What If You Had An Athletic Program With No Coaches...?

That's the issue facing some suburban Atlanta high schools after a round of budget cuts...

As a result of a $137-million budget shortfall, Cobb County's Board of Education is looking to wipe close to 750 jobs off the books- including, practically, one school's entire head coaching staff...

Allatoona High is only two years old, and since they're the newest school out there, tenure dictates those jobs would be first on the block...

Like the Bucs' head football, basketball, soccer, and baseball coaches... in the middle of spring practice or uncompleted seasons. Not to be outdone, Campbell High School loses their girls track coach, girls basketball assistant coach, volleyball assistant coach, and the girls swim coach...

Mike Morris, in his Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, has a quote from Jay Dillon, spokesperson for the school system: "It seems like it's unfair to everyone, and to be honest with you, it is," Cobb schools spokesman Jay Dillon told WSB. "It's just a very difficult situation."

WAGA-TV's Patty Pan was at the Board of Education meeting with some angry parents...
((HT: MyFoxAtlanta.com))


WXIA-TV's Duffie Dixon got to stand in front of a big monitor to tell her story...
((HT: 11alive.com))

Georgia HS Basketballer Shatters Backboard

((HT: AJC/Carvell and Rivals.com/Cosgrove))

FOSG Michael Carvell lets us know that Elbert County’s Rod Rucker has channeled Lovetron and Jerome Lane.

The 6-4 double-double machine shattered one of his school's backboards in the first round of the region tournament against Mountain View High School in Elberton at ECCHS's arena- "The Inferno"- last week.

The HQ loves that nickname, by the way...

"Rod Rucker, our big man, he got a steal… fast break. He threw it down with two hands, and it just shattered. The glass just shattered. It came down.” Elbert County Assistant Coach Jeff Bennum explained to WSGC Radio in Elberton.

”[The crowd] went crazy… just went berserk.” Bennum said. “Some fans came down on the court. It was crazy. It’s just something you don’t see very often, you know.”

Play was stopped for an hour, according to WSGC, and the game resumed over at the middle school. Elbert County won 81-54...

Here's the dunk...
((HT: Youtube/CarvellAJC))


Here's the video from the high school news program on campus...
Their version is a little longer, and they played with the speed of "real time."

And all the above story does is let us show you again when Bill Raftery asked Pitt's Jerome Lane to do a certain act... 1/25/88 at the venerable Fitzgerald Fieldhouse
((HT: ESPN))

Your Average Every-Day 90-Footer At The Buzzer...

((HT: WTOC-TV Savannah))

Take you to Georgia high school basketball for a long-range shot at the buzzer...

End of the first quarter in Millen, Georgia where Jenkins County is entertaining Metter High School. LaVontae Hall throws up a shot from the far end of the screen and gets nothing but bottom...

Metter beat Jenkins County 61-46. Devin Byrd finished with 23 for the winners. Tyrone Brown had 25 to lead all scorers for the War Eagles.



Not a bad way to christen a new gym, huh...???

And Then There's The Other Holiday Pasttime...

No, we're not talking about eating, sitting in a chair with your top pants button unbuttoned, or anything like that...

It's high school basketball holiday tournaments...

TBH has one in her hometown... It's the "Dothan Eagle-Dothan Progress Holiday Prep Classic" presented by a legal firm whose founding father talked about things not fitting and subsequent acquitting...

It's actually a pretty good tournament in a fairly new building that seats 3,500 or so on a sellout date. And, by the way, it's not in Dothan...

16 teams, three ranked in Alabama, one more ranked in Georgia ((a defending champ)), and a bunch of nearby schools who can bring folks to fill in seats.

Another Georgia school, Randolph-Clay, has a great history and a good tourney record. The town of Cuthbert knows basketball and nothing else. Donnell Harvey played well enough in Cuthbert to go to the University of Florida and get a cup of coffee in the NBA. But, this time around, they're very young. They should make some noise in the post-season tourney, but a 20-point loss to Robertsdale High of Alabama will leave Head Coach Tyrone Kellogg thinking for New Year's.

They also don't have any seniors...

After dinner, we went back to check in on her alma mater. After being down early, Carroll High went on a 23-5 run that gave the Eagles the distance they needed to beat Straughn High comfortably.

But the night cap was the real treat- unless you were the opposition.

Whitefield Academy, defending champ in the smallest classification in Georgia, was playing Charles Henderson High from nearby Troy, Alabama. Unfortunately for Henderson, I don't think they've ever seen a team as fast- as consistently- as Whitfield.

They press. They run. They trap. And they run some more.
It's 32 minutes of hell- to borrow a phrase from Nolan Richardson.

It was 21-4 Whitefield after one quarter. It was 36-9 at the break.
Henderson had one field goal in the first quarter, didn't score another one until the 4:22 mark of the second.

Head Coach Tyrone Johnson has two seniors, but the real high flyer is sophomore Kenneth Gaines. After an early third quarter alley oop, TBH and I knew that was our cue to leave the Civic Center. Johnson, to go with those seniors, has three juniors and five sophomores.

We guess they played most of those sophomores and the one freshman in the third and fourth as Whitefield coasted to a first-round win.

Did I mention that their second round game is against TBH's alma...???
She was cringing at that idea early Saturday night watching the Wolves...and she still hates Enterprise High back home...

Oh... the first "E" in Whitefield is silent... everyone will, probably, have that figured out by March...