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The offseason work continues for the Banks County High School gridiron Leopards.

Last week 34 members of the BCHS football team loaded up and ventured to the University of West Georgia in Carrollton for the Southeastern Defensive Camp. Eight Leopard coaches also attended. BCHS was one of 12 schools which participated.
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School may have been out of session this past month but it was no vacation for the Banks County High School Lady Leopards basketball team.

Coach Jerry King, who is entering his second season at BCHS, and his players had a busy month of June attending several camps and competing in numerous games.

“We tried to get everything finished in June so we could have July off,” King said Sunday. “Of course, the players will still be able to get in the gym and work on their own.”

Overall, King said the summer work was “positive” and he noted it was good to have a complete offseason to work with his returning players.

“We were able to get a great deal accomplished in June,” the coach said. “Of course, we still have a lot to work on.”

King said the Lady Leopards participated in 42 games this summer going to camps at Hart County, Gainesville and Jefferson. Some of the goals during the summer were to work on the team’s man-to-man defense and to see how the new players, especially the freshmen, did at the next level.

BCHS does have several returning varsity lettermen including four seniors for the upcoming 2008-09 season. King is dealing with various injuries to players.

Lacey Saxon is recovering from ACL surgery although the coach said he hopes she will be ready to go by October. Sophomore Lindsey McDuffie, who contributed valuable minutes as a freshman last season, suffered another ACL injury and may miss the entire upcoming campaign.

“We worked some players around in different spots this summer,” King said. “We competed against some quality teams like Stephens, Hart County and Elbert County. We saw some competition that was at a high level. That helped us get a great deal accomplished.”

By the end of last season, King’s Lady Leopards began making marked improvement after a somewhat slow start and had become a legitimate threat by the team the Region 8-AA tournament arrived.

The coach is hoping his squad can continue that momentum when the new season begans late this fall.

The dust — and there was plenty of it during the summer league schedule — has settled for the Banks County High School baseball squad.

Coach Joe Lord’s team played a full slate of games during June as the Leopards used the first weeks out of school as an early preparation for the 2009 season.

After advancing to the state playoffs for the first time since 2001 this past season, Lord wanted to continue to build upon that success and begin looking toward next spring immediately.

For more on this story read the Wednesday's edition of The Banks County News.