A great year to be a Yellow Jacket
If 2018 isn’t remembered as a banner year for Rockmart sports, what year will be?
Yellow Jackets athletic programs achieved a lot during the year now almost ended, with both boys and girls teams across the board making it into either the state playoffs, or ended their seasons close to the top of the heap.
Rockmart High School even was in the race for the 201718 school year for the Regions Bank Directors Cup, moving up to one of the top three schools in just the past few years.
Jackets fans also got to enjoy something else this season: bragging rights over rival Cedartown for the year, especially as the football season kicked off and Rockmart got a big opening win for the year over the Bulldogs.
Keep reading below for a round-up of Rockmart’s year in sports, and the celebration of accomplishment for local athletes.
Jackets have big year on gridiron
The best season since the 1950s? The late 1980s?
Rockmart fans will likely be arguing over how the Yellow Jackets football team wrapped up 2018 for a long time, going 14-0 through the regular season and playoffs until their final game in a rematch against Heard County, who left at halftime during a lightning delay at Rockmart early on in the season.
The Braves ended up winning the state title, but that doesn’t dampen the season the Jackets had at all. Second place – especially when Rockmart hadn’t been in a state championship game in decades – is still something big to celebrate for the year.
A breakdown of the season provides proof positive of how good the Jackets really were this year. They started with a 20-14 win over rival Cedartown, then blew out every team from then on, outscoring opponents through the regular season 475 to 51, and during the postseason up until the championship game 166 to 58.
Of all the scores that might matter to Rockmart fans this year, it was probably from Game 1 of the season. The Jackets took a 20-14 win over Cedartown, which ended a seven year run where the Bulldogs dominated.
The Braves were the only team during the season who effectively figured out how to shut down Rockmart’s fast offensive attack they utilized to score first and often over opponents. The Jackets relied on the talents of seniors Dylan Bailey under center, or Markus Smith playing as a passer or runner in the wildcat formation after his return from injury through the first few games of the season.
Senior Z.J. Whatley proved one of the real stars of the year as well in the backfield, along with younger brother Javin and several underclassmen who will return with a bright future on the gridiron.
Rockmart does graduate a large senior class in 2018, wrapping up the careers of players who helped bring about the rise of Jackets football on the state stage over the past three years.
Boys tennis team provides help in wreck after playoff win
Probably one of our favorite stories of the year that provided the Yellow Jackets with a national spotlight revolved around the boys tennis team’s actions on the roadside back in May.
The Rockmart boys tennis team were riding high on their Elite Eight win on the way home on May 1, relaxing in the bus when the group saw something unexpected happen right in front of them.
Five of the players along with parents were riding in a caravan when the driver and two passengers in a truck had passed by the group driving from Early County to Rockmart.
They’d passed the truck driving in erratic fashion many miles before on Highway 27, but it had caught back up to the group in the Fort Benning area. That’s when Sondi Vest, a parent on the team, said the team saw a wreck happen before their eyes.
She said the driver must have lost control, because the truck went into the median and then overcorrected and went toward the shoulder, then after crossing over two lanes again flipped and went rolling off the side of the road. Two people were ejected from the truck, another remained inside.
“One of the men pinned up under the truck, and he was screaming because the exhaust was burning him,” Vest said.
With the help of two team dads, five of the players lifted the truck off of the injured man while an off-duty firefighter from Tallahassee pulled him free from under the wreckage. Vest said that two of the victims in the wreck were airlifted out by U.S Army helicopters since the wreck happened within the Fort Benning limits.
“They felt it was god putting them into a position to help those people,” Vest said.
Head coach Barry Owen said it was just another example of how stellar his players are as young men, and they represent the best example of a Rockmart Yellow Jacket.
“I am not surprised by the fact that these boys, without hesitation, left their vehicles and ran to help these people,” Owen said by e-mail. “They are all high character kids that are always willing to help in any situation.”
He said that “There have been numerous occasions where I have had opposing coaches and parents make it a point to tell me, or them, that they admire the way they handle themselves on and off the court. They are a pleasure to coach and I am proud of how they came to the rescue of these men.”
The team didn’t make it to the state title, getting knocked out in the final four.
Rockmart’s boys did get a lot of notice and accolades for their efforts to help save a life. The Polk County Commission, Polk County Board of Education and the Rockmart City Council all honored the team for their actions during the wreck on the way back from South Georgia, and they also got the chance to play with professionals during Atlanta’s BB&T Open over the summer.
Basketball teams score big in 2018
Rockmart’s round ball programs saw positive gains in 2018, with both the boys and girls getting into playoff competition for the year, but they didn’t quite have enough in the tank to make it to the state title game.
But as the season closed last winter and is underway again as the Jackets and Lady Jackets wrapped up their holiday tournament and got ready for region play coming up, both teams still have plenty of work to do as 2019 gets underway.
Let’s start with how last year finished out: for the boys, it was a solid year under the direction of Steve Luke. The Jackets wrapped up the 2017-18 season with a 17-12 record, a second place finish in Region 7-AA and a first round playoff win and second round appearance.
The Rockmart boys took a close win off of Putnam County last year to open the first round of the playoffs, but fell hard on the road against Spencer to be knocked out in the second.
It turned out to be a single year of coaching the boys team for Luke, who decided after the season was over he wanted to focus solely on coaching the softball team and not divide his time between the fall’s schedule and then turn around and remain busy with basketball.
He’s since been replaced by Vic Calhoun, who at the time of writing heads up a team that was 2-5 in the early part of the season after a late start since many of his players were still wrapped up in the football season.
As far as the Lady Jackets went, their season ended slightly earlier than they’d hoped after also finishing in second place in Region 7-AA behind Model.
They only made it into the single playoff game they hosted against Rabun County, capping off a 19-9 season under the continued leadership of Tim Puckett.
Rockmart last year also got the chance to honor an alumni with a retired number who returned for a special ceremony late in the season. Rockmart’s Caroline Williams Hipps who also played for Vanderbilt, returned to wide acclaim.
The team this year is also at 2-5 for the moment as they were set to play the Cedartown Lady Bulldogs for the second time in seven days as the paper was going to be over the weekend on Saturday in their final holiday tournament game for the year.
Jackets continue swinging for fences in baseball
Rockmart’s baseball season saw the team make it into the playoffs again and saw the mountaintop, but weren’t able to make it to the summit and a state championship.
The 20-10 Jackets team showed off a lot of talent – a 12-2 finish in Region 7-AA that included a region championship, and talent scouts coming from all over the country to see Ty Floyd play – along with first round playoff appearance and a split season against the Cedartown Bulldogs.
The team put up a three game skid at the end of the season after falling to the Bulldogs in the final regular season game, then going out in two games to Rabun County.
Softball stands out at Rockmart
Rockmart might not have repeated a state championship in 2018, but they sure did have a great year on the softball diamond. Especially Emily Loveless.
Loveless, who graduates this year, wrapped up her career for the Lady Jackets as the All Area Player of the Year again for 2018 after Rockmart by default won the Region 7-AA championship, since rain washed out the chance for a region tournament this past fall.
She and the team headed up by Luke went 26-4 for the year with a playoff win over Douglass, but fell to Banks County in a 2-game sweep in the second round of the playoffs.
One thing to definitely note from this year: The Lady Jackets swept Cedartown’s softball team cleanly in 2018, gaining a win in the first game of the season and later on in September over the Lady Bulldogs.
Rockmart takes third in Director’s Cup
A notable achievement for Jackets athletics overall was their getting closer to the top in the annual Director’s Cup given out annually by Regions Bank.
In 2015, Rockmart placed 32nd in the running for the Director’s Cup. In 2016, the school’s programs followed up with a 24th placing on the list. In 2017, they jumped to 8th place. This year, Rockmart placed third in Class AA with 876 points.
The past year’s success in athletics set an all-time school record.
“For Rockmart to rise from thirtysecond to third in just four years, we’ve come a long way,” Barry Williams, the Rockmart High School Athletic Director said back in July.
Other notes
Rockmart’s competition cheer squad did well enough during state competition in November to make it to a second round in Class AA; the cross country teams sent representatives to the state race again in 2018 and wrestlers scored big at state last winter as well.
The Jackets track and field team will be able to host events this spring again after long needed resurfacing of the track took place this year following the passage of an E-SPLOST in 2017 that provided funds for the effort at the school.
Rockmart’s girls tennis team made it all the way to the Elite Eight round of the state playoffs this year as well, but were knocked out as the boys were winning over Earley County.