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Warm weather means shorts, helmets and shoulder pads as the Banks County gridiron Leopards started spring practice under the watchful eye of new head coach Philip Jones.

Monday marked the official start of practice and Jones hasn’t wasted a second since then getting the varsity boys and rising players onto the practice field and learning what will be the new standard in Leopard football.

This early May practice isn’t going to go to waste as the Leopards have a scrimmage scheduled next Friday, May 13. [Full Story »] 

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 »] 

The diamond Red Raiders finished the regular season Saturday with a win over Prince Avenue.

Madison County’s 7-1 win improved the team to 15-8 overall. The boys are third in the sub-region at 6-4 and 9-6 in region play. The third seed in the sub-region means that for the first round of the region tournament, played Wednesday, the Red Raiders crossed over to take on the number two seed Heritage.

On the north side of the region, Winder-Barrow took the top seed with Flowery Branch and Madison County following. Across the region, Loganville took the south sub-region number one seed, followed by Heritage and Rockdale. [Full Story »] 

It was a big day Friday for the Madison County netters at the region tournament.

During the tourney, the Red Raiders tore through the brackets, winning their fifth region title, the first since the 2006 season, insuring the team’s third consecutive state tournament appearance.

Madison County’s Lady Red Raiders fell in a heart-breaker consolation round to claim the fourth seed, advancing to their 14th consecutive playoff appearance. [Full Story »] 

Madison County’s girls’ golf team found the fairway, found the greens and found the region trophy — again.

The girls’ golf team won the region championship for the third straight year. This tournament was held at Double Oaks Golf Course in Commerce.

“Winning the third region title in a row is a testament to how committed these girls are to the game,” said coach Doug Kesler. “We posted the three lowest scores of the day. With Cortney, Kelsey and Katie Jane, we have 3 girls who are playing pretty much year-round. They deserve all the credit and praise.”

Cortney Boggs was the region low medalist with a score of 73. This is one of the lowest scores ever recorded in region 8AAAA girls’ golf tournament, and this is an 18-hole school record for Madison County. [Full Story »] 

Madison County’s diamond Red Raiders added one win over the past four games.

The 21-4, seven inning victory last week was the high point of the team’s spring break play after Madison County opened the week with a 6-2 loss to Habersham Central, followed by last Friday’s game where Loganville blanked the Red Raiders 7-0.

Returning to the diamond this week, Madison County hosted Flowery Branch Monday. The Falcons barely slipped past the Red Raiders in the 6-4 game, leaving Madison County 9-6 overall. Full stats from the Flowery Branch game will be in next week's Madison County Journal. [Full Story »] 

Banks County improved to 3-0, 3-2 as the diamond Leopards started region play last Tuesday.

In the opening region game of the season, Banks County took on East Hall, defeating the Vikings 12-1.

Things started off slow as the Leopards went three up, three down across the first two innings.

In the third inning, Banks County scored the first run of the game, but East Hall tied things back up. [Full Story »] 

With two of the first three meets canceled for the Banks County track team, the Leopards are still getting through the planning stages of the season as the team prepares for tough competition.

“We are pushing through the early, and cold, part of the season and preparing for the main part of the track schedule,” coach Paul Hoch said. “We are once again a young team with freshmen making up just over half of the spots on the roster.”

While freshmen hold several key events, it is the well known names that are expected to pace the teams. [Full Story »]