Author: Robert Preston

The #1-seeded CCA Lady Patriots are 1-0 in the state softball tournament in Columbus. Thursday morning, the Lady Patriots defeated Vidalia Heritage Academy 22-7 in three innings. The game was effectively over after the first inning. CCA plated 16 runs in their first at-bat, nine of which came with two outs. Gracie Giddens had a game’s worth of work in the first inning alone; she hit an inside-the-park home run and doubled. For the game, she drove in four and scored two. The Lady Patriots followed with five in the second and one in the third. Vidalia Heritage scored one…

B&K BigHead Bullies from Broxton had a big day at the Bully Bash 2.0 in Aiken, South Carolina, on October 5. The local kennel, owned and operated by Kevin and Bianca Thurman, took three dogs to the show: Diesel, B&K’s primary stud; and his six-month-old sons Capone and Aries. Diesel took the show’s top two awards – King of the Ring (best in show) and the People’s Choice Award. He also won Best Lilac and took second place in Stack Off. Capone took first in Best Production by a Kennel, first in Prettiest Eyes, and third in Junior King of…

98 weeks. 686 days. 21 games. That’s how long it has been since the Coffee Trojans lost a football game. It seems like a lifetime ago since the Cartersville Purple Hurricanes defeated the Trojans in Cartersville. The date was November 25, 2022. It was the third round of the state playoffs. Friday night, Coffee’s nearly two-year, 21-game winning streak came to an end. The Lee County Trojans defeated Coffee 48-14 in Leesburg. Coffee is now 7-1 on the season and 1-1 in region play. A lot has happened over the last couple of weeks. Seven days after beating the Mainland…

The CCA Lady Patriots ran into a buzzsaw Thursday afternoon in Lyons against the Robert Toombs Christian Academy Crusaders. After winning three games this week by a combined score of 44-0, the Lady Patriots fell to the Crusaders 11-3 in six innings. The game was the regular season finale. CCA never really had a lead in the game. The Lady Patriots did score one run in the top of the first but the Crusaders took the lead in the bottom of the frame with two runs of the their own. After that, they never looked back. CCA scored two in…

A series of arguments over cleaning up damage from Hurricane Helene turned violent on October 2, 2024 and resulted in a shots fired incident, according to an incident report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office. The report states that on October 2, Larry McLeod, 60, threatened to kill his son’s stepson then pointed a gun at his son and fired a shot over his head. The incident began the day before when McLeod and his son’s stepson began arguing over cleaning up storm damage. The following day, McLeod went to his son’s home on a side-by-side with a passenger, according…

The CCA Lady Patriots continued the momentum they built earlier in the week on Wednesday afternoon, beating the David Emanuel Academy Eagles 12-0 in the penultimate game of the season. The win avenged a heartbreaking loss CCA suffered to DEA earlier in the season; that game was scoreless after seven and went into extra innings before DEA finally walked it off in the ninth. The Lady Patriots left nothing to chance on Wednesday. They scored in every inning, plating one in the first, four in the second, two in the third, and five in the fourth to win by run…

For the first time in Coffee Trojans football history, the Trojans brought Monday night football to the Coffee faithful. In a game originally scheduled for Friday, September 27 but pushed back to Monday, September 30 after Hurricane Helene took a turn to the east – decimating Coffee County and much of South Georgia in the process – the Trojans defeated the Northside (Warner Robins) Eagles 41-0. The game was supposed to be played at Jardine Stadium in Douglas but ended up being played at McConnell-Talbot Stadium in Warner Robins due to widespread damage and power outages from the storm. The…

In the early hours September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on south, southeast, east and parts of central Georgia and made an exceptionally damaging impact on farms.  Affected producers are reporting yield losses ranging from 35 percent to a total loss, depending on location in the state.  Producers are also reporting significant losses in farm structures, equipment, and infrastructure. Official reports of losses will be coming in the coming weeks as University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service personnel collect data. It is however, without question that losses will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Losses will extend…

Coffee County is reeling from the fury Hurricane Helene unleashed the community. Widespread power outages, tens of thousands of downed trees, and millions in property damage are but a few of the effects felt locally. Officials have also confirmed one fatality as a result of the storm. Hurricane Helene brought sustained winds in excess of 90 mph, with gusts likely in the triple digits, as she downed power lines, snapped poles, destroyed homes, and toppled trees throughout Coffee County. She left a swath of destruction the likes of which Coffee County has never seen. Now that Helene has moved on,…

The Coffee Lady Trojans defeated the Bacon County Red Raiders 12-1 in five innings on Saturday to improve to 11-6 on the season. Two Coffee pitchers – Erin Robinson and Maggie Brown – combined for a 90-pitch no hitter. Coffee scored runs in every inning except the second while holding Bacon scoreless. Allie Pridgen drove in four, three of which came on a fifth inning home run. She also walked with the bases loaded in the fourth, driving in another run. Ella Edge, Ella Winters, and Jocelyn Fender each had two hits for the Lady Trojans. Winters and Karlee Thomas…