Top Fives (sports edition)
Per usual ...
Top Five Sports Memories
1. After almost a decade of futility against the Tigers, Georgia defeats a Top-Five Clemson team in football in 1991.
2. The magical run of the Red Sox in 2004 (with the victory over the Yankees in the ALCS being more sweet than the actual capturing of the World Series ... well, barely).
3. Robert Edwards's sideline jaunt into the end zone to clinch Georgia's 37-17 win over Florida in 1997
4. Fourth down, David Greene-to-Michael Johnson to win the SEC East title against Auburn in 2002.
5. My alma mater, Westside-Augusta, rallying from a 19-point first quarter deficit to defeat rival Thomson 86-80 in double overtime en route to the 1995 Class AAA title. Still the best basketball game I've ever seen.
Top Five High School Teams I Covered
1. The 2000 Commerce football team - captured the Class A championship, doing so with four of the most thrilling games I've ever seen (two wins over Lincoln County, two wins over Buford).
2. The 2001 Clarke Central baseball team - had three pitchers with ERAs of under 2.00 and two players (Josh Smith and Bo Lanier) who played for Georgia.
3. The 1999 Oconee County football team - this team was loaded with Tyson Browning (Georgia), Tony Taylor (Georgia), J.T. Cape (Duke), Willie Johnson (Georgia Southern) and Jeremy Phillips (Georgia Tech) ... the Warriors cruised to the Class AAA championship.
4. The 2002 Clarke Central girls basketball team - a really special team made up almost entirely of seniors who came into a program which was horrible ... by 2002, the Lady Gladiators were one of the state's top three teams, knocked off longtime nemesis Central Gwinnett to win the Region 8-AAAA title and were 0.3 seconds away from upsetting the No. 1 team in the state.
5. The 2001 and 2002 Jefferson girls basketball team - could've beaten half of the boys team in the area en route to the 2001 Class A title and the 2002 Class A runner-up finish.
Top Five Favorite Athletes
1. Herschel Walker
2. David Ortiz
3. Phil Mickelson
4. Trot Nixon
5. D.J. Shockley
Top Five High School Athletes I Covered
1. Monte Williams, Commerce (football)
2. Tony Taylor, Oconee County (football, basketball, soccer)
3. Josh Smith, Clarke Central (baseball)
4. Staci Childress, Jefferson (basketball)
5. Tyson Browning, Oconee County (football)
Top Five Masters Memories
1. Phil Mickelson finally breaking through in 2004, playing out-of-his-mind on the back nine on Sunday.
2. Jack Nicklaus in 1986 (as an eight-year-old, I remember being able to hear the crowd from my grandmother's house across the street).
3. The back-to-back holes-in-one at No. 16 on Sunday in 2004 ... you would have thought we were in a football stadium that day.
4. The Tiger Slam in 2001 - you forget he held off Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and David Duval to win that thing ... and Duval missed three key putts which could have won the tournament.
5. Ben Crenshaw, my favorite golfer growing up, winning it for his mentor in 1995.
Top Five Sports Memories
1. After almost a decade of futility against the Tigers, Georgia defeats a Top-Five Clemson team in football in 1991.
2. The magical run of the Red Sox in 2004 (with the victory over the Yankees in the ALCS being more sweet than the actual capturing of the World Series ... well, barely).
3. Robert Edwards's sideline jaunt into the end zone to clinch Georgia's 37-17 win over Florida in 1997
4. Fourth down, David Greene-to-Michael Johnson to win the SEC East title against Auburn in 2002.
5. My alma mater, Westside-Augusta, rallying from a 19-point first quarter deficit to defeat rival Thomson 86-80 in double overtime en route to the 1995 Class AAA title. Still the best basketball game I've ever seen.
Top Five High School Teams I Covered
1. The 2000 Commerce football team - captured the Class A championship, doing so with four of the most thrilling games I've ever seen (two wins over Lincoln County, two wins over Buford).
2. The 2001 Clarke Central baseball team - had three pitchers with ERAs of under 2.00 and two players (Josh Smith and Bo Lanier) who played for Georgia.
3. The 1999 Oconee County football team - this team was loaded with Tyson Browning (Georgia), Tony Taylor (Georgia), J.T. Cape (Duke), Willie Johnson (Georgia Southern) and Jeremy Phillips (Georgia Tech) ... the Warriors cruised to the Class AAA championship.
4. The 2002 Clarke Central girls basketball team - a really special team made up almost entirely of seniors who came into a program which was horrible ... by 2002, the Lady Gladiators were one of the state's top three teams, knocked off longtime nemesis Central Gwinnett to win the Region 8-AAAA title and were 0.3 seconds away from upsetting the No. 1 team in the state.
5. The 2001 and 2002 Jefferson girls basketball team - could've beaten half of the boys team in the area en route to the 2001 Class A title and the 2002 Class A runner-up finish.
Top Five Favorite Athletes
1. Herschel Walker
2. David Ortiz
3. Phil Mickelson
4. Trot Nixon
5. D.J. Shockley
Top Five High School Athletes I Covered
1. Monte Williams, Commerce (football)
2. Tony Taylor, Oconee County (football, basketball, soccer)
3. Josh Smith, Clarke Central (baseball)
4. Staci Childress, Jefferson (basketball)
5. Tyson Browning, Oconee County (football)
Top Five Masters Memories
1. Phil Mickelson finally breaking through in 2004, playing out-of-his-mind on the back nine on Sunday.
2. Jack Nicklaus in 1986 (as an eight-year-old, I remember being able to hear the crowd from my grandmother's house across the street).
3. The back-to-back holes-in-one at No. 16 on Sunday in 2004 ... you would have thought we were in a football stadium that day.
4. The Tiger Slam in 2001 - you forget he held off Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and David Duval to win that thing ... and Duval missed three key putts which could have won the tournament.
5. Ben Crenshaw, my favorite golfer growing up, winning it for his mentor in 1995.
posted by Jmac at 6:50 AM
11 Comments:
were you the writers that describe monte williams as something like..."watching smoke pass through a gun barrel" or something like that.
I remember reading that in Athens late during his SR year.
Great line
It came from a quote in this story I did on the eve of him setting the state rushing record:
Or as Franklin County head coach Jeff Davis puts it, ''man, tackling him is like tackling a ghost.''
Davis also told the AJC something to the effect of 'he's got those phantom moves.'
Though my favorite contribution to the piece (which was one of a handful I'm fairly proud of) was ...
''I mean, I don't know what it is ... there are some things that you just can't explain,'' (Michael) Collins said. ''And you can't explain the types of runs and things that he does on the field.''
If you can't explain it, then how do you prepare for it?
Kid was good.
Though, I always tell people they should have seen Tony Taylor in high school. He was a ridiculous football player, but also was the best point guard I covered in Northeast Georgia and the area's best goalie in soccer.
Basketball-wise, he was crazy good. Averaged like 20 points a game and 8 assists ... he singlehandedly beat Clarke Central two different times. Plus the battles between him and Quentin Moses were impressive.
As an aside, it's hard to just pick five high school athletes I've covered ...
I mean, Xavier Goddard at Cedar Shoals was an incredible track athlete. And B.J. Elder was one of the best high school basketball players I saw, period ... better than Kwame Brown and Shareef Abdur-Rahim ... both of whom seemed a tad stiff to me.
whatever happened to Monte?
I think he's still up there.
He went to Butler Community College in Kansas and played two seasons, but never signed with anyone after that. He had some academic issues if I recall.
I've got a friend of a friend who works in Commerce, and he told me he sees him up there. So I guess he's milling about.
That whole team would make for a fascinating Friday Night Lights-style book. One kid's in state prison for helping his family run a massive meth lab.
B.J. Elder was, in fact, ridiculous. I still remember the region semifinal where he broke the damn backboard on a dunk. He also had 40 points one night, something like two off the school record. Coach said his scorekeeper lost count, so he didn't realize he was so close, or he would have left him in. So B.J. scores 45 the next time out.
And unlike so many from NEGA, he didn't flame out in college. Well, at least not until his senior year.
I once saw Tony put up a quadruple-double against someone, can't remember who. But yeah, the goalie thing was ridiculous. They needed someone, so he said "I'll do it," and wound up all-area. What the hell? Who does that?
Lovie
I guess you wrote the article on Taylor playing goalie. That was gold. I think it was also about his non-relationship with his dad or something.
Anyway....best HS b-baller I ever saw in NEGA was Percy Eberhart (sp?) CCHS '92 or so. He was the cross town rival to Carlos Strong. Much, much better college prospect than Strong IMO.
6'8". Long, lean, athletic. Built like Penny Hardaway without the handle. Could've played the 2 guard at the right college.
Died during his Prop 48 year at S. Carolina of a heart attack. Really sad story.
Not many 6'8" HS sophs can shoot the 3, run like a deer, and throw down a dunk in traffic like I saw him do one night.
pwd
Dude, I heard legendary stories about Percy from different folks in the town.
Terrell Bell played at Cedar Shoals too, right? With Carlos Strong? And they never made the state playoffs? That's absurd.
I think you were on to something with this article. It's interesting that Oconee was called SLOWCONEE in those days, I ran track from 94-96 and we dominated Cedar and Clarke in 95 and 96. HEHE Not in your top 5 but the person that wrote that article is mistaken.
My top five b-ball players that I played against were,
Eugene Christopher (Cedar)
Saddler (Hart County)
T.J Rosene (my teammate)
Steve Jones (teammate)
Ricky Collins (Madison County)
There were some great players from Monroe Area as well.
My top 5 people to run against in my era were
Frosty Harper (Cedar)
Mike Lawrence (Clarke)
Mike Lewis (Clarke)
Emmitt Smith (Clarke)
Doug Flint (Madison County)
I would argue that Eugene Christopher was one of the best athletes ever to set foot in Athens. Steve Jones was pretty sick too.
HEHE I know this is way late and way off topic but you sparked something here hehe.
Larikus SCOTT
Oconee Class of 96
I covered Monte for years and even chatted with him while he was out at Butler. His freshman year he led the team in All Purpose yards.
I thought he was going to play for a team called the Georgia Sharks.
I just hear some bad news that Xavier Goddard passed away. R.I.P.
Post a Comment
<< Home