The Oconee Leader

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This Week: Sports

Issue 13

From the Oconee to the Apalachee

Volume 11

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Oconee County middle schools compete in track and field meet Photos, gallery TheOconeeLeader.com

FILE PHOTO/Oconee Leader

Amy Shane (right) helps a customer on opening day of last year’s Oconee Farmers Market. The Market will be open this Saturday, rain or shine, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., in downtown Watkinsville.

Season’s greetings: Farmers Market is back

By Rob Peecher

TheOconeeLeader.com

Oconee County boys and girls beat rivals in soccer Sports, page 4

News

School days in Oconee: A host of winning students

The Oconee Farmers Market Saturday returns to downtown Watkinsville.

Cindy Pritchard, one of the Market organizers, acknowledged that it’s early in the season for some produce, but there will still be a number of vendors set up for this first Saturday of the Market in 2016.

“We’ll have vendors with beef, eggs, honey, jams and jellies, pies, breads and cakes,” Pritchard said. “We’ll also have some vendors with greens and early spring produce.”

Pritchard said folks who regularly go to the Market each year will see some new vendors among the old favorites.

“We have some new vendors,” Pritchard said. “One new vendor will be someone who roasts his own coffees. We’ll also have quite a few more produce vendors coming. Again this year, every first Saturday of the month will be ‘Sample Saturday,’ so all the vendors will be offering samples. On the second Saturday the Watkinsville Trade and Tourism Association is going to be hosting Saturday Strolls in Watkinsville where groups will meet at the coffee table at 9 a.m. and go on walking tours around town. In April, someone with the historical society will lead the walk and talk about Watkinsville’s history.”

On the third Saturday of each month, the Oconee Library will have someone at the Farmers Market, and people can not only get a library

Oconee ranch honored

Please see ‘MARKET’

Page 3

New principals named for Colham Ferry Elementary, Oconee County Primary Staff Reports

In brief

Oconee students named ‘Georgia Scholars’

Five Oconee County students are among the 151 graduating seniors named by the state Department of Education as “Georgia Scholars.” The appellation recognizes students who “achieved excellence in school and community life.” Oconee students named Georgia Scholars include Marie Benoit, Caitlyn Higginbotham, Johanna Hoover and Jordan Kreimeyer of Oconee County High School; and Haley Grable of North Oconee High School.

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card but also remotely check out books, Pritchard said. Oconee County Animal Control will also be returning to the Farmers Market on the third Saturdays of each month with animals from the shelter.

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News, page 2

Email editor@theoconeeleader. com

FILE PHOTO/Oconee Leader

Baskets of tomatoes at the Oconee Farmers Market in August.

AJ REYNOLDS

A cow eats grass from a pasture at Wagon Wheel Ranch in Watkinsville. The Animal Welfare Approved organization announced recently the ranch has become the second farming business in Oconee to receive a certified grassfed label under its rules. Story, page 2

At a special session on Thursday, the Oconee County Board of Education approved the recommendation of Superintendent Jason Branch to appoint Tony McCullers principal of Colham Ferry Elementary School, and Jennifer Adams principal of Oconee County Primary School.

McCullers replaces Keith Carter, who will assume the role of principal at Oconee County Middle School.

Adams replaces Julie Patrick, who is retiring. The new appointments will take effect no later than July 1.

“We always look far and wide for the best available candidates, and it is wonderful when those individuals are home grown,” said Branch.

McCullers has worked for Oconee County Schools since 2005, and serves as assistant principal of Oconee County Elementary School. He served the district as a teacher at North Oconee High School and as an instructional technology specialist. Prior to joining OCS, he worked five years as a teacher for Newton County Schools.

In 2010, McCullers was named the teacher of the year for NOHS. In 2015, he completed the Leadership Oconee program sponsored by the Oconee

County Chamber of Commerce, and was selected as the recipient of the James McClain Leadership Award.

McCullers holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s in secondary mathematics education, both from Piedmont College, as well as a specialist degree in instructional technology from the Adams University of Georgia.

Adams has worked for OCS since 1998, and serves as assistant principal of Oconee County Middle School. She taught McCullers for 11 years at Malcom Bridge Elementary and Rocky Branch Elementary before becoming assistant principal of High Shoals Elementary, where she served five years before transferring to OCMS in 2014. Adams was named teacher of the year for Rocky Branch in 2007, and was also selected as the district-level teacher of the year.

Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s in early childhood education, both from the University of Georgia, as well as a specialist degree in teaching and learning from Piedmont College.

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Page 2

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Group gives certification to Oconee’s Wagon Wheel Ranch

By Wayne Ford

TheOconeeLeader.com

The Animal Welfare Approved organization announced recently that Wagon Wheel Ranch has become the second farming business in Oconee County to receive a certified grassfed label under its rules.

The 200-acre farm located on Antioch Church Road produces beef cattle which are sold directly to customers through online markets and various farmer’s markets, according to its owner, Dr. Fred Liebl.

The farm was certified grassfed for the past five years through the American Grassfed Association and AWA for it animal welfare and environmental management practices, but the AWA recently started its own grassfed certification and inspection program, according to Liebl.

The AWA only certifies farms where animals are fed totally on a grass and forage diet and are raised outdoors on pastures for their entire lives, according to the AWA news release.

Last year the AWA awarded its certification to The Pastures of Rose Creek farm near Watkinsville.

Grassfed beef has become increasingly popular because people are more health conscious, Liebl said.

“The beef you buy in the grocery store is factory raised and has a lot of problems,” Liebl said.

“For one thing it has a lot of hor-

Yearling calfs and other cows gather together in a pasture on last week at Wagon Wheel Ranch in Watkinsville.

mones and they are fed antibiotics, both as a growth promoter and when they are sick in the feed lots because of crowding and stress.”

The factory cows are also fed grains which affects their digestive systems and makes them more susceptible to bacteria such as E. coli, he said.

“We process just one cow at a time so when you buy ground beef from us, it all comes from that one cow, whereas in factory farming the ground beef may come from 50 to 200 cows,” he said.

The cattle are kept in a grass pasture all the time, Liebl said.

“They always have shade avail-

able and fresh water from springs or creeks,” he said.

In addition the farm uses a crossbreeding program using Saint Gertruis, Hereford and Angus cattle.

“By doing that, we take advantage of hybrid vigor. It’s the same reason a mutt dog is healthier than a pure bred dog. They live

AJ REYNOLDS

longer and are healthier,” he said.

The AWA’s certification grassfed program is more strict than that given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the release. USDA approved farms can still use growth hormones and keep cattle on dirt feedlots for periods of time, the AWA said.

School days in Oconee County

Congratulations to Oconee County Elementary fifth-grader Cile Surratt for being named the winner of the 2016 OCES Science Fair. The title of Cile’s project is “The Effects of Different Liquids on the Germination of Seeds.”

Colham Ferry Elementary fourth-grader Mairen Hobbs was the first-place winner in Oconee County science and engineering fair.

Congratulations to Malcom Bridge Elementary’s Viveka Mehrota and Mattie Carlee for winning second and third place in the Oconee County science fair.

Congratulations to Malcom Bridge Elementary’s Joy Li, fourth grade, for winning the Young Ga Author’s competition for Oconee County.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

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Public hearings set to discuss Oconee budget

By Mike Sprayberry TheOconeeLeader.com

The Fiscal Year 2017 budget process is underway in Oconee County as the Board of Commissioners prepares for a series of meetings and public hearings in April and May before final budget adoption planned for June.

County commissioners are reviewing departmental budget requests ahead of public hearings April 11 through 13 with department heads. An April 20 work session is planned for the Board of Commissioners to further discuss requests before the presentation of the proposed budget May 31 and adoption June 7.

“Our budget last year was somewhere in the neighborhood of about $23 million,” said Melvin Davis, Chairman of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners. “Each department submits a budget and we probably had requests for anywhere from $2 million to $3 million more than we funded last year.”

According to Davis, the mid-April hearings will focus on meeting with department heads about their specific budget requests.

“We’re going to start with public hearings on April 11 at 5:30 p.m. On April 12, we’ll be meeting with some department heads from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Then, on April 13 we will start again at 5:30 p.m.

What we normally try to do is meet with the departments that have larger budgets in the evenings (April 11 and 13): the sheriff’s office, fire, public safety, parks and recreation and courts. Departments that are not funded at that level are usually scheduled for the day program on April 12.

“During those meetings, department heads have an opportunity to share their request with the public and the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Commissioners can ask them questions about their requests and budget proposals.”

The budget process continues April 20 at 5:30 p.m. with a Board of Commissioners work session before the presentation of the final proposed budget May 31 and likely adoption June 7.

“The commissioners will have a work session to go into more detail on the budget requests among themselves,” said Davis.

“The Board will vote on the budget after we get through that process. Once the Board has the opportunity to have input and share thoughts and ideas, we’ll put together a final budget that will be presented to the Board of Commissioners and the public May 31. The adoption of the budget will be on June 7.”

Davis went on to summarize some of the larger departmental budgets the county funds each year and highlighted the consistency of the millage rate.

“Our largest department in past budgets as far as expenditures is concerned has been law enforcement, jail and E-911. The next one I think would be our courts

“We know technology is expanding on a daily basis and we need to do things to upgrade our operations. Do we have enough money to do that?”

— Melvin Davis, Chairman of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners which includes the probate court, clerk of courts, juvenile court, superior court and the district attorney.

Our next largest department after those would be our public works department and parks and recreation would be the next one. We still have a pretty low millage rate for our county services. We have kept it at 6.686, which is the same as it has been since 2008.”

With the economy improving in recent years, so to have county property tax revenues. Davis explained some of the county’s likely goals for the increased revenue in the FY 2017 budget.

“As far as our expected revenue that we might have in the coming year, I think we probably expect approximately a 2 to 3 percent increase in revenue.

The reason I say that is because it takes into account increased property values, which includes new growth: new homes and new commercial development that has taken place and newly built office facilities that are occupied and working.

“When we go back and consider what’s happened in past years, we’re still playing catch up with some things that probably should have been done during the economic downturn from 2008 to 2012. We did not spend much money on equipment, the replacement of vehicles and capital improvements. We didn’t do much as far as facilities other than what we could do with SPLOST funds, so our budget will increase, but I don’t think it will increase by more than the 2 to 3 percent in projected revenue increases.”

As commissioners review departmental requests in the coming days, Davis expressed a desire to meet departmental needs as well as possible within the budget.

“The commissioners have copies of the proposed budgets for each department. Very honestly, I want our departments to recommend what they need to most effectively, efficiently and economically do their jobs. At the same time, we can’t fund everything that everyone wants.

“We know technology is expanding on a daily basis and we need to do things to upgrade our operations.

Do we have enough money to do that? We may have some options the Board may look at as far as what to improve with various departments.”

Page 3

Cheered up

The Oconee County High School Cheerleading Team recently won the 8AAA All Region competition. By winning the title, eight members of the All-Region team were selected from Oconee County. Pictured (left to right): Leah Grace Wiggins, Jordan Jungman, Emily Bannister, Carolina Stotts, Marissa Burgess, McKinley Hood, Leah Le, Hannah Pachuta. They were coached by Tonya Day and Henry Johnson

About the weather . . .

I’m no meteorologist, but I’ve been around long enough that I can tell pretty well when it’s going to start raining soon.

Thursday afternoon I looked out the window and knew it was going to start raining pretty soon. “How bad is it going to rain on us at Nathan’s game tonight?” I asked my wife. Though Jean is also not a meteorologist, she might as well be. Somewhere along the way, Jean became fascinated with weather patterns. She reads all kinds of articles about weather written by meteorologists, and whenever bad weather is looming – whether thunder storms in our area or hurricanes in the Gulf or the Atlantic or approaching snow storms – Jean will visit weather forums and read what the professionals are saying.

Self-taught though she may be, Jean is as much a weather expert as anyone at the national weather service.

I call her our resident meteorologist. Some folks have a weather

rock that helps them determine the weather. Others watch the local news. Some allow weather to be a surprise every time. But in our house, we just ask Jean what the weather is going to be.

So Thursday afternoon I looked out the window and knew it was going to rain, and I asked Jean how bad it was going to be during Nathan’s game.

“We’ll probably dodge the bullet,” she said. “If anything, it will just sprinkle on us a little bit.” “Perfect,” I said. We needed the rain to knock down some of the pollen, but I also wanted to get through Nate’s game without getting soaked.

Jean was working in the concession stand during the girls’ soccer game before Nathan’s game, so she left the house. I kept looking out the window, and I kept thinking that it looked like the skies were going to let loose on us any moment. But I’d checked with our resident meteorologist, and she’d called only for sprinkles.

Just before I left the house for the

‘Market’ “We will still have boiled peanuts and the lady with the homemade dog bones and we’ll have our crafts people. We’ll also have music at each Farmers Market, like we’ve done in previous years,” Pritchard said. “We’re excited about it. We’re ready to go.”

Pritchard noted that the number of vendors can change from week to week.

“It depends on what time of the year it is,” she said. “We can have as many as 45 vendors at the height of the season. We hope to start on Saturday with 20 to 25 vendors. A lot of it is weather dependent.”

game, I pulled up a weather website and looked at the local radar. Yellow and red patches were moving over Oconee County. But Jean had said it would only be sprinkles.

I was wearing just shorts and a T-shirt. If it rained, I knew I’d be chilly. As I started to leave the house, my youngest son said, “Aren’t you going to wear a jacket or something?”

“No,” I said. “Your mama said it wouldn’t start raining until after Nathan’s game.” Robert looked out the window, and he saw the same thing I’d been seeing. “It looks like it’s going to start raining right now,” he said. “Sprinkles,” I said. “Just some light sprinkles. The rain won’t come until later.” Still, when I looked at the darkening sky, it certainly appeared ominous. But I have faith in our resident meteorologist, so I didn’t worry with a jacket.

We live about four miles from the high school, and by the time I pulled into the parking lot the skies had opened up and a deluge was pouring down upon us. Fortunately, there was an umbrella in the car.

To read the full column, go to TheOconeeLeader.com

Continued from page 1 Pritchard noted that early in the spring some of the produce vendors simply don’t have produce available yet.

“Also, we are a rain or shine event, and not all of our vendors can bring their products out in the rain,” she said.

Pritchard said the Farmers Market will still be held in front of the courthouse on Main Street in downtown Watkinsville, and it will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday from this weekend through November.

Another new thing that people can expect to find, at least on the first Saturday of the new season,

is the Oconee Farmers Market has developed a new logo and had it printed on T-shirts and bags that will be available (with a donation) during the first Saturday.

Again this year the organizers of the Farmers Market plan to host the Fields of Promise dinner, a fundraiser that in its first three years raised a total of $37,000 for scholarships for local FFA students and to help support 4-H programs.

Pritchard noted that the fundraiser also provides scholarships for those who are not going to college but are going directly to work in the agricultural field after they finish school.

For hundreds of photos and updates about Oconee events and people, go to theoconeeleader.com

This Week: PACS

WARRIORS l TITANS l SPARTANS l WOLVERINES l LIONS

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Oconee sweeps at North Oconee

Golf

Crowell signs Page 6

Online

MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

The Warriors celebrate following their 2-1 win last Saturday at North Oconee. For more photos, see theoconeeleader.com.

Road team wins again, Warriors victorious at North Oconee

By Matthew Caldwell TheOconeeLeader.com

Photo gallery & story

Westminster Christian baseball theoconeeleader.com

Online

The streak continues.

For the seventh straight year, dating back to 2010, the visiting team captured the victory in the matchup between the North Oconee Titans and Oconee County Warriors.

On Saturday night at North Oconee, the visiting Warriors got a goal in the first half and a goal in the second half to beat the Titans 2-1. It is the sixth time since 2008 the game was decided by one goal.

“Isn’t it the craziest thing? It shows how even the rivalry is with the fact that it is alternating, but the fact it is alternating with the road team, I have no expla-

nation for it,” said Warriors head coach Colin Connors. “I talked to the team a little bit about it, just saying the pattern says it’s our turn so let’s go get it. Hopefully we can stack a couple of wins in this series. Someone will one day so hopefully it’s us.”

North Oconee head coach Billy Harrell said he was expecting his team to come out and play like they did against top-ranked Johnson last Tuesday, where the Titans led 1-0 but ended up losing 2-1 in PKs, but that didn’t happen in the first half.

“Nothing against (Oconee) but they are not on the level of Johnson, and not many teams are. They are one of the best teams I have ever seen in high school. Maybe it

was a letdown,” Harrell said. “We played so hard the other night and it was tough to lose the way we did. We followed it up with a poor effort. We are very inconsistent right now and we have to work through that.

“It is tough. I told them the first half was the difference in that game. In games like this, you get down a goal, you are already behind. They are going to play extra hard to not let you back in it.

When you are down two goals and down a man, your chances are slim. I was pleased with the way we played the second half, but we have to play that way the whole game.”

The Warriors got the lead with 5:11 left in the first half on a long

shot by Nick Morin.

“I thought we got the better of the first 30 minutes. They got the better of the last 10 of the first half,” Connors said. “The thing is we didn’t even score in the first 30 minutes. When we scored it was against the flow of play a little bit. They had more possessions in the last 10 minutes and had more shots. Somehow we got it up there and Nick was able to get a little space and rip a great shot.”

Harrell told his team at halftime they could play better than what they were. Connors said after the game the second half ended up being more even between the two rivals.

Please see ‘OCHS-NOHS boys’

Page 5

Hurst’s goal in second half lifts Oconee girls past NOHS

By Matthew Caldwell TheOconeeLeader.com

Photo gallery & story

North Oconee baseball theoconeeleader.com

Online

Photo gallery

North Oconee, Oconee County alumni game theoconeeleader.com

The Oconee County girls’ soccer team continued its winning ways over rival North Oconee.

The Lady Warriors beat the Lady Titans 1-0 on Saturday to improve to 8-1 all-time against the Lady Titans.

“It feels so great. This feels like the most important game of the season for us because they are our rivals. It feels amazing,” said junior Averee Hurst.

“We knew we were going to come out here and give it 110 percent and give them their second loss.”

The first half ended scoreless. The Lady Titans had a goal waved off when the ball went out of bounds but curved back in bounds on a corner kick.

“It was unfortunate. It gave us a moment of joy and it got sucked away pretty quick,” said Lady Titans coach Tommy Hedges.

“We breathed a sigh of relief there. The rest of the night, we did a good job marking on their corners,” said Lady Warriors head coach Chris Romano.

The game got its first goal that counted with 26:28 left in the second

MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

Averee Hurst (20) and the Lady Warriors celebrate following their victory at North Oconee on Saturday night.

For more photos, see theoconeeleader.com.

half when Hurst scored on a rebound. Carly Henderson took the initial shot but it was saved by Alyssa Frey. Hurst took a shot but it was also stopped by Frey.

The third shot turned out to be the one resulted in a shot that got past Frey and into the net for a 1-0 Oconee lead.

“Carly made an unbelievable run. I played her a through ball and she barely missed it. The goalie made a save and hit it right back out to me,” Hurst said. “I took another shot with my right foot and she saved it

again. I took it with my left and it went in. It felt amazing. We had to keep our heads up and make sure we stayed focused because at that moment, we felt like we had the momentum going. It looked like they were getting frustrated.”

“We said at halftime you are going to have to want it more to win. On that play, they certainly wanted it,” Romano said. “They kept fighting and we finally got one in the net. We knew their goalie was really good and we didn’t think we would be able to get

too many chances to beat her from the outside. An opportunity opened up and we took advantage of it.”

The Lady Titans had several chances throughout but Lady Warriors goalkeeper Christen Wilson was able to make several saves.

“Christen is great,” Romano said. “She was hurt for a little while in the season and we got her back a few games ago. She did a good job as always.”

The Lady Titans had three free kicks with less than 11 minutes to go. The first one ricocheted off the

cross bar and went over the goal. The other two were cleared by the Oconee defense to keep the game 1-0 in favor of the Lady Warriors.

“Normally we are pretty solid on set pieces,” Hedges said. “They were close.

One of them was really close. They just didn’t fall tonight.”

With 8:35 remaining in the game, Lady Titan senior Erin Roche received a yellow card. It was her second one of the game, which Please see ‘OC-NO girls’

Page 6

Thursday, March 31, 2016

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Page 5

North Oconee, Oconee County alumni square off for first time

MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

Warriors and Titans players fight for the ball during the Oconee County 2-1 win last Saturday at North Oconee. For more photos, see theoconeeleader.com.

‘OCHS-NOHS boys’

Continued from page 4

“The other night we go out and play like world beaters against Johnson, and we come out tonight and don’t play at half the level they played the other night,” Harrell said. “Colin has a good group and he coaches them well, but we should have been the better side. They were getting outworked. Oconee outworked us in the first 40 minutes.”

The Warriors got an advantage with 15:41 left when Jack Rinkowski was given a red card and the Titans had to play the rest of the game down a player.

“They had already lost their heads at that point. They couldn’t get back from that,” said Warrior senior Simon Hunt.

Nearly two minutes later, the Warriors got their second goal of the game.

Sophomore Parker Skiles threw the ball in, Thomas Murray deflected it to Hunt, who scored with 13:47 left to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead.

“Thomas flicked it back and I tried to kick it back to our runners,” Hunt said.

“It just kind of curled in the corner. I scored zero goals last year and have five this year. It feels great.

“It gave us a ton of confidence. We knew we could finish the game.”

Connors said the team prides themselves on their set pieces.

“That was big. We don’t want that to be the only way we score. We got one in the flow and we got one on our set pieces,” Connors said. “That was huge.

Parker threw it in and Simon Hunt had a great flick on it and sent it in far post.”

The Titans got on the board with 2:51 left when Logan Jack scored, but the Warriors were able to close out the final few minutes and claim the win.

“It was a matter of trying to stop a moving train at that point. We made a couple of adjustments and we were able to hold them off. They still got it down there a couple of times but we were able to hold it off and finish it out.”

The Warriors improved to 9-3 overall and they are 3-0 in their region.

“If we can beat a 4A team, we can beat a 3A team,” Hunt said.

The Titans dropped to 7-6 overall. They are 2-2 in their region.

The boys’ game was the conclusion of four games in the day. It started with a 2-1 win by the Oconee JV team, then was followed by the first alumni game between the two programs. North Oconee’s alumni won 4-3.

Both teams had a large amount of former players attend. Oconee’s girls also won, 1-0.

“I look at is as a celebration of soccer in this county. This county has great soccer. It’s a great community to be a part of. I can’t say enough about what it has meant to me personally being a part of this soccer community to see a day like today and have all of these great players come back,” Connors said.

“North Oconee did an incredible job hosting this day. It’s the first time we’ve done this. John Gentry with parks and recreation did a great job sponsoring the alumni game.

“Soccer is a special rivalry in this county. Most of the kids might grow up playing basketball and football together but that kind of stops in high school. A lot of these kids play club together in the fall. Me and Billy have a special relationship. I was an assistant coach his last two years at Oconee and he coached with me at Oconee for a while. I have so much respect for the coach he is. We work well together. It was a beautiful day.”

Photos by MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

Athens Fencing Club

Contributed photo

Earlier this month, Oconee County High School graduate Isabel Evelyn (pictured above, right) earned first place in the women’s event at the SIFA (Southern Intercollegiate Fencing Association) Championships, which 14 Southeastern colleges compete in. She also received second place in the women’s team event. Athens Academy graduate Dragos Moldoveanu (pictured above, middle) made fifth place in men’s individual event and received second place in the men’s team event. Kate Schutz (home school student in Oconee County, pictured above, left) made the top eight in the Yellow Jacket Open at Georgia Tech, which is one of the biggest open fencing events in the Southeast. She was the youngest (14 years old) and the only female to make top eight. All three train with Athens Fencing Club.

Page 6

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Thursday, March 31, 2016

Jeffers, PACS no-hits Athens Christian

Grant Crowell with athletic director Richard Ricketts and golf coach Jimmy Phillips.

Prince Avenue Christian golf

Crowell signs with North Georgia to further golf career

By Matthew Caldwell TheOconeeLeader.com

After playing competitive golf for just two years, Prince Avenue Christian senior Grant Crowell will have the opportunity to play golf at the collegiate level.

Crowell last month signed to play golf at North Georgia.

“Being able to accomplish something like this is pretty great. It hasn’t been easy getting here but I have worked really hard to get to this point. To sign like this is pretty great. To go to a school like North Georgia, I am excited about it,” Crowell said.

“I played baseball up until my sophomore year and I got burned out. In the summer going into my junior year, I started playing golf and I started getting pretty good. I started playing competitively and realized this is probably what I need to be doing.

A lot of tournaments over the summer got me to this point. It has been real short but I have gotten a lot done.”

Crowell got started late in the recruiting process and he said he wasn’t sure he would get this opportunity.

“I didn’t know I was going to be able to go play in college until December,” Crowell said. “It is unbelievable, especially to

go to a place like North Georgia. It is such a great school and it’s close to home. It’s the perfect situation.”

Crowell knew shortly after he stepped on the campus in Dahlonega that North Georgia was where he wanted to attend.

“When I went to North Georgia, after 15 minutes of being there, I knew it was the place,” Crowell said. “Coach Tom Fowler is such a great guy. I really wanted to play for him. Being close to home and everything, you can’t get much better.”

The Wolverines are currently in the midst of their season. Last year they fell short as a team in the region and state golf matches. Crowell said his goal for the team is to win region and cap the season with a state championship.

“That is something our school has never been able to do. That’s my first goal – bring back something for our school, especially a region championship first off,” Crowell said. “I want to be able to finish strong.

I wasn’t strong for us for the majority of last year until the end of the year. My individual goal is to lead our team as a senior, to be able to go and play in the state championship and hopefully win state and win region. I want to be the best senior leader I can be on the team.”

Malcom Bridge girls win track and field meet held at North Oconee

Photos by MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

The Malcom Bridge girls’ track and field team won last Wednesday’s middle school meet at North Oconee, finishing two points ahead of Athens Christian, 62-60.

Oconee County’s girls finished with 36 points and Athens Academy finished with 34 points. The Athens Christian boys’ team finished first with 64 points, just ahead of Malcom Bridge’s 63 points. Oconee County finished with 48 points and Athens Academy finished with 24 points. For more photos, see theoconeeleader.com.

MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

Prince Avenue Christian freshman pitcher Trace Jeffers (pictured above) threw a no-hitter against Athens Christian in the Wolverines 10-0 win at home last Friday.

Jeffers had 11 strikeouts in the victory. For the full story, see theoconeeleader. com. PACS plays Athens Academy today on the road and at home on Friday.

‘OC-NO girls’

Continued from page 4

MATTHEW CALDWELL/Oconee Leader

A North Oconee shot is stopped by the Oconee County goalkeeper during the matchup of rival teams on Saturday. For more photos, see theoconeeleader.com.

meant the Lady Titans had to play down a player the rest of the game.

“The referee said she used her elbow high on the player and it got her a second yellow, and that was an automatic ejection from there,” Hedges said. “She will miss one game and it will depend on the GHSA from there. If they decide it was a disciplinary thing, it will require a second game. I don’t think it is going to do that but you never know. We will wait and see.”

“Coming down to the last 10 minutes 1-0, this could have been an amazing finish and we could have been in overtime.

That made a big difference with them going down one man. Them trying to make a push with one less player didn’t really work out for them tonight. We are glad for that.”

The Lady Warriors were coming off a 2-0 loss to Athens Academy on Wednesday night.

“The girls played so hard Wednesday.

They were disappointed in the result of the game,” Romano said. “I told them

I was proud of them with the half they played in the second half. The girls told each other the way we played in the second half against Athens Academy is what we need to do all night. They did it. They played hard. They fought for every ball.

They didn’t give up many chances. It was a great game.”

The Lady Warriors improved to 6-4-1 overall. They are 3-0 in their region.

“It gives us a lot of confidence that we can beat a good team like North,” Hurst said.

The Lady Titans dropped to 9-2-1 overall. They are 4-1 in their region.

“Region is more important than anything,” Hedges said. “We had a good chance at running the table and end the season 14-1. It’s not going to happen now.

Our next focus is to take care of North Hall. North Hall is going to be a huge game for us because that will determine whether we stay at home or go away in the state playoffs. That is what we want to focus on from here on out. This game is done. We move to the next one.”

Page 7

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