Author: Robert Preston

The Coffee Trojans controlled Friday night’s season opener against the Bainbridge Bearcats on both sides of the ball. The offense was, predictably, tilted toward the run game. The defense, meanwhile, showed they haven’t missed a beat since last season. Senior quarterback Jordan Phillips played an efficient and effective game, guiding the Coffee offense to 59 points and 484 total yards – 303 rushing and 181 passing. Phillips was 7-9 for 181 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also ran the ball five times for 24 yards. He finished with a 158.6 passer rating. The Trojans spread the running duties…

The CCA Patriots checked off several firsts Friday night: It was their first ever football game in their home stadium on the CCA campus; it was their first varsity football game in 18 years; and, most importantly, it was their first win of the season. The Patriots defeated the Memorial Day School (Savannah) Matadors 30-8 and are 1-0 on the 2024 season. The Patriots led the Matadors 24-0 at halftime and added a score in the third quarter. Memorial Day got on the board in the second half but never threatened a comeback of any kind. Sophomore Tyson Crosby turned…

Heading into Friday night’s season opener against the Bainbridge Bearcats in Bainbridge, the Coffee Trojans were favored to win by two. Add 51 to that and you’d have the correct margin of victory. The Trojans defeated the Bearcats 59-6 in what was new Bainbridge head coach Jay Walls’s first game at the helm of the program. A former Tift County head coach, Walls had a 3-4 record against Coffee going back to 2005-2011. Now it’s 3-5. The Bearcats were in trouble from the first snap. They took the opening kick and couldn’t do anything at all. They punted and Coffee…

The CCA Lady Patriots picked up their third win of the season and their first region win Tuesday afternoon in their home opener against the Vidalia Heritage Academy Eagles. CCA won 19-1 in three innings. The Lady Patriots are 3-0 overall and 1-0 in region play. Three was the number of the day for shortstop Emma Gourley – she was 3-3 with three runs scored and three RBI. Left fielder Abrah Harris also drove in three and scored twice. Brilynn Waldron, Cadence Cravey, Gracie Giddens, and Maci Rucker both scored twice. The Rucker twins — Maci and Madi – each…

After five straight rainout games, the CCA Lady Patriots finally took the field again Monday afternoon on the road against Fullington Academy. CCA continued its winning ways, improving to 2-0 on the season with a 7-5 win. The Lady Patriots never trailed in the contest. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second then added two more runs in the third and fourth innings. CCA plated their final run in the fifth to take a 7-3 advantage. Fullington attempted a comeback in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two to narrow the gap to 7-5. However, they were…

Attempted stolen vehicles. A collision with a pedestrian. Two home invasions at the same house. A female victim retaliating by hitting the suspect with a wooden stick, cutting his head. All of this allegedly happened as a part of the same incident over the distance of just a few blocks. On July 30, 2024, at about 9:20 p.m., officers responded to a “disturbance” on South College Avenue. The call initially came in as a burglary but it was much more than that. At first, 911 callers thought a person had been shot. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. But that was…

The quest to bring a second liquor store to West Green continues. In May, the county commission approved a liquor license for Fairway Liquor, a liquor store located behind Fairway Foods in West Green. A second liquor store, West Green Liquor, had also been under construction beside the second store in West Green a few hundred yards to the north. In June, the county commission denied a license for West Green Liquor based on its proximity to Fairway Liquor. State law requires that liquor stores be located at least 1,500 feet from each other. County officials measured the distance between…

At Monday’s regular county commission meeting, the commission approved three rezoning requests but denied a fourth, citing concerns from neighboring landowners and a use for the property that was inconsistent with the county’s Comprehensive Plan and the planned use for that tract. The three requests that were approved were 11 acres at 58 Straight and Narrow Way from RM, Residential Mixed to C, Commercial for the purposes of an RV park and laundromat; 2.22 acres at 4079 Highway 32 West from R2, Residential to C, Commercial; and .81 acres at 4400 Highway 32 West from R1, Residential to C, Commercial.…

The CCA Lady Patriots rallied from five runs down to Echols County last Thursday to come back and win their season opener 17-7 in Statenville. Peighton Harper came in during the third inning and shut down Echols’s rally. That gave the Lady Patriots’ offense the opportunity it needed to go to work. The Lady Patriots jumped out to a two-run lead in the top of the first. In the bottom of the second, Echols erupted for seven runs to take a 7-2 advantage. Harper took over and shut out Echols. CCA then started chipping away. The Lady Patriots scored one…

Tropical Storm Debby belly crawled through Coffee County Monday night. And while she didn’t leave the area unscathed she also didn’t unleash her full fury on the community during her stay here. Debby has been moving slowly across northwest Florida/southeastern Georgia – a trait she still exhibited Tuesday – and as a result, she saturated the counties in her path with historic amounts of rain. Wind damage, at least for southeastern Georgia was, thankfully, kept to a minimum. At Tuesday morning’s community briefing at the county EMA office, EMA director Steve Carver stated that Debby’s impact was less significant than…