By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Tuesday morning, Morgan County High School senior Rosalie Keck signed a volleyball scholarship to go to Brewton-Parker College in the fall.
Spike Dog coach, Pam Hooten, who described Keck as “the entire volleyball package,” said that Keck, “could play with any team at any level,” and that she is an, “unquestionable leader.”
Jason Bryant, coach of the Brewton-Parker volleyball team said that, “Brewton-Parker is extremely excited to have [Keck].”
“I’m just so excited,” said Rosalie after the signing. “It’s really official now.”

Printed in the January 31, 2013 edition

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

This year, Mary Claire Cardwell stands as the sole swimmer from the Morgan County High School swim team to qualify in the State meet.

Cardwell’s qualifying time in the ladies’ 100-yard backstroke earns her the right to travel to the Campus Recreation Center at Georgia Tech on Friday, Feb. 8, to compete in the State meet preliminaries.

The top 16 swimmers in each event on the day of the primaries will move on to the final competitions, which will take place the next day.
“Mary Claire has a very good time and thus a good chance to make it into the finals,” said Coach Susan Courchaine. 
The Swim Dogs competed on Tuesday, Jan. 22, against Eastside, Social Circle, and Walnut Grove in a quad meet in Covington, where they placed second overall.

Winners included Megan Hume in the 50-yard freestyle, Grace Smith in the 500-yard freestyle, and Mary Claire Cardwell in the 100-yard breaststroke. Wyatt Howard placed second in the 200-yard freestyle, and Zack Fossum took second in the 100-yard butterfly.
The Swim Dogs have no more scheduled events during the 2012-2013 school year, but, according to the Georgia High School Association’s website (www.ghsa.net), the State finals will be streaming online on Feb. 9 at www.ghsa.tv.

Printed in the January 31, 2013 edition

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

The Morgan County High School (MCHS) boys varsity basketball team suffered their first region loss of the season last Saturday against the Elbert County Blue Devils. With fans biting their nails all the way up to the buzzer, Morgan County fell short by only four points in the end, losing 64-68. The loss brings the boys varsity’s region record to 10-1 this season.

When Morgan County met up with Elbert County earlier this year, Morgan County faced off against the only opponent, who, at that point, had been able to keep a close game with them, but Morgan County prevailed, winning the game 71-68 with a three-pointer by Tookie Brown at the buzzer.

Saturday, Morgan County knew that it would have to fight to defend the 10-0 region record they had compiled, and they came out shooting.

Unfortunately, so did Elbert County.
Morgan County fell behind 11-19 by the end of the first quarter. Although they were getting opportunities to get to the basket, the Dogs missed several shots in the first quarter alone.

The Dogs trailed throughout, and the tension, which had built to a fervor by the last quarter, was visibly affecting the play on the court. The nerves of both teams began to fray as Morgan County began to close the gap, and players on both sides of the ball began to make ball-handling mistakes.

With little time remaining, Morgan County tied the game at 62-62 – marking the first even score since the beginning of the game – but Elbert County made a three-point shot to pull ahead 65-62.

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

The MCHS basketball teams went nine-for-nine this week against region opponents Oconee County and Hart County and non-region opponents Putnam County.

The JV boys appeared to be a little rusty during the first couple quarters of their game Oconee County early last week – it was their first game since Jan. 4. – but they quickly got back on the ball, hanging in with the Warriors and pushing farther ahead as the game progressed, finishing with a 59-51 victory.

Hart County provided little challenge for the JV team, who won 53-30. Hart, who only scored 10 points in the first quarter, never led over Morgan County.

Deshaven Reynolds was the lead scorer for the JV team in both games, making 15 points against Oconee and 12 in the face of Hart County.

The JV team rounded out their week with a victory against Putnam County at home, constituting the second victory over Putnam for JV this season.

The girls’ varsity team’s perfect record for the week was extremely hard fought; all games were decided by two points or fewer.
Despite an early lead in their game against Oconee County, the girls fell behind before the half, and, trailing by five points by the beginning of the fourth, Coach Charlemagne Gibbons had to deliver a plea for aggressiveness, which has all but become commonplace late in girls games.

Alexis Brown was able to tie the game in the final seconds of the fourth quarter from the free throw line for Morgan County to send the game into overtime, and Sydney Nash’s single free throw point in overtime was enough to give Morgan County the win 52-51.
The girls were trailing by three points against Hart County as well in the fourth quarter, when Brown was at the receiving end of a foul caused by a Hart County player’s elbow.

By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Morgan County Middle School took the opportunity to compete against Jefferson last Wednesday in a non-league dual, which was the last of their 2012-13 season.
Morgan County lost the dual 15-58 but had wins from Carter Martin, Jacob Peters, Taylor Webb, Antonio Robinson, and Hayden Snowden. Every member of the team was able to compete against Jefferson.
“This was great experience for all the team members because they were able to go against one of the top teams in the state and have valuable mat time,” said Coach Mark Roper after the meet. “They will take what they learned from the match into next season.”
All that now remains of the MCMS wrestling team’s season is the end of the year banquet, which will take place within the next few weeks. The exact date and time of the banquet will be reported as the event approaches.
Printed in the January 24, 2013 edition.