For years, baseball participation has been a problem in Butts County. This season, the department hopes to put an end to those questions and comments by allowing the 11- & 12-year-old baseball division to play more competitive baseball.
They were the best two basketball teams during the regular season, but in the playoffs the Henderson Tigers and Lady Tigers couldn’t hold their dominance together to bring home the region championship.
Marietta High School from Region 5AAAAA, will make the trip to Red Devil Hill on Friday, August 18 to take on Parris and the Red Devils in Jackson’s only pre-season game.
Gary McGlothin has been bowling for over 40 years and has had a lot of great memories, but none measured up with the game he bowled three weeks ago.
Head Coach Carol Watts again had her ladies in fine form in their season opener as the Lady Devils won their match 4-1. But the Red Devils looked like an entirely new program in their season opener against Jones County High School.
The wait is finally over if you are a Red Devil baseball fan. On Monday, Jackson will open its 2006 season against the Upson-Lee Knights at Wallace Field. After losing only two seniors from last year’s 21-7 team the Red Devils have reloaded and are ready to make another run toward the Region 4AA championship.
After controlling the tempo for most of the first half the Red Devils broke through and got on the board first when senior Josh Mullis scored the first goal of the season. Although they didn’t win their season opener, the Lady Devils showed that they were a physically tough team, especially sophomore Derian Adams.
Saturday, Jackson traveled all the way to Sylvania to play the 25-2 and fourth-ranked team in the state – the Screven County Lady Gamecocks. And according to Head Coach Ronnie Watts the team was going to be in a battle.
The Lady Devils’ basketball team surprised everyone and proved critics wrong. Not only did the team make it to the semi-finals of the region tournament, it also advanced to state competition. Coach Ronnie Watts and his young team shocked everyone in the region by knocking out Tri-County and Manchester in the first two rounds to reach the semi-finals of the tournament.
After a 73-56 senior night victory against number one seed Macon County on January 31, the Red Devils clinched a spot in the region tournament for the first time in three seasons. In their first round region tournament game against the Tri-County Eagles, Jackson’s regular season record wasn’t anything for the Eagles to fear. But, the performance the team displayed in the final month of regular season play was.
“It’s a small town with a program that’s going to be very good in the future,” said the 6’5” 265-pound lineman. “I really like the school and the area it is in.”
While their record doesn’t indicate it, ask any Red Devil fan who’s been in attendance since the first game of the season and they’ll tell you that the Red Devils are finally starting to look like a team who can win on any given night.
Just several months after Vincent Turpin resigned his position as Henderson Middle School’s Head Football Coach, another case involving the resignation of a head coach has surfaced at the school. Unfortunately, this time the untimely incident happened in the middle of the Henderson Tigers’ basketball season. First-year boy’s basketball Head Coach Alan Richards was notified last Thursday afternoon of a problem with his certification.
Nick Elliott, a four-year player for the Jackson High School Red Devils, was one of 75 all-stars on hand in Columbus. Elliott played left tackle for the Red Devils in 2005, but in the Georgia All-Star game the 6’5” 265-pound lineman played all over the offensive line for the South team.
Every year for the past decade, local golfers have swung into action to raise funds for youth recreation in Butts County. Last year's event raised $25,670, bringing the total raised by the golf tournament to $142,381.
For the first time all season the Jackson High School Lady Devils basketball team has won consecutive basketball games. The milestone happened over the weekend when the Lady Devils defeated the Pike County Lady Pirates and the Crawford County Lady Eagles at The Garden.
