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 Tiger Sharks Open Swim
Season
The Commerce Parks and Recreation Department Tiger Shark swim
team opened its 2000 season with a home meet against Chattahoochee
last Thursday.
The team followed Saturday with its first big meet of the year
at the North Georgia Swim League Invitational in Lilburn.
Nick Moulton was the leading swimmer for the team with three
18-under first-place finishes. He took first in the short freestyle,
backstroke and butterfly compeitions.
Josh Totherow took first in the 14-under short freestyle. He
was second in the backstroke and third in the breaststroke.
Kristina McFaddden was first in the 10-under butterfly. She was
also second in the short freestyle.
Other placers for Commerce's 10-under girls included: Katelyn
Nevil, third short free and ninth backstroke; Casey Teague eighth,
backstroke and ninth butterfly.
Sara Ervin was fifth in breaststroke, sixth in short free and
ninth in individual medley for the 12-under girls.
Mallory Ridling was ninth breaststroke for the 12-under girls.
Laura Beth Baker was second in the backstroke for the 18-under
girls. She was also third in both the short freesyle and breaststroke.
Also participating were: Morgan Flint, Alex Martin, Chris Cornelison,
Jordan Lord, Michelle Cornelison, Lauren Martin, Heather Meeks,
Danielle Hembree, Catherine Vance and Kristy Teague.
This weekend the Tiger Sharks will travel to Gainesville for
the North Georgia Sports Festival at the Green Street Pool.
 BCHS
teams prepare for 2000-01 season
Banks County High School is still two months away from starting
the next year of classes. But the sports teams are not taking
that time off for vacation.
The basketball and football teams are putting in extra work in
the summer to help them be ready when the season arrives.
LADY LEOPARDS
The Banks County girls' basketball team has begun another summer
season with area teams. The varsity and junior varsity BCHS teams
will see action like Tuesday night's games with soon-to-be region
foe Lumpkin County.
The JV and varsity girls competed in a team camp last week at
Madison County with 11 area teams.
BOYS' CAMP
The boys' basketball team hosted a team camp last week and are
attending another this week in Gainesville. The boys' team is
at the Number One team camp in Gainesville this week after serving
as a host in the Jackson County team camp last week. A total
of 14 area teams played at Banks County high and middle school
gyms.
WEIGHT ROOM DUTY
Football players are working on their strength, endurance and
quickness in the weight room and practice fields this summer.
Leopards go through lifting workouts and do running drills to
get ready for the football season that won't start until the
first week of September.
  JCCHS to host Georgia Games wrestling
Jackson County Comprehensive High School will host the 2000 Georgia
Games wrestling competition Saturday, July 22. Sidney Garner,
president of the Jefferson Wrestling Club, will serve as tournament
director.
Divisions for competition include: Bantam (born 1992-93), Midget
(1990-91), Novice (1988-89), Schoolboy (1986-87), Cadet (1984-85)
and Junior (born after Sept. 1, 1980 and enrolled in grades 9-12).
In addition, an open class will be available for anyone born
prior to 1981, or anyone who has competed at the high school
level before the year 2000. Both freestyle and folkstyle competitions
will be held, and a USA Wrestling card is required for all participants.
Cards may be purchased at registration for $25. The tournament
is sanctioned by Team Georgia USA Wrestling.
Nearly 150 wrestlers participated in 1999, up from the Games'
low of 81 in 1997. In 1993, there were 310 participants. Overall,
more than 10,000 amateur athletes participated in the Georgia
Games last year.
According to a Georgia Games brochure, the Games is "a sport
festival created for Georgia's amateur athletes. Patterned after
the Summer Olympics, the 2000 Georgia Games Championships will
consist of 43 sports, providing Georgia's amateur athletes of
all ages and skill levels a meaningful opportunity to participate
in a true amateur sport competition."
Created in 1989 by an act of the Georgia State Legislature, the
Georgia State Games Commission is a member of the National Congress
of State Games, which is in turn a member of the United States
Olympic Committee.
Garner said this week that tableworkers and other volunteers
are needed for the event.
For more information on the wrestling competition, contact Garner
at (706) 367-4124, or via email at Gabush@aol.com. Interested
parties may also call the Team Georgia hotline at (770) 222-0903.
For information on this or any of the 42 other Georgia Games
competitions, call (770) 528-3580 or (770) 528-3592, or visit
the Games' website at www.georgiagames.org.
JCPRD spring baseball,
softball champions crowned
The Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department completed
its end-of-season baseball and softball tournaments last week
by crowning seven league champions. Jefferson teams swept the
baseball leagues, winning all four tournaments. In softball,
two teams from West Jackson and one from Nicholson earned championship
wins.
A pair of baseball teams from Jefferson - the 9-10 Marlins and
7-8 Mariners - shared the honor of being the department's only
unbeaten teams. The two capped off the JCPRD tournament schedule
by winning their championship games Monday.
After going 10-0 in the regular season, the Marlins defeated
the Nicholson Giants by a single run in their tournament final,
closing their season at a perfect 13-0.
With the score knotted at three in the bottom of the fifth inning,
the Marlins had the bottom four hitters in their order coming
up. Josh James, the final hitter in the lineup, took the count
full before delivering only his third hit of the season and driving
in the winning run.
The Mariners needed extra-inning heroics to win over the Nicholson
Diamondbacks. Jason Demos drove in Daniel Barber for the winning
run in the come-from-behind win.
Also winning baseball championships were the Jefferson Hammerheads
(11-12) and Boll Weevils (13-14). Softball champs were the Nicholson
Indians (7-8), and the West Jackson Astros (9-10) and Lookouts
(11-12).
 Madison
County's Jedd McLuen competes in U.S. Open but fails to make
cut
The shots didn't quite fall as he might have planned and he didn't
advance to the weekend rounds of play, but if you ask Colbert's
Jedd McLuen, his trip to the U.S. Open this past week will always
be at the top of his greatest golf memories.
McLuen, who failed to make the tournament cut with a 16-over-par,
two-day total of 158, said he got the privilege of living the
PGA tour lifestyle during his stay in Pebble Beach, Calf., dining,
practicing, playing and sharing the same limelight as all the
golfers he grew up watching on TV.
"Just things like being at the first tee at first day of
the practice rounds were pretty memorable," McLuen said.
"I got to play with Steve Jones and Stuart Appleby. Also,
just getting to hang out in the hospitality tent with all the
guys and to have my locker next to Phil Mickelson, Mark O'Meara,
Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus - the whole atmosphere was just
really neat."
McLuen, who signed a few hundred autographs while at the 100th
U.S. Open, said he was able to meet and make friends with several
of the tour players during this stay. He said former U.S. Open
Champion Steve Jones even left a note in his locker encouraging
him in his upcoming week of play.
"All the guys were just really nice," he said.
But as for his performance in perhaps golf's greatest event,
McLuen said he was disappointed with his showing in his first
PGA tournament.
"I played horribly. I actually hit the ball well and hit
a lot of fairways and greens, but I missed so many short putts
during the tournament. The greens were really fast."
However, McLuen, who shot 79-79 on Thursday and Friday's rounds,
didn't believe that the degree of difficulty of Pebble Beach,
which Nicklaus once called "golf's great test," led
to his disappointing score.
"I honestly did not think it was that tough - except for
the rough," McLuen said of this year's U.S. Open host course,
which only saw tournament champion Tiger Woods, who won by 15
strokes, finish with a four-day total under par. "The rough
was just really thick. But from where I hit the ball, I shouldn't
have shot over 74. I could have played well, I just didn't."
McLuen, who was playing in front of a national television audience,
nearly scored an ace while ESPN turned their cameras on him during
the second round of play on hole number 12. He said he wasn't
nervous despite the magnitude of the tournament and all the distractions.
"I wasn't really nervous at all when I first teed off,"
he said. "Everything kind of happend so fast out there."
McLuen fell victim to bad playing conditions during his first
round on Thursday, as severe fog sat in on the beachfront course,
allowing him to playonly two holes of the round and forcing him
to finish the rest on Friday before his second round.
"That (getting to play onl;y two holes that day) didn't
really bother me that much," McLuen said. "But I didn't
like it the next day when I played bad during the rest of that
round and then had to go out and play my next round after that."
McLuen, who during the second round of play hit an impressive
13 out of 18 greens in regulation, said his experience at Pebble
Beach taught him the importance of concentration in the game
of golf. He believes that the mental aspect of golf is the key
to success in major events.
"You've got to focus so much when you're playing in a tournament
like this," he said. "It's such an extreme mental grind.
I felt I focused pretty well, but it was also a lot of fun too,
so I might have let myself get caught up in that."
Despite shooting a two-day total he believed was high, McLuen
said he wasn't discouraged by his score or any of the struggles
he might have had during the tournament.
"I wasn't discouraged at all," he said. "Just
from the way I played in my practice rounds and the way I played
during the end of the tournament. It showed me that I can play
with those guys."
And for McLuen, just being part of the event made everything
worthwhile.
"This is probably my proudest moment in golf because it
was such an honor to be there," he said of the experience.
"I got treated so well out there. I was treated just as
good as Tiger Woods was. The fans were so great and supportive
- I heard a lot of cheers.
"Every time I hit a green I heard cheers from the crowd
and I heard 'awwhs' when I missed a putt. This makes me want
to work so much harder so I can get back there again."
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