The Class of 2010 marched last Friday with one of the best ceremonies in memory.  A long, long, long school year has come to an end.  Is it time for a well-deserved hiatus from the “rigors” of covering Gamecock sports?  Good, bad or otherwise, probably so.
Here are a few tidbits of Red and White information. 
Save for baseball, which does not affect the Lady Gamecocks, the final standings for the Georgia Athletic Director’s Cup are out.  Our Lady Gamecock athletic program claimed an 11th place statewide finish.  I was hoping that the final four appearance by the tennis team might keep us in the top ten position we were in after winter sports concluded.  I will say that 11th out of 90 or so schools is pretty good.
The Gamecocks finished 49th with the overall program finishing within the top twenty at 19th.
Let’s state the obvious, when the boys program catches the girls program in overall competitiveness, the total program will become top ten material. As for the girls’ top ten, two region foes finished ahead of us, Vidalia at eighth and Bleckley at tenth (In fact Vidalia was the overall- boys and girls- region champion). We don’t really like that. Again the top three schools were Greater Atlanta Christian, Westminster and Blessed Trinity.  Can you say, let them compete in their own league?
Some really, really good news for one Lady Gamecock program that may give the girls’ program another boost.  The Georgia High School Association announced a couple of weeks ago that Class AA soccer will now be aligned along regular region lines. In other words, goodbye St. Vincent’s, Savannah Country Day, Savannah Christian and Calvary Day (can you say let them complete in their own league?).  Now the matches that count will be against the same folks that every other sport competes against. 
State playoffs, absent from the sport since 2007, the last time the Savannah schools were not in our area, becomes a serious prospect again. The possibilities should improve participation and come just in time for what should be the strongest senior class in the sports’ short history.
For the many, many dedicated SCHS athletes, summer work outs will have begun by the time you read this. On Tuesday from 12:00 to 2:00 the Gamecock basketball team began workouts.  From 2:00 – 4:00 the Lady Gamecocks were working out. There are boys’ games with Claxton and Richmond Hill today.
The football Gamecocks started work outs on Tuesday as well from 5:00 – 7:30.   These workouts will come on Monday-Thursday on almost every week. Next week begins football’s local passing league and lineman challenge. On Tuesday they will travel to South Effingham.
Softball will play a rigorous schedule over the next four weeks.  Next week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday the summer team will play home doubleheaders on the SCHS field. Each game will be five innings and the first game starts at 5:30 each day. Look for a lot of younger faces and look for an almost entirely new lineup for each game of the DH.
Better than half of the top players already spend their summer weekends traveling around the southeast to play as well. I cannot wait on that first pitch in August. Did I mention that Marla Thompson has committed to Georgia Southern’s Lady Eagles with a full ride?
Anyway- have a great summer.

Burton Kemp Jr. is a contributing writer for the Sylvania Telephone.