Football

McIntosh had their best season since 2004 last year, recording a 4-6 record under coach Glenn Griffin and being one second away from a 5-5 record (The Chiefs lost 33-31 to Fayette County on the final play of the game). It was a big season for a team that has struggled in recent years, but there may be some more growing pains as the Chiefs must now find a way to deal with losing 26 seniors from last year’s squad, many of them starters.

Mike Earwood is gone, but not forgotten. He’s not even that far away, coaching over at Our Lady of Mercy (close enough for his friends from Starr’s Mill to come cheer him on as he got his first win last Saturday), but for the first time since Starr’s Mill fielded a football team, the Panthers have a new head coach.

If you go by what all of the other coaches in the region seem to be saying, Whitewater is going to be the team to beat this year. Whitewater head coach Amos McCreary downplays that idea.

The story of Sandy Creek’s 2009 state championship campaign is well known by now. By the time they reached the Georgia Dome to take on Clarke Central, it seemed like everyone in Fayette County was rooting for the Patriots to take home the trophy. The cheers continued when they closed the deal with a strong finish in the second half and reached a fever pitch (at least from opposing coaches) when it was decided that Sandy Creek would be dropping from Class AAAA to Class AAA.

It wasn’t in Mike Earwood’s plans to leave Starr’s Mill, but when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to get to go back to teaching full-time and coaching, he started looking for a new position and found a place at Our Lady of Mercy. Things have started off pretty well.

Landmark Christian School went 6-5 last year and lost in the opening round of the state playoffs to Commerce, 29-19. They produced a region record of 6-2, losing to Holy Innocents and Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy, and started the season with non-region losses to Brookstone and Warren County. The War Eagles, undoubtedly, would like things to go differently this year.

By Loran Smith
Special to The Citizen

Chad Gloer’s story is interesting enough in itself—a kid walking on a major college campus trying out for football and succeeding against considerable odds—but there is an uplifting sidebar to his story that involves his pretty mother.

Last season Fayette County High School’s football team won Michelin’s ABetterPlay.com “Play of the Season,” and as part of their grand prize the Tigers had the opportunity to be VIPs at Falcons Training Camp over the weekend.