Author: Robert Preston

Hog N’ Bones opened its doors Wednesday afternoon, if only temporarily. The restaurant formerly known as Jerry J’s has undergone a facelift and a menu change. Ownership, however, hasn’t changed. The restaurant is still owned by Darrin Naylor and family and belongs to the same franchise family. The rest will change. Wednesday afternoon, in anticipation of what was supposed be a grand opening Thursday morning — that’s been pushed back to Friday morning due to ongoing construction — the Hog N’ Bones family hosted a ribbon cutting and served a few items from the new menu. A good group of…

Burt Reynolds is coming to South Georgia a month from now, courtesy of the RKDS Film Fest in Valdosta. The RKDS Film Fest is dedicated to highlighting the film industry in southern Georgia and grow interest, awareness, and recognition to the film industry by showcasing the films produced in the area. This year, Reynolds and three of his films, all shot in Georgia, will be featured. The festival will kick off at 3 p.m. on Thursday, July 12 with Valdosta mayor John Gayle giving Reynolds the key to the city and proclaiming that day as Burt Reynolds Day. This will…

After steamrolling their way through the first two games of the Athens Regional, the Georgia Bulldogs ran into a buzz saw in the Duke Blue Devils Monday afternoon at Foley Field in Athens. The Bulldogs came into the game needing just one win to advance to the Super Regionals, which would also be held in Athens. The Blue Devils, who were just one loss away from going home for the summer, had other plans. Duke defeated Georgia twice, 8-5 in game one then 8-4 in game two. Coffee’s Keegan McGovern, who had feasted on opposing pitchers in the…

The Georgia Bulldogs are headed to the Athens Regional finals Monday afternoon and senior outfielder Keegan McGovern, who earlier in the week was named Third Team All America, is a big reason why. In Georgia’s first two games of the regionals, McGovern homered three times, increasing his team-best home run tally to 18 on the year. Saturday afternoon, the ‘Dawgs routed the Campbell University Fighting Camels 18-5 at Foley Field in Athens. McGovern was a little late to the party; in the seventh inning, he was 0-3 with a run scored after being hit by a pitch. Georgia was up…

Coffee High head football coach Robby Pruitt isn’t going anywhere – at least not for three more years. Tuesday night, the Coffee County Board of Education voted 3-1 to give Coach Pruitt a three-year contract, locking him up at least until June 30, 2021. The new contract did not come with a pay raise. Board members Adam Lott, Bryan Preston, and Leola Johnson voted in favor of the contract. Jesse Jowers voted against the contract. His issue wasn’t with Coach Pruitt but with the three-year contract; Jowers isn’t a fan of offering system employees multi-year contracts. Reagan Miller was not…

The citizens of District 1 will have a new Board of Education representative come January while the region-wide T-SPLOST passed in a fairly narrow decision. There will also be run-offs in several important state races, including the race for the Republican candidate for governor. The run-off will take place on July 24. While Republican gubernatorial candidates Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp are headed for a run-off later this month, voters decided their Democratic opposition on primary night. And the voters made history. Stacey Abrams defeated Stacey Evans Tuesday night to become the first African-American candidate – male or female –…

As I stood in front of the non-descript headstone marking the grave of New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, I couldn’t help think to myself, ‘This certainly doesn’t seem to be a fitting memorial for the man who absolutely altered nearly every aspect of political and social life in the United States from 1963 to the present.’ Carlos Marcello wasn’t a nice man, not by a long shot. He opted for a life of crime at an early age and eventually rose to the top of organized crime throughout the Gulf Coast, from western Florida into Texas. He was the…

A work in progress. That’s about the best way to describe the Coffee Trojans’ spring scrimmage against Brooks County Friday night at Jardine Stadium. Preseason scrimmages utilize a variety of different rules, all designed to give both teams a live action workout while keeping player safety at the forefront. Coffee scored a couple of touchdowns during the contest while Brooks scored one its own. The Trojans will have to replace a number of key players on both sides of the ball this year, not the least of which is at quarterback. Head coach Robby Pruitt and his staff have several…

Trevis Simpson, a former Coffee Trojan, pulled off the top dunk of the 2017-2018 season in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), where he plays professionally for Hungary’s Alba Fehervar. Simpson has been playing internationally since leaving UNC-Greensboro, where he played college basketball for three years. This season, Simpson averaged playing 29 minutes and scoring 13.9 points per game. During the course of his career, he has made headlines several times because of his highlight reel-worthy dunks. At Coffee High, Simpson was a three time All-Region selection. He went on to have an excellent career at UNC-Greensboro. He entered the NBA…

The former head of the private probation company that serves Douglas and Coffee County has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $50,000 probation fees. According to a statement from Special Agent in Charge of the Perry office of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation J.T. Ricketson, the Fitzgerald Police Department requested the GBI to assist in an investigation into the alleged thefts. The GBI began its investigation on Feb. 2, 2018. After a month-long investigation, officers arrested Steven Bradley Pitts, 38, of Fitzgerald, with theft by conversion. Pitts was allegedly taking fine money from the Douglas office of Providence Community Corrections…