Entries by Justin Poole

The Madison County football team is holding the annual Red vs. Gray game Friday, May 13. Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. at Red Raider field.

The game culminates the spring practice session for the Red Raiders.

Below are photos from the spring practice session earlier this week.

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Spring practice is winding down this week for the Banks County football program as the Leopards get ready for the start of summer training in a few weeks.

Friday night, the Leopards cap the spring practice session with a scrimmage for the middle school and high school teams.

The BCMS players start at 6:30 p.m. with the varsity scheduled for 7:15 p.m.

Fans are welcome to patron Sonic before or after the game as the restaurant is helping promote the Leopards with a scrimmage night from 5-9 p.m.

Entrance fee to the games will be in the way of a monetary donation, or by one of the following items per person, being accepted at the gate: packs of DVD-R discs for filming the games, bottles of liquid laundry detergent for cleaning the uniforms, boxed packs of Lance crackers for the players after the games, case of bottled water or a bag of hard candy (no meltables or gum).

Friday night’s scrimmage will be the tip of the iceberg for what the gridiron Leopards will bring to the field in later summer scrimmages and in the fall.

It was a rough day in Atlanta for the Madison County Red Raiders, as the boys fell in the first round of the baseball state playoffs.

Last Friday, in the doubleheader with defending Class AAAA champions, Madison County recorded five hits and no runs, ending the season 17-11 overall.
“Marist was good,” said Red Raider head coach Charlie Griffeth. “They have a good chance to win it all.”

In the opening game, Madison County led off with a single from Jarrett Seawright. That single would prove to be the only hit Madison County would record in the first game as Marist took the 10-0 win.

The second game went a little better for the Red Raiders, who recorded four hits, but were still kept off the board by the War Eagles. Marist recorded the 4-0 win and improved to 25-3 to advance to the play the Creekview-Alexander winner.

“Our guys played with a lot of heart this year,” Griffeth said. “We just couldn't put together any consistency.”

Madison County struggled this season with injuries that put gaps in the bench. Griffeth said that the Red Raiders missed a lot of playing time from key players including, Brock Turner, Alex Jordan, Steven Tiller and Kyle Dean from various ailments.

The 2011 season may be over, but in a few weeks the the Red Raiders will look at summer baseball and the upcoming players as Madison County aims to fill the lineup after the loss of the seniors.

“It is gonna be tough replacing 11 seniors,” said Griffeth.

The Banks County golf season officially ended last week as the Lady Leopards were represented at the state tournament.

Cara Gowder brought back a seventh place finish shooting an 82 in the state round, hosted at Long Shadow Golf Course.

Gowder was the low medalist in the region tournament last month, qualifying her for the trip to the state tournament.

Banks County’s Lady Leopards completed their track season Saturday with a trip to the girl’s 8-AA region meet at East Jackson.

While this season has been a rebuilding year for the Banks County track team, the Lady Leopards did earn recognition as the team’s leading runner, Maggie McCoy, earned third in the 400m run.

McCoy shaved one second and 20 hundredths off her preliminary time, finishing the scoring race in 1:03.06. First place in the even went to an Elbert County runner, finishing at 1:02.06.
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It’s on the road and facing the number one seed from Region 6-AAAA, but Madison County Red Raiders are in the state baseball playoffs.

A three-game series with Heritage last week, opened the door and the Red Raiders stepped through as the number four seed.

Traveling to Marist Friday afternoon for doubleheader action, Madison County revives competition against the adversary that ended the Red Raiders’ 2008 playoff bid. Game one of the doubleheader starts at 4:30 p.m., May 6. If a tiebreaker game is needed, the third game would be scheduled for Saturday at 4 p.m., also at Marist. [Full Story »] 

Madison County’s Lady Red Raiders’ track team finished up its season last week at the Region 8-AAAA meet hosted by Loganville.

Heritage took the overall region championship, scoring 102 points across 16 events. Rockdale County was the region runner-up and Flowery Branch was third.

The Lady Red Raiders Olivia Duncan earned the team’s points with a third place finish in the pole vault. Duncan sailed across the bar at 7’6”, a tie for third with Tanner of Flowery Branch. Heritage’s Harris won the event at 8’6”.
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