Community Celebration: Former Parkview High Football Player Jack Chambers

By Tana Poncsak

Jack Chambers might have played in his final football game on November 20, 2021, but the Parkview community along with many friends and family made it a game and a day that he and his family will never forget.

As quarterback for the Charleston Southern University Buccaneers, Chambers suited up in Athens to play against the number one team in the nation, the University of Georgia (UGA). Was Chambers nervous? Not in the least.

“For those big games there’s not much pressure at all because you have no expectations,” Chambers said. “But it’s a great experience to go out there in front of tons of people, something you’re not really used to coming from a smaller school. You just take it all in.”

And Chambers had a lot to take in that day with the support of his friends and his family including his father, Bob, his mother, Rhonda, and his sister, Amanda, and extended family who traveled to watch Chambers in his last game. Even a former high school coach, Kurt Doehrman, made it to the game with his family, his newborn decked out in a jersey with Jack’s name and number – Chambers #8.

Chambers started playing football at a young age in a Mountain Park Youth Football League, but he decided to call it quits when he was in the fifth grade.

“I took a long break,” Chambers said, citing that perhaps he was too small for the sport and that he didn’t want to play anymore.

Chambers started playing baseball and he thought it would be his sport. But in the end, football was calling his name. Chambers answered when he picked up football again his sophomore year of high school. By the end of his junior year, Chambers realized football might be his path, and he got serious about playing in college by training and mastering his game. His hard work and effort paid off, and he went to school on a football scholarship. Chambers felt well prepared going from his football program in high school and on to play quarterback for Charleston Southern. “My program at Parkview was outstanding,” he said. “It definitely prepared me for the next level. Everything was so advanced – our workouts, our training facilities. So, I was ready for the next level.” For his final game, it was the community of friends, family, members of his mother’s Bible Study Group, and others, many who are UGA alumni, who helped to make the game day come together in a special way for Chambers and his family by holding a breakfast tailgate, making signs, finding extra tickets so extended family could take part in Jack’s final game and so much more.

“That day was so overwhelming for me,” Rhonda Chambers said. “I cried from the beginning of the game until the end. It was just so much love from the community. It was amazing.”

And Jack’s mother wasn’t the only family member moved by the events of that day. Even though the final score was 56 – 7 and another win for Georgia, it was a banner day for Chambers and his family.

“It was just a special moment to see my family, my extended family, and all my friends come together to support me in my final game, especially against the number one team in the nation,” Chambers said. “They didn’t care we got whooped. They were so excited to celebrate me.”

After earning his MBA and graduating from Charleston Southern University in December, Chambers said he’s open to business opportunities and looking for the right fit. And as for football, Chambers said he’s hanging up his jersey for now and looking forward to being a spectator of the sport. But after the outpouring of love and support, his last game is definitely a game and a day he’ll always remember.

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And, thankfully, there is finally an organized voice of opposition to the Buckhead cityhood movement. The Atlanta business community is now rallying to defend Georgia’s Capital City if a bit late in the game. Recently, more than 100 of the largest property owners and developers in Buckhead began to realize what just might happen to their property tax assessments and tax rates in a new municipality, NOT subject to any of the development contracts, tax abatements, or other incentives meted out previously by the City of Atlanta.

Those property owners are requesting that the Georgia General Assembly hit the “pause” button on consideration of a Buckhead cityhood referendum. Their collective properties pay roughly $54 million in property taxes annually to the City of Atlanta. If the General Assembly won’t pause the discussions, they are requesting to be drawn OUT of the proposed new city of Buckhead. These properties include major malls and much of the “golden goose” portions of the proposed municipality.

And as a more practical matter, if our State Constitution is of any real concern, if affluent communities in almost any city can, in essence, break away, sub-divide, gate themselves off, and give no concern to financing the broader costs of public schools, existing infrastructure, bonded debt, pension, and retirement obligations, and ownership of commons assets (schools, parks, roads, and bridges), how will the bonding agencies treat Georgia’s highest possible ratings for future bonded debt? Or won’t the bonding ability of major cities across the nation come into question once this precedent is set?

Moreover, Georgia already has a town of Buckhead, 65 miles east of Atlanta, not far off I-20. Now a sleepy hamlet of less than 200, it was once a bustling rail burg between Atlanta and Augusta. Though everything has a price, it does have its own Buckhead Post Office and

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ZIP Code™; if they later sell those to this small group of rich folks in Atlanta, I hope they extract a pretty penny for them. Furthermore, if you consider yourself an Atlanta native as I do, I doubt a decade from now you want to be thinking about the Atlanta that was and what is left of an Atlanta then. It’s time for this Buck to stop here.

Bill Crane is the owner of CSI Crane. More information at www. CSICrane.com

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