Author: Robert Preston

The old saying goes, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The county decided to do that very thing at this week’s regular commission meeting when it came to the purchase of a new front end loader for the road department. The commission voted to purchase two pieces of equipment for the road department – a backhoe and a front end loader. Since Hurricane Helene, the county has been renting a Sany 405K loader. Commissioners decided to go ahead and purchase that same loader instead of buying a new one. The purchase price is $155,000. The county can apply the…

The CCA Patriots combined a Spring Break trip with a little baseball in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Patriots played four games against teams from Kentucky, New York, and Quebec, going 1-2-1 during the trip. In the process, they faced a couple of really good prospects; for example, one of the teams, Lexington (Kentucky) Catholic had two SEC commits on their roster. The first game, played Thursday against Lexington (Kentucky) Christian, ended in an 11-3 CCA loss. The score was tied at zero until Lexington Christian erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the third. They added one in the…

The first three hitters in the Coffee Trojans’ lineup in Friday’s sweep of a doubleheader against the Veterans War Hawks in Kathleen – Ben Fussell, Jimmy Timothy, and Michael Strickland – were a combined 15-23 with 12 RBI, 11 runs scored, and six walks. Fussell, who played short in game one and pitched in game two, was a perfect 6-6 with two RBI, seven runs scored, and four walks – all of which were intentional (Timothy followed three of the four passes with RBI hits). The Trojans won game one 13-6 and game two 12-10. The doubleheader finished the region…

If you score 14 runs in a baseball game, you ought to win. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the South Georgia State College Hawks on Wednesday afternoon. The Hawks lost their fourth in a row and their eighth out of nine games in Cuthbert against the Andrew College Tigers, 21-14. At one point, the Hawks led 6-0. Then Andrew came back and scored six in the bottom of the third to tie the game. SGSC came back and outscored Andrew 7-2 in the fourth and fifth to take a 13-8 lead after five innings. Then the Tigers scored 13…

The Coffee Trojans needed a win against the Veterans War Hawks to clinch the third seed in the playoffs. They would have three chances to do it – once on Tuesday then twice on Friday – but it would make things so much easier if they could pick up that win as early as possible. They didn’t make it easy but win they did. The Trojans defeated the War Hawks 7-5 at Charles Wilson Field in Douglas to nail down the third seed. Veterans hit the ball well and benefited from some solid pitching. Defense, however, was the War Hawks’…

The South Georgia State College Hawks had a rough go of it late last week, losing three in a row to the Georgia Highlands Chargers. SGSC lost 8-2 Friday night. Then, on Saturday, the Hawks fell in a doubleheader 20-0 and 9-8. In Friday night’s game, the Hawks outhit the Chargers 9-8 but couldn’t get runs across the plate. SGSC scored its only runs of the game in the fourth inning. Georgia Highlands, meanwhile, scored four in the first, one in the second, two in the fourth, and one in the seventh. Luke Boone was the only Hawk with multiple…

Strange things happen after midnight at convenience stores. Such was the case on March 23, 2025, when, at around 12:20 a.m., two individuals allegedly got into a fight at the Circle K on the south end of town. According to a report from the Douglas Police Department, an officer on patrol was riding past the store when he noticed a male and a female in a fight. The officer stopped and spoke with the male, who said that his ex-girlfriend, identified as Ashanti Lockhart, 22, of Douglas, came up to him and “started fighting him,” the report says. The report…

A 14-year-old Douglas teenager is at Arthur Blank Children’s Hospital in Atlanta after truly receiving the gift of a lifetime – a new heart. Two days ago, on April 5, 2025, Braylon, who had been on the heart transplant list for two years, underwent the transplant procedure. The journey to the operating room has been a long, difficult, and painful journey. Yet in the midst of Braylon’s illness and the uncertainty he and his family have faced is a message of hope, inspiration, and faith. When Braylon was six years old, he was diagnosed with complete heart block, a condition…

The Coffee Trojans finished their two-day, four-game stint at the Lakepoint facility in Kennesaw with a 1-1 day on Wednesday. During the trip, the Trojans saw one of the fastest high school fastballs ever recorded and starter Michael Strickland added a no-hitter to an already-impressive 2025 resume. Wednesday afternoon, Coffee defeated the Homewood-Flossmoor Vikings 10-0 in six innings in game one. Then they had a rematch with the Lincoln-Way West Warriors; the Warriors came away with a 10-9 extra-innings win. Against the Vikings, starter Michael Strickland threw a 64-pitch no-hitter. He struck out six and walked one. Strickland also went…

After a rough week last week against East Georgia State College (losing four straight high scoring games, two of which went into extra innings), the South Georgia State College Hawks rebounded and defeated the GCAA’s top team, the Georgia Highlands Chargers, 9-6 in Rome. The Hawks jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Luke Boone hit a two-run home run in the first, his sixth of the season, to establish the lead. Jaden Camp hit a two-run homer of his own in the second to put more distance between the Hawks and Chargers. SGSC went on to…