We had a little girl, from the small mill town of Porterdale, named Betty Faith. Her athletic talents were recognized by Coach Billy Crowell, and he tried to get her to play basketball, but her mother (a piano teacher), was afraid she might get hurt.

The 1986 GWA basketball season began with high expectations (& a lot of confidence) as the Bulldogs were returning all their starters from the '85 Championship team!

After the "near miss" in 1984, we were looking forward to the '85 season, even tho' we lost 2 All-state players in Doug Cassiday and Todd Carter.

When we began the '83-'84 season at George Walton Academy, little did we realize that this year would be the beginning of a great 4-year run

This is a continuation of our "traveling" story. At Christmas, the boys basketball team would usually "let Coach off" for about 3 days prior to the holiday.

Recently, a friend wrote us & wanted to know what our daily schedule was like in retirement. We tried to describe our fun-filled days & realized many of you have inquired about our passion for travel.

Today we are going to talk about a "character" who assisted me with our football teams over a 12-year period. Jay Milligan always had a trick to show or a joke to tell, and was never at a loss for words to fit any occasion!

Lately, my wife has been accusing me of being a "Dr. Zhivago"! He was a physician--& a writer who had written negative articles about the Bolshevik & the Russian revolution

Our summers were always blissful as our family spent them at the FFA-FHA camp, where I was the AD for 24 summers!

Several years ago we had a player who came from a very prominent family---we had something that turned him on called "basketball"!

Jan & I were volunteers at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, when a young man tapped me on the shoulder and told me that he was the brother of one of our former basketball managers named Travis.

In the last story, we told about Newton County's loss to Wills, which ended the national record for home-court wins @ 129 consecutive wins. When one considers that there are approximately 30,000 different H.S. teams playing in the U.S., it is amazing that the record still in the national record-books after 45 years.

The Rams had the nucleus for another great team in 1968 with seniors Terry Schell, Richard Allen, & Phil Shaw. Junior Thad Blankenship had already proven himself as an outstanding player, and the team had a lot of very capable young guys who were threats to break into the starting lineup at any time.

To have a good basketball team, it is vital to have good Senior leadership. That leadership can come from an individual, but it helps to have several mature leaders so that they can help recognize any potential problems within the team.

We were about to enter the ninth year of our great run, and very few schools had ever matched our 8-year average of 29 wins & only 3 defeats a year( 232 wins and 22 losses).

Through the years there was a lot of publicity about the Newton Co. basketball program, it's tradition, & "Death Valley".

With our outstanding young people and a supportive fan base, we were beginning to establish a 1st-Class program with a great basketball tradition!

My first interview for a coaching position brought me to Newton County High School in Covington, Ga. I entered Mr. Sharp's office with all the confidence and aplomb with one who is about to graduate from college is endowed.

There is no way to measure the impact that Walker & Cora Harris had on my coaching career! Walker was a very successful Chrysler dealership owner, and also was the mayor of Covington, Ga.

When I worked with a youngster, I tried to keep in mind that I was blessed to have the opportunity to teach the most important thing parents have, their child. A young student had to "want" to play to be a part of our program.