Author: Robert Preston

On October 29, 1985, the late Dusty Rhodes delivered his now-famous hard times promo as he prepared to battle Ric Flair for the Mid-Atlantic world heavyweight championship at Starrcade. “He put hard times on Dusty Rhodes and his family. You don’t know what hard times are, daddy,” growled Rhodes into announcer Bob Caudle’s microphone. Against all odds, he would go on to defeat Flair and win the world title. Friday night, the visiting Ware County Gators put some hard times on the Coffee Trojans. And, in Dusty Rhodes-like fashion, Coffee battled back and won the game. Ware jumped out to…

An investigation that began as an alleged domestic dispute on Old Waycross Highway ended up nabbing a fugitive wanted on a warrant out of Florida, according to a sheriff’s office report. On August 2, 2024, deputies received a call that Lucas Vasquez, 22, of Douglas, had damaged a door inside a home then fled into the woods. There were several trailers in the area that were being worked on; according to the report, officers found Vasquez in one of those trailers. During the investigation, the victim stated that she had been at Dollar General on August 1 when Vasquez called…

Emy Lowery paced the Citizens Christian Academy Lady Patriots in their 24-5 win over Crisp Academy Tuesday afternoon in Cordele. Lowery was 3-5 with three runs scored and six RBI. She also threw the fifth and final inning, picking up the save in the process. Lowery, along with Brilynn Waldron, led the Lady Patriots with six total bases; both she and Waldron doubled and tripled. The outcome of the game was never in doubt. CCA scored 15 runs over the first three innings then added nine in the fifth. Crisp Academy got on the board with one in the second…

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…