Three local wrestlers make podium at state

The annual GHSA state traditional wrestling tournament turned out to be a very tough one for wrestlers from Catoosa and Walker Counties.

A total of 20 wrestlers from the combined twocounty area made the trip through area and sectional qualifying, but in the end, only three found themselves on the podium at the Macon Coliseum on Saturday night.

Gordon Lee’s Hunter Burnette (Class 1A, 113 pounds) was the highest finisher as he came home with a fifth-place finish. Burnette advanced to the championship semifinals after a first-round pin and a 2-1 victory over Trion’s Daegan Vaughn.

However, Burnette lost to Commerce’s Dawson Legg in Friday night’s semis to drop to the consolation brackets. Legg went on to win the state title, while Burnette would go on to score a 3-2 victory over Jordan Dunlap of Irwin County in the fifth-place bout on Saturday.

Heritage’s Drew Dietz (Class 4A, 113) found himself in a similar situation. Dietz scored two straight pins in the opening rounds to earn a match against eventual state champion Austin Thiel of Perry in Friday’s night semifinals.

However, Dietz lost to Thiel in Friday’s semis and

ultimately had to settle for sixth place the following day.

Dietz’s teammate, Alex Eacret (Class 4A, 195), also ended up with a sixth-place showing. He won his first bout of the weekend, but lost in the quarterfinals to fall to the consolation brackets. There, he won two matches by pin to make the medal rounds before finishing up sixth.

Also competing at state was Gordon Lee’s Timy Duke (160) and Makayden Martin (girls’ 112-pound division) and Ringgold’s Seth Parker. Heritage was also represented by Tate Thomas (106), Mike Stokes (138) and Drake Parker (182). Cyrek Johns (113), Avery Sullivan (132), Karson Ledford (145), Hunter Deal (152), David Patterson (220) and Matthew Wallin (285) all wrestled for LaFay

ette, while Ridgeland’s state qualifiers included Elijah Langston (120), Aiden Raymer (126), Camden Bain (132), Garrett Romans (138) and Dylan Fowler (152).

Local teams from outside the twocounty area fared very well in the team standings.

Chattooga, who won the state duals last month, doubled up with the Class 2A team title. The Indians finished with 195 points, easily outdistancing second-place Oglethorpe County (117.5), while Dade County (113) was a surprising third.

After missing out at on state duals title in January, Sonoraville stormed back to win the 3A state team championship on Saturday. The Phoenix finished with 194.5 points, edging out North Hall (189.5) for the title. Lumpkin County (117) was third.

And a little further down the road, Woodland-Cartersville took the Class 5A title with 210 points. Buford (179) and Veteran (161) rounded out the top three spots.

Trion, the Class 1A state duals champs, had to settle for second on Saturday as Commerce came back to win the title with 159 points. The Bulldogs finished with 157.5 and Mount Pisgah Christian was third at 122.

Gilmer collected 151.5 points, but had to settle for second place behind Woodward Academy’s 177 in Class 4A. West Laurens (117) was third.

Creekview claimed the Class 6A title with 195.5 points, followed by Cambridge (169.5) and Richmond Hill (155.5).

And in Class 7A, powerhouse Camden County scored 199.5 points to win another state title. Collins Hill (167) was second, while Brookwood and West Forsyth tied for third (109).

Northwest Whitfield was eighth in Class 4A. Heritage finished 19th. LaFayette wound up in the 22nd spot and Ridgeland tied for 32nd place. Ringgold tied for 30th in Class 3A and Gordon Lee was 31st in Class 1A.

“Cheating is baseball’s oldest profession. No other game is so rich in skulduggery, so suited to it or so proud of it,” longtime Washington Post sportswriter Thomas Boswell once wrote. A new baseball season began last week with spring training, and the top story will undoubtedly be the recent cheating scandal that has roiled the sport.

This winter it was revealed that the Houston Astros, who won the 2017 World Series and nearly won the 2019 World Series, employed high-resolution cameras and monitors to capture signs. The Astros frequently used players banging on a garbage can in the dugout to notify batters (no bang — fastball, bang — off-speed pitch), and there is a suggestion that some Astro hitters wore buzzers to receive in-game pitch communications. The Boston Red Sox, winners of the 2018 World Series, were also implicated along with several other teams.

An early, low-tech version of the same sign stealing technique may have accounted for what is arguably the most dramatic home run in baseball history. In the 1951 playoffs, New York Giants third baseman Bobby Thomson launched a comefrom-behind, ninth-inning line drive homer to win the National League pennant off a fastball thrown by Brooklyn Dodgers relief pitcher Ralph Branca. The episode was memorably captured by Giants radio announcer Russ Hodges with his legendary call, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”

Four decades later, it was revealed that the Giants had been stealing opposing catchers’ signs during the 1951 season. The signs were captured by a spy with a telescope in center field, who then relayed them via a buzzer system to the team’s dugout. Late in life, Thomson denied receiving a sign on the home run pitch he hit that fateful October afternoon; Branca insisted that Thomson knew a fastball was coming. Before they both died, the two men became fast friends, but their disagreement over the home run was never resolved. No one was ever disciplined.

Stealing a pitcher’s signs, when done by players or coaches on the field, is not only legitimate, it is expected and even occasionally admired. What’s changed is the emergence of electronic communication with hightech devices, most of which are being banned from the dugout. But extremely highresolution cameras can’t be banned from the stands and remain available for cheating. And as Boswell observed, cheating is part of baseball.

And cheating works, if only for getting into the head of the opposition. Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Stephen Vogt told the New York Times, “As a catcher, when