Bishop Media Sports Network
Pirates Voyage
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Brunswick High Pirate Football team finished its season with a tough loss to Lee County in the second round of the State playoffs last week.
Brunswick finished with an 8-4 record. Head Coach Sean Pender and the Pirates won a share of the Region 2-AAAAAA crown this fall, which is something the Pirate football program has not done since 2009.
The eight-win season is something the program has not accomplished since 2010. The 2020 Pirates also won their first City Championship since 2013, and in spite of these accomplishments Sean Pender was not named the Region Coach of the year and the award went to a team and coach he defeated. 2020 strikes again. Maybe a recount should be requested.
This edition of the Pirates got off to a rocky start with a loss at Pierce County, where star running back Chukobe Hill suffered a knee injury that that kept him out of action for a month.
BHS bounced back and beat MCA in week two.
In week 3 the Pirates fumbled away a chance to beat highly thought of Benedictine deep in Cadet territory with a minute left in the contest.
After the 1-2 start the Pirates went on the road on a Thursday night and beat a good Northeast Macon team 41-12 and that began a four-game winning streak that included the “Miracle between the Bricks” 75-yard TD pass from KJ Lee to Tyrease Jones with 16 seconds left in the contest to win the City Championship.
On Halloween weekend the Pirates came up short against Richmond Hill but then won three straight before falling at Lee County last week.
The Pirates were well represented on the first team All-Region selections with the following Pirates be named to the first team:
OL- Caleb Cook
OL- Kanaya Charlton
DB: Amarion Whitfield
WR: Tyrease Jones
RB: Ree Simmons
LB: Zane Rosenbaum
Second Team Selections:
KJ Lee
Xaiver Bean
David Newbauer
Kayshawn Thomas
Kaleb Hampton
Camron Crump
Devontae Gadson
Anthony Elvine
Honorable Mention:
Kevin Thomas
Chukobe Hill
Quan Gibson
Keon Leggett
AJ Wilson
Kyle Rehberg
This Senior Class has put the program back on solid ground moving forward for the future. Coach Pender when asked about this group of seniors got a little emotional when commenting on this group:
“These kids bought into everything we were trying to teach them. They worked hard, and there was a spirit of unity with this group that has been infectious for the younger players in the program. They have laid the foundation for a winning culture here. They were the first group I have had here for all four years, and this group will always hold a special place in my heart because the foundation they created will produce results long after they will no longer walk these halls at BHS. They leave us as champions both Region and City and it has been a while since we have said that here, and now that is the expectation moving forward with this football program”.
I have enjoyed covering this team and group of seniors, and like Coach Pender stated this group has laid the foundation for the future of BHS football.
The 2020 Brunswick High Football team will always be remembered as the “Drought Breakers” on Altama Avenue and as champions and this senior class will be champions in life, and that means more than winning football games.
Glynn Academy Red Terrors Coach’s Show w Rocky Hidalgo December 9
Striking the Pose
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Heisman race is narrowing down to a two-man race, but it’s tightening up at the same time heading into the final week before conference championship games begin.
Mac Jones and Kyle Trask have separated themselves from the pack, but players like Desmond Ridder, (QB, Cincinnati) Najee Harris, (RB, Alabama) Zach Wilson, (QB, BYU) Trevor Lawrence, (QB, Clemson) Justin Fields, (QB, Ohio State) Jaret Patterson, (RB, Buffalo) and Breece Hall, (RB, Iowa State) have made major impacts in the 2020 season.
The Heisman trophy went to the best player in college football once upon a time. Today, the Heisman goes to the top quarterback on any winning team.
Last year at this time, Joe Burrow was being announced as the 2019 Heisman trophy winner after putting up early-gen PlayStation stats.
Burrow completed 402 passes for 5,617 yards and 60 touchdowns in 15 games. He also threw 44 touchdowns in the regular season.
The two front runners in this year’s Heisman race will have only played 10 regular season games, and only against SEC teams.
The voting deadline has been moved back to December 21st with finalists announced on Christmas Eve.
For the first time, voters will judge a Heisman winner on his conference championship game. That game being the SEC Championship in Atlanta on December 19th.
Mac Jones runs the Alabama offense at an exceptionally high level while putting up crazy numbers in the process. Against LSU, Jones completed 20-28 passes for 385 yards with 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.
Now that gives the first-year starter over 3,100 yards passing with 27 touchdowns and only three interceptions. It obviously helps having a stacked offense including DeVonta Smith and Najee Harris, but Jones puts throws on the money and is a tough quarterback to stop.
Kyle Trask has brought the Fun & Gun back to Gainesville. Trask has no problem chucking the ball around without much of a running game.
Trask’s ability to make smart decisions and avoid mistakes helps make that a winning formula for the Gators offense.
As absurd as it may sound, Trask is on a better scoring pace and on the same yardage pace as last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow. Trask ignited the Heisman talk by leading the Gators victory of Georgia Bulldogs 44-28.
Trask was 30-43 for 474 yards passing 4 touchdowns and a pick. Trask’s ability to place the ball where only his teammate can make the catch is amazing.
That’s how good the Gators quarterback has been with over 3,200 yards and 38 touchdowns with only 3 interceptions with the season finale against LSU this Saturday.
The Heisman race might come down to the SEC Championship game in a couple weeks, but barring a complete drop off from Kyle Trask against LSU, it’s hard to imagine Jones catching Trask in this race.
One question to all my readers, if you took both quarterbacks off their respective teams, which team would be affected more?
Do You Really Care
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
If you had asked me back in September if I thought there would still be a college football season in December, I would’ve told you you’d be more likely to see a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion with the original Aunt Viv.
The fact we are not only playing football in December, but it looks like most bowl games and the college playoffs are going to take place, is nothing short of remarkable.
Considering the difficulties, we all knew the NCAA would encounter to put any semblance of a season together, I think they’ve done an admirable job, overall.
They put together strict guidelines in regards to testing players and coaches multiple times a week, as well the protocols in place for those who tested positive.
They allowed programs to have the autonomy to cancel and reschedule games as they saw fit, which led to some interesting matchups, like Coastal Carolina and BYU, that we otherwise never would’ve gotten.
Still, for all those reasons I just gave the NCAA credit for, I have never been less interested, or watched fewer games than I have this year.
It’s been difficult getting excited for games where I had no idea what type of roster was actually going to be on the field or if the game was even going to be played at all.
It’s also been hard to care about the outcomes of games and how it affects bowl games and the college playoffs when there’s such a disparity in the number of games played.
The most difficult part has probably been the testing. While I applaud the NCAA’s testing requirements there’s something wrong when college kids can be tested three times a week, simply because they’re an athlete, while thousands of Americans wait in line 3-4 hours to get tested.
In many cases, they have to use sick or vacation time for work while they wait on the results because they are in quarantine.
I know it’s an apples to oranges comparison when it comes to the cost or type of tests being administered (public vs private) but I have to seriously doubt the motives of anyone who doesn’t admit the optics on that are bad.
When you take into account the billions of dollars to be made, or probably more important, to be lost, if there wasn’t a season, I completely understand why the NCAA proceeded with football and continues with basketball.
I just wonder for all those fans that were clamoring at the beginning of the season how much they needed sports so there could be some resemblance of normalcy in their daily lives, did it provide the escape they hoped for?
I, for one, felt that way two months ago, but my perspective has changed entirely since then.
Please understand this isn’t some sort of political statement on my behalf. I’m not arguing whether or not a season should have been played or advocating for any particular side.
The NCAA was in a no win situation and I give them credit for trying to make the best of it.
All I’m giving is my opinion on why my interest in caring about this season has basically been nonexistent.
Unless it was a topic I was going to write about, when given the choice to watch a football game or something else, I chose the latter.
After watching Aunt Viv be reunited with Will Smith, I have no regrets.
Increasing Altitude
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Because nothing can be anything resembling normalcy can exist anymore, the NBA is releasing the schedule for the upcoming 2020-2021 season in two parts – the first chunk covers the starts of the season (right around the corner, on December 22nd) to March 4th, at which they’ll have the All-Star Break.
The remaining schedule will be released at a later time. Ideally, they’ll still get in a full season of 72 games before the playoffs start on May 18th.
However, the big change will be who they play. Each team will play the teams in their own conference three times and will double the usual amount of games against teams from the opposing conferences (from 15 to 30).
There are some extra complexities mixed up in there, but instead of dwelling on those, let’s look at how the announced schedule plays out for the Atlanta Hawks.
The beginning of the schedule, including just four games in December and 16 in January, could be a difficult proving ground for Atlanta.
They’ve got the Memphis Grizzlies, who are just getting started, and the Brooklyn Nets, with whom Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving like to hang out, as half of those December games.
After that, they’ve got two more against the Nets, a road game in Milwaukee, and a trip out west that could be a major challenge.
Those could be backbreaking, but the Hawks certainly have the chance to win at least some of those and then there’s games at the Cavs, the Hornets, the Knicks, the Pistons, and the Timberwolves that Atlanta should have good showings against.
February is going to likely be even more of a challenge. That’s when the Lakers show up, as well as the Mavericks, the Celtics, and the Heat.
That’s all bad pretty news. While the Hawks could upset some of those better teams, that difficult stretch makes it all the more important that Atlanta takes care of business against the teams that they are, in turn, better than.
There’s barely any March schedule to talk about, so that rough February is going to wind down into an All-Star Break that will be well-earned.
How the rest of the year shakes out is yet to be determined, but if the Hawks can play up to the level they expect of themselves, they’ll be in good position.
January really stands out as a month that could swing either way and one in which the Hawks really need to get off to a good start.
There are winnable games to start, and if they can come away with victories, then I think that momentum could help carry them through the tougher games that will pop up as the month progresses.
February is going to be a difficult month regardless of how January goes, so if the Hawks want to make a run towards the playoffs (and they do), the first month of the season is going make or break them.
The Hawks have the potential to be one of – if not the – most improved teams in the NBA this season. This season – or the first half of it anyway – is actually going to help earn that rep, so long as they can win more games than they lose. They don’t need to dominate, just win the games they should and a handful of the ones they could.
If they can pull that off and continue it into whatever the second half looks like they’ll have a great chance of returning to the playoffs for the first time since the 2016-2017 season.
Jason Bishop Show w Kipp Branch December 5
Glynn Academy Red Terrors Coach’s w Rocky Hidalgo December 3
McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers Coach’s Show w Bradley Warren December 2
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick December 2
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s w Sean Pender
