You, who are on the road Must have a code that you can live by And so, become yourself Because the past is just a goodbye – Graham Nash
The traffic light at the intersection of Memory Lane and Recollection Road is red, so I’ll crank out a column while we wait.
Our sportswriters, Lance and Brendan, are spread pretty thin sometimes since they cover about 40 schools and an area roughly the size of Delaware. And besides that, they both graduated from the University of Georgia, so you know where they were last Saturday.
I agreed to help out by shooting some photographs of the basketball games between Greene County and Morgan County at the GCHS gym.
As soon as I walked in the gym, it hit me: Déjà vu.
Back on Dec. 21, 2013, when I was still a freelance writer eking out a living one story at a time, I was asked by the Lake Oconee News Senior Editor Ron Bridgeman if I would cover the Greene County games against Hancock Central.
I took on the assignment, and the rest is history, with me joining the staff a couple of months later.
Greene County wound up winning both games with the Lady Tigers prevailing 57-41 over the Lady Bulldogs and the boys winning 76-58.
Miranda Davis led the Greene County girls with 21 points and Trey Christopher led the boys with 22, most of the 22 coming from his six three-point baskets.
I covered my first Morgan County game a couple of weeks later and followed them all the way to the Macon Coliseum, where the Bulldogs defeated Buford to win the state championship.
The coaches I interacted with were always extremely cooperative and helpful, but all have since moved on.
But connections remain. The Lady Tigers are now coached by Derrick Williams, who is the brother of Shondra Williams, who was the head coach back in 2013.
Meanwhile, Milfred Franklin, who had coached at Morgan County Middle School for several years, is now the Morgan County varsity girls head coach.
If you look closely at the Mar. 14, 2014, issue of the Lake Oconee News, you will see Franklin among the group of players, coaches and supporters I photographed during the championship celebrations.
In fact, Franklin was one of the coaches mentioned during my post-game interview with head coach Charlemagne Gibbons following the Buford win.
“Jonathan Nelson has been with me from day one,” Gibbons said. “He helped me build this program, along with Milfred Franklin, my middle-school coach. These players come through our feeder system, and this year we added Coach West, a veteran college coach. These guys do the scouting, the breakdown, they do the sub-rotation. If these guys didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Franklin has certainly earned his opportunity to be a head coach.
So, I was right back where the job all began for me in the Greene County gym.
Some cosmetic things had changed but the atmosphere was nearly identical. Greene County supports its basketball teams. And since Morgan County is right next door, a sizable contingent of Bulldog fans dropped in as well.
Greensboro Police Chief Rodricus Monford was on hand for the game with a squad of officers along to see to public safety.
I also took note of a front-page story in the LON sports section from Dec. 27, 2013, that said Greene County – Greene-Taliaferro High School in 1993 – was celebrating the 20th anniversary of its 1993 state football championship, earned by defeating legendary coach Dan Pitts and his Mary Persons Bulldogs 24-21. I covered Mary Persons for almost as many years as I’ve been cranking out stories for the Lake Oconee News and The Eatonton Messenger.
I learned from our college football page in the Dec. 27, 2013, issue that Georgia finished its 2013 season in third place in the SEC East with a record of 8-4 (5-3 in conference play).
Auburn defeated Alabama in the Iron Bowl that year on a play that became known as “The Kick Six,” in which Auburn’s Chris Davis returned a missed field goal for a touchdown with no time remaining.
And speaking of no time remaining, the traffic signal has gone green and some bozo behind me is blowing his horn, so we’ll have to leave this temporal cul-de-sac behind now.
It’s never healthy to linger too long in yesterday. Or in front of a man about to succumb to road rage.
Selah.