Letter from the Sports Editor

LEtter From the Sports Editor Practice Makes Perfect

There is a saying that goes: Practice makes perfect.

That is what each local football team has been hard at work doing this offseason. Alcovy, Eastside, Newton and Social Circle have all been going full throttle participating in spring practices, padded camps and summer workouts ahead of the 2022 season.

New players, coaches and regions will be a common theme for all schools as they prepare for the different challenges the season will bring.

Our team here at The Covington News has been busy this summer, too visiting practices, workouts and camps to learn each team in and out.

Correspondents Garrett Pitts, Mason Wittner and Trevyn Gray as well as myself have been compiling interviews, taking photos and creating content to help produce our 2022 Football Preview Magazine. It is the fans’ guide to learning all about their favorite football team.

This guide should come in handy as you keep track of all the new names and faces adorning each school’s roster and coaching staff. Whether it’s Kenai Grier becoming the new leader in Eastside’s running back group or DeMascio Bolden stepping in to lead Social Circle’s linebacking corps, new superstars have the potential to emerge and explode onto the local football scene.

Of course, we’ve also included content featuring our two private schools, Piedmont and Peachtree Academy.

Our college football section features, for the first time ever, a story on the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs. Included in our college football section, too, is a feature story on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets as they look to right the ship in 2022.

Also, there is a special story discussing and highlighting the Newton Cup rivalry. Our team decided to throw this into our product as a way to include some history in this year’s magazine.

Last year was the 200th birthday of Newton County, and this year is the 200th birthday of the city of Covington itself. With Newton, Eastside and Alcovy battling for the Newton Cup and for inter-county bragging rights since 2006 — and Newton and Eastside’s rivalry stretches back to 2002 — we deemed it necessary to dedicate an article to these historic rivalries.

Our 2022 Football Preview Magazine is jam-packed with amazing stories, photos and information that fans and local community members need to see before the 2022 football season kicks off.

Personally, helping compile this content and reading our correspondents’ work taught me a lot. It is sure to be another amazing football season here in Newton County.

I cannot wait to hit the ground running later this week as we start watching the action unfold.

To stay up to date with our amazing content throughout this season, follow our social media platforms at @ CovNewsSports on Facebook and Twitter. Our Instagram is @cov_news_sports.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this product that our team at The Covington News has worked so hard to deliver, and we’ll be sure to see you around under those Friday Night Lights.

Phillip B. Hubbard

Sports Editor The Covington News

NEWTON CUP Football rivalry unlike any other

By PHILLIP B. HUBBARD

phubbard@covnews.com

Since 2006, Newton County has had three high schools and, therefore, three football teams — Newton, Eastside and Alcovy — have battled on the gridiron and for the coveted Newton Cup as part of its round robin rivalry every football season.

But a rivalry that has spanned across a decade and a half has seen many noteworthy moments, and it started at the very beginning.

Newton vs. Eastside

NHS leads series 10-7-1

The first ever inter-county matchup in Newton County took place on Sept. 13, 2002 between the Newton Rams and the Eastside Eagles. In fact, this game was a region matchup as both teams were members of Region 8-AAAA.

Eastside won 14-7. After that, wins for each school seemed to come in threes. Newton enjoyed a three-game winning streak over Eastside from 2003-2005. But Eastside answered with a three-game winning streak of its own from 2006-2008.

Another three-game winning streak by Newton ran from 2009-2011, which featured the series’ closest margin of victory to date when the Rams won 10-3 in 2011.

One year later, Eastside enjoyed its biggest margin of victory against a Newton squad when it downed the Rams 32-0. The Eagles also won in 2013.

In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the two teams didn’t battle on the gridiron. However, 2016 featured a close contest that produced the lone tie between any Newton County-based school.

Newton 41, Eastside 41. Why did it end in a tie? Well, given that this was a non-region contest, Georgia High School Association guidelines allow for overtime in non-region football games to be optional. The catch is, both teams’ coaches have to agree to overtime. If one chooses against it, the game automatically ends in an end-of-regulation tie.

But in 2017, the Rams left no doubt, dominating the Eagles 40-0. Eastside responded with payback in a 27-20 victory a year later.

That was the Eagles’ last win over Newton as the Rams have owned the past three seasons winning by a combined score of 90-21.

Eastside vs. Alcovy

EHS leads series 13-3

Facing each other for the first time on Oct. 27, 2006, the Eagles dominated the Tigers out of the gate winning the first three matchups by a combined score of 86-23.

Alcovy earned its first win in the series in 2009 by defeating the Eagles 3-0.

The two teams then traded twogame winning streaks in the following four years.

Eastside won over Alcovy in the 2010 and 2011 seasons while Alcovy triumphed two years in a row from 2012 and 2013.

In 2012, Alcovy celebrated its biggest margin of victory over the Eagles in a 24-10 triumph. Alcovy’s 20-10 win on Sept. 13, 2013, though, was its last in the series.

Eastside has enjoyed wins over Alcovy since 2014. The Eagles’ biggest win in the matchup came in 2015 when they downed the Tigers 41-0.

The past two seasons have shown signs of Alcovy closing the gap between the two schools – especially when you consider the 2020 game which ended with Eastside winning 34-31 in one of the closest matchups in the series.

Newton vs. Alcovy

NHS leads series 4-3

Now, this particular matchup isn’t as steeped in history as one might think. Even though the first meet-up between the two came on Sept. 8, 2006, there was an eight-year gap (2010-2017) where Newton and Alcovy didn’t play each other.

Nevertheless, the rivalry matchup was actually owned by Alcovy early on.

Newton bested Alcovy 19-14 in the series’ inaugural game, but Alcovy went on to win the next three games by scores of 23-0, 3-0 and 3-0.

Following the eight-year hiatus, Newton started dominating the series by defeating the Tigers by a combined score of 99-3. The Rams’ biggest margin of victory came in 2019 when they shut out Alcovy 45-0.

The two teams didn’t play in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a game cancellation.

2022 Newton Cup

This year, all three schools will be playing each other again for the Newton Cup.

On Aug. 26, Newton and Alcovy will renew its rivalry at 7:30 p.m. The following week, on Sept. 2, Eastside and Newton will face off while the 2022 edition of the Newton Cup rivalry will conclude on Sept. 9 with Alcovy and Eastside squaring off.

The past five years, the Newton Cup has been captured by the Newton Rams. Will that streak continue or will Eastside or Alcovy rise up and claim the title?