritage catcher Chunk Smith sailed into the outfield. Cumpton was then issued a walk. Ball four was a wild pitch in the dirt.

Belcher sailed in from third with the fourth run of the day so far for the Pack.

Any team has to know that it has to throw and catch to hang in a state playoff series. Forget about the special plays with superior pitching and anything a club might do with the bats.

Greenbrier just scored two runs during that turn at the plate without the benefit of a hit. There were two errors. A wild pitch. A walk. And a hit batter.

Brandon Cumpton is not going to give up another three runs today in three innings. That's what my gut tells me.

From what I've seen so far, I think Heritage will also give the Wolfpack another run with the easy stuff and outs that should have been made in the field.

They've buried themselves a hole. It's one that I don't think they can come back from in this first game.

We're heading into the top of the fifth inning. Greenbrier 4, Heritage 1.

Now playing the role of Terminator on the mound is Brandon Cumpton. He struck out the first two Patriots up in the fifth to push his game total to six K's. He then got a grounder to short to move us to the bottom of the fifth.

Cumpton looks like a kid who just downed a Red Bull between innings. He's retired the seven Heritage hitters in a row.

I honestly can't recall him looking any better than he is right now in this year or last year's playoffs. It's getting guys out and getting them out quickly, too.

Hats off to him. He's really dealing with the baseball right now.

We're in the bottom of the fifth now. Greenbrier's Adam King is up with one out. Greenbrier leads Heritage 4-1.

Broken record time here. King just reached an a ball that hopped between the legs of the Heritage shortstop.

The visiting Patriots just aren't playing at the level this stage of the state baseball playoffs demands. And those misplays take a toll mentally on a underdog team facing the defending state champions on their own home turf.

Nick Page just single King over to third. Damien Lucree is up.

More broken record stuff: Heritage had Nick Page in a rundown. But the pitcher didn't come over in the chase to cover first base. No team can win playing like this. No team.

All the Wolfpack are safe. Lucree just walked. Rowland is up. Rowland may just hit this ball all the way to our blog visitors from Aruba and really put this first game away.

Rowland's 2-for-2 with a walk today. The thought of that just chased Whitenton from the game. Sophomore Chase Ware is now warming up for the Patriots.

6:56 PM: The blog lives! We had power issues at Greenbrier. So we had to go boy scout time a bit. I tried to think like McGyver.

I moved my car up to the edge of the field. Borrowed an inverter from a kind soul. Had an extension cord in the back of my trunk. Our extension cord and snake line to the Greenbrier dugout went kaput. We're now running an extension cord from my car adapter from the first row of the parking lot (foul ball kill zone, I know) to the press table.

I skated on battery power for five innings of the first game. The power bar I thought I was plugged into taking juice from the Greenbrier dugout was apparently dead to the world.

Either that or the Greenbrier bats sucked up all the power for use at the plate in their 10-3 victory in the first game of today's doubleheader.  

But you guys would rather hear about baseball than technical difficulties.

So we're live again. Greenbrier is leading off the top of the first in Game Two.

Oh...and while we were in limbo. Greenbrier's (30-4) six-run fifth inning finished out the scoring for the home team along a 10-3 win.

Cumpton gave up a two-run homer to fab Hertiage freshman Tyler Austin in the sixth. Not much doing after that.

We're in the top of the first in Game Two. Greenbrier's Pat McGowan just made the third out. Nolan Belcher is heading to the mound to start today's second game.  

We're now in the middle of the first inning. Greenbrier 0, Heritage 0

7:02: First flash of good news so far today for the Patriots. Heritage senior outfielder Trent Dooley took Belcher deep for a solo home run in the bottom of the first. That was the only scoring in the bottom of the inning.

Heritage 1, Greenbrier 0

7:09 PM: Psst. Wanna hear an insider secret? If you want to see the second game of the series tonight but just didn't know if it was worth the $7 ticket price, have I got a deal for you.

Rumor has it that the ticket takers at Greenbrier will stop selling tickets at 7:15 PM. So if you are part cheapskate and part Wolfpack baseball fan, then consider that your our green-light special.

Between game observation #1: What's a baseball program? How about this example. Not one but two wiffle ball/baseball games broke out on the Greenbrier football practice field adjacent to the stadium between games. I'd say there was about 15 kids on each team hitting-and-throwing on about a 50-yard stretch of football practice field apiece.

Not bad. And that crowd that is behind the outfield fence at Greenbrier has just swelled significantly. There's at least 125 people sitting in tailgate chairs back there now.

Anyhoo, back to baseball. Greenbrier just tied it with RBI single by Adam King with runners on the corners. Cumpton reached on a double during a long back-and-forth at-bat. Cumpton ran for himself as he is playing third in today's second game.

There are two out in the top of the second. Greenbrier has runners on first and second. Greenbrier 1, Heritage 1.

7:18 PM: Greenbrier just managed that one run in the top of the second. Belcher already has two Patriots out in the bottom of the inning.

He seems to be the perfect mix of ticked and composed. Ticked because he gave up the home run. Composed because that's the kind of competitor that the kid is.

He's about six innings and one run away from pitching his team to its third state championship trophy in his three years of high school ball.

In about the time it took me to type that sentence, he's out of the inning.

We're heading to the top of the third inning. All square. Greenbrier 1, Hertiage 1. The Wolfpack extended their win streak to 28 games with their victory in the first game.

Jeff Rowland is now up. My computer is now at 51% power and heading up like Bill Gates' stock interests and 401(k) plan.

Good stuff here. A glass is half-full Heritage fan just grabbed the school's banner and trotted it behind the outfield wall while Rowland was up.

He had to be distracted by that. Heritage's infielders are grinning. I think that had to gnaw at Rowland a little bit. He was only 14-for-27 in the state playoffs leading up to that at-bat with 13 runs scored. Much thanks to Billy Byler of the Columbia County News-Times for those stats.

It was a funny sight, though. A big blue H just took a lap behind the Greenbrier outfield. It's the sort of banners on a pole we are all used to seeing cheerleaders lead their team onto the field with during football games in the fall.

Nolan Belcher is now up. He just hit a tough grounder to second. The Heritage second baseman promptly booted the ball on what was by all accounts a tougher-than-average play.

My inner scorekeeper would still call that an error. Heritage has made a lot of those today. Case in point: The six Heritage errors in the first game led to eight unearned runs.

That's right. Eight of the 10 runs that Greenbrier scored in its 10-3 first game victory were unearned.

A now-suddenly spirited Heritage fan base has all pulled out the three quarters and 50 pennies in a bottled water bit. They're shaking them like they are the team that's up a game in the series.

Greenbrier 1, Heritage 1. We're in the top of the third inning.  Two out. Belcher is still on first.

7:28 PM: Greenbrier did no damage in the top of the third. We're now in the bottom of the inning. Belcher has two out and nobody on.

The Heritage fans are deafening right now. It's a loud crowd. I will give them that.

Trivia Question of the day: What beverage of choice does the Greenbrier coaching staff (all sports) usually drink these days?

Answer: Green tea. That's a true story. I give credit to Billy Byler of the News-Times for sharing that one with me.

So if you're in the coaches office and go rooting through the fridge, you're either going to find green tea or bottled water. That tradition started last year with former baseball coach Ed Williams (now the assistant principal at the school) and girls basketball/softball coach/advance baseball scout Garrett Black.

7:33 PM: Belcher held the Patriots scoreless in the bottom of the third. We're now in the top of the fourth. Nobody out. Greenbrier senior catcher and honor graduate Russ Winter is up.

That overzealous Heritage flag is taking another lap right past the outfield fence here at Greenbrier. I wonder if that is the same kid. About two or three laps like that and any body who's not in good shape will have to give that trek up.

Hmm. Wonder why they don't do that when their team is up at the plate? Nothing like gamesmanship here in the state finals. It's awfully distracting at the plate. For the same reason that major league baseball protects that hitter's eye area at major league parks.

Ryan Cato just singled for the Wolfpack. Adam King just followed that up with a single of his own. Two Wolfpack runners are on. Brent Allen is still pitching for the Patriots. There is just one out. Those runners are on first and second. 

Nick Page just struck out. Damien Lucree is up. He was smoking hot coming into the playoffs today. He has yet to get a hit in this series.

Lucree just walked. Jeff Rowland comes up now for the Pack with the bases loaded and two men out. I think that's the situation every Greenbrier fan in the house wants to see.

Here's a bet that this at-bat decides this game.

7:45 PM: Allen just struck out Rowland. This game just got a lot tighter. Heritage's fans just got a lot louder.

Greenbrier athletics director Scott Chadwick (real nice guy) just came by with an attendance figure. He says there was about 1,800 paid here for today's game. Plus another 250 attendees on GHSA passes.

That's about 2,100 people here for this game.

We're in the bottom of the fourth inning now. Greenbrier 1, Heritage 1

7:55 PM: Who's heard that Centerfield  song by John Fogerty? Think a minute. "It's the put me in, Coach. I'm ready to play" song that was made famous in the movie Bull Durham that is now played at every ballpark in the country.

Ever listen to the words of that song? I know. It's sounds like pure Americana and baseball. Or at least it used to.

I just heard a line from that song. It goes "A-round third. And heading home. It's a brown-eyed handsome man. Any one can understand. The way I feel."

I just stopped for a second to rewind what I have been listening to for like 15 years.

What is there about a brown-eyed handsome man that screams baseball to me? And Americana? Brown-eyed handsome men rounding third is not the Norman Rockwell vision in my mind of the game of baseball to me.

But that's just my $0.02. Am i missing something?

OK, I'll halt my Seinfeld rant there. Nolan Belcher ended the bottom of the fourth with a bare-handed snatch of a grounder hit back to the mound. Great play. It just looked a bit cocky, though. Smooth play all around, though.

He then led off the fourth with a double. Belcher looked like he thought it was out by his body language rounding first. It was still a deep deep ball that kicked off the middle of the left field wall.

Heck of an opposite field hit. Belcher's run just scored, too. Ross Scott was running for him. He got home off another Heritage error. That is the eighth of the series by the visitors. Eight errors. That's in 11 innings of the state championship series.

Pat McGowan missed a bunt attempt and popped out. Brandon Cumpton was walked. He came home when the Patriots tried to turn two off a Russ Winter ground ball.

Hertiage threw wild and in the dirt between second and first trying to get Winter at first. Cumpton went in hard at second to make it a much tougher play.

That may raise a few Heritage eyes. But that's good hard baseball. Nothing less should be expected at this level of the state playoffs.

Belcher's run came in on the error. Ross Scott was running for him. That was the only score of the top of the fourth. Greenbrier 2, Heritage 1. We're heading into the bottom of the fifth now.

Belcher has since settled down considerably. He seems to have control of this game as much as any one player can in the game of baseball right now.

He's struck out five of the last six Patriot hitters he's faced. He needed just 21 pitches to get through those two innings. He has walked one batter. The one hit he gave up was the first-inning solo home run by Dooley.

Dooley was the second hitter of the game. Greenbrier was Nick Page was the first man up in the top of sixth. No outs. Damien Lucree is up.

Another throwing error by the Patriots with Page at first. They tried to get him at first. He's now standing at third. That's nine errors in 13 innings.

That is not the stuff of champions. Page just came home off a sacrifice fly by Damien Lucree. 

There are two men out in the top of the sixth. Jeff Rowland is up. Greenbrier 3, Heritage 1. 

Rowland just struck out swinging for the fourth time in this game. Kudos go out to the Heritage coaching staff. That's superior scouting on a hitter that came into today 14-for-27 with 13 runs scored in the state playoffs.

Heritage is now getting set to hit in the bottom of the sixth.

Greenbrier 3, Hertiage 1

8:20 PM: Nolan "No-No" Belcher looking dominant update: He's now fanned six out of the last seven Heritage hitters, including the last four in a row.

He's basically saying this is my game, our series and our trophy. You're not taking this from us today. If anyone can name a more productive high school pitcher in Columbia County or area history, please let me know.

If this holds up, Belcher would move to 35-1 in his prep career with an average of well over a strikeout per inning. His ERA will be well below 1.00 and he's got a senior year still to go.

Best schoolboy baseball player I've ever seen. I'm not talking talent. I'm talking performance. He added a fly out and another strikeout. That's a strikeout of seven of the last nine Patriots. He has 10 strikeouts through six innings and a one-hit game.

We're in the top of the seventh inning now. Greenbrier 3, Heritage 1.

Greenbrier won the first game of today's best-of-3 series 10-3. The Wolfpack stand three outs shy of their program's fifth state baseball title since opening the school doors in 1996 and beginning with the 1997 baseball season.

It would also be Greenbrier's 29th consecutive win. Senior Taylor Adams is now up for Greenbrier with nobody out in the top of the seventh inning.  

8:32 PM. Two more outs to go. Belcher made a heck of a play to snatch a grounder ranging to his right. Bullet throw to first. Runner is out by a step.

8:34 PM: Belcher just gave up a stand-up double to Heritage senior Taylor Whitenton. That brings the tying run to the plate. That is the second hit allowed by Belcher in the game. 

One out left to go. Damien Lucree makes a great stab-and-throw to first. Whitenton moved up to third.

8:35 PM: Not good news for the Wolfpack. Lucree's throwing error puts the tying run at first. Whitenton comes in on the play.

Greenbrier 3, Heritage 2. Two out in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Game over. Nasty Belcher curve. 11th strikeout. 3-2 final. 29th straight win. Fifth state title. I think Belcher can barely breathe at the bottom of one serious dog-pile a few steps in front of the mound.

Thanks for hanging out, folks. It's been fun.

In-game blogging from the Class AAAA state baseball semis.....Marist at Greenbrier

NOTE: This blog is updated live from the GHSA Class AAAA baseball semifinal playoff series between Greenbrier and longtime private school nemesis Marist.

Scroll down to the bottom for the latest updates from Greenbrier's baseball complex.

2:05 PM: Greenbrier starter Brandon Cumpton needed only 11 pitches to set the War Eagles down in order in the top of the first.

He struck out the Marist leadoff man Will Darby with a 2-2 fastball and then got another fly out to left on a 2-2 count. Marist ended the inning with a line out to third.

We're already in the bottom of the first. Greenbrier's Jeff Rowland led off with a double. He came into the series hitting .439 on the year. That figure leads the team.

2:08 PM: SCORING UPDATE: Greenbrier junior Nolan Belcher just drove home Rowland with a seeing-eye single that bounded over the head of the Marist second baseman.

Nobody is out in the bottom of the first. Greenbrier 1, Marist 0

2:15 PM: Greenbrier ended its turn in the first when cleanup hitter Brandon Cumpton lined into a double play. He lined out to third and Pat McGowan was doubled up off first.

2:16 PM: Marist just erased its first break. The War Eagles' first hit and first base runner of the game was just picked off first. Chris Gutschenritter now has a dirty uniform for all the wrong reasons.

There is one out in the top of the second. Greenbrier leads 1-0 in the first game of today's doubleheader. The third game will be at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, if necessary.

We're heading into the bottom of the second inning. Greenbrier senior catcher Russ Winter will lead off the inning for the defending state champions.

2:31 PM: We're in the top of the third inning. Greenbrier still leads 1-0. Rowland is up with a Wolfpack runner on first.  

Marist senior John Pemberton is struggling with his location. He just gave up another 3-1 single to Rowland. The Wolfpack have runners at the corners with nobody out.

Junior pitcher/outfielder Nolan Belcher is up. Marist coach Brian Strickland has just called time for an infield conference with Pemberton and his team.

This is an important moment as one or even two runs here would just about put this contest out of reach with Cumpton on the mound.  Both he and Belcher have earned run averages under 1.00 for the season.

Belcher just had almost the exact same RBI single that he had in the first inning. Same bounces. Same hole between first and hole. Same hop just over the glove of the Marist second baseman.

Greenbrier leads the first game of today's doubleheader 2-0.

2:40 PM: The rout is on. Greenbrier added a ground-rule double from cleanup man Brandon Cumpton. Cumpton tacked another two RBI onto his team-leading total to score Rowland and Belcher.

Russ Winter then scored McGowan off a sac fly to deep center to stake his team to a 5-0 lead.

Ryan Cato then reached on his ground ball to third that scored another Wolfpack run.

Marist finally held after a Greenbrier double to right was turned into a double play as the Wolfpack runners tried to get too aggressive. Ryan Cato was tagged out trying to reach home after his teammate allowed himself to get caught in a rundown between second and third.

That's the first bit of good news for the visitors. That's an inning they will not likely recover from against a team that pitches as well as Greenbrier.

We're in the top of the fourth inning. Greenbrier leads 6-0.

3:00 PM: There are still two innings to go. I am sure that some coach could come up witth an inspiring Yogi Berra speech. But this one is over. Waaaay over. Done. Finito.

Rowland and Belcher rapped out back-to-back stand-up triples off Pemberton in the bottom of the fourth. Belcher's scored Rowland. Belcher already has three RBI in his first three trips up to the plate.

Rowland also has three hits as the Wolfpack lead 7-0 in the first game of today's doubleheader.

3:14 PM: Maybe I should say there's no way I will ever inherit $20 million dollars from an uncle I didn't even know I had. Because the War Eagles are trying to make my eat my words about saying this one is over.

Marist showed its first life of the series at the plate with three straight singles off Cumpton followed by an out. Then another walk and a single.

Marist scratched out two runs off Cumpton, but they did leave the bases loaded after Cumpton got a pop-up to short to escape his first real jam of the day. 

We're heading to the bottom of the fifth. Greenbrier 7, Marist 2.

3:30 PM: Here's a case in point for how the day has gone so far for the War Eagles. Marist got a leadoff double from promising sophomore Kyle Farmer. Marist then brought in a pinch-runner.

Said runner then probably lost his pinch-running duty for the rest of the season by seeing a ball take a hop or two off the chest protector of Greenbrier catcher Russ Winter. So the Marist runner tried to take third.

Folks, maybe Deion Sanders could have gotten to third. Maybe. But this kid was no Deion Sanders. He was out about a step before he attempted his slide.

We're heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Greenbrier's Adam King is up.

Greenbrier 7, Marist 2.

3:45 PM: Greenbrier's offensive machine revved back up in its second inning facing Marist senior reliever Billy Banks.

Damien Lucree doubled. That was followed by an intentional walk to Jeff Rowland. Nick Richards came in to hit for a hot-swining Belcher. The only reason for that was to get Belcher out of the sun for a little bit before he starts today's second game.

Richards promptly doubled. Then a funny thing happened. Rowland was held up rounding second base by a Marist infielder. The boys in blue never saw it and Rowland was only able to get to third. Richards took two bases and the fastest man on the Greenbrier team could only move as far along as his 6-foot-4, 210-pound teammate.

Hmmm. Richards did drive in Lucree to make it an 8-2 Greenbrier lead.

Anyway, Patrick McGowan came up and made that debate a moot point. McGowan drove in Rowland and Richards. Greenbrier still has the bases loaded against Banks with two men out.

Anybody out there fired up the grill yet? The way the Wolfpack is feasting on Marist pitching has me hungry for a cheeseburger. Or a good Johnsonville brat.

Greenbrier leads Marist 10-2 with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Wolfpack have gotten tremendous production from the top two hitters in their lineup. The team's Nos. 1-2 hitters have seven hits and have scored eight runs. They've also knocked in four of the team's 12 runs.

It still looks like Greenbrier will extend its winning streak to 26 games.

4:18 PM: After a wee hiccup of technical difficulties, the blog is up again.

When last we spoke, Greenbrier held a 10-2 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Wolfpack's Brandon Cumpton gave up the first career homer of any kind to Marist's Garrison Weir.

That was all the scoring for the first game. Greenbrier extended its winning streak to 26 games. Nolan Belcher takes the hill for the 'Pack in the second game of today's doubleheader.

Marist lost a chance in the first game as Greenbrier starter Brandon Cumpton gave up six hits and three runs. He was merely good, and not his usual overpowering 10-strikeout and three-hit shutout self.

That would have had his team in jeopardy if not for his team's dynamic performance at the plate.

The Wolfpack's 10 runs made quite a statement. It's not likely that Greenbrier junior Nolan Belcher will need half that many runs in today's second game.

Game One Final: Greenbrier 10, Marist 3. Greenbrier leads the best-of-3 series 1-0.

5:08 PM: Greenbrier just pushed its first runner of Game Two home in the top of the second. Russ Winter singled. Ryan Cato reached on an error by the first baseman. Cato would have been out on a play up the line, but the ball tumbled out of first baseman Chris Gutschenritter's mitt.

Adam King sacrificed those runners up another base.

Winter's run came in on a wild pitch by Marist starter John Stembridge. Damien Lucree then drove home Cato with his RBI single.

We're heading into the bottom of the second inning. Greenbrier leads the Class AAAA state semifinal series 1-0. The Wolfpack lead Marist 2-0 in today's second game.

5:25 PM: How big a shadow does 5-foot-7 southpaw Nolan Belcher cast?

Consider this: There is a pair of jubilant fellows sitting to my right side here at the game that have already declared this series over because Belcher has a two-run lead.

His numbers back that up. Belcher has only lost one game in his career. That came earlier this year against Russell County. He won't admit it, but Belcher was just working his way back into pitching shape after playing a full basketball season at Greenbrier

But the kid's makeup is even more refreshing. He won't make that excuse in a day and age where it seems like adults and kids included have an excuse for every single thing that might not go their way.

"I just wasn't sharp," Belcher said. "They beat us. I wasn't as good as it needed to be in that game to win. They just got me. That's all there is to say."

He came into the year 25-0 in two varsity seasons. He was the ace on a state champion team in e