By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

Morgan County High School's tennis program saw a strong performance by their boys team as they convincingly defeated Madison County in Danielsville on Thursday.
"I'm really excited about the boys turning the momentum," said Morgan County Head Tennis Coach Jim Fowler. "I'm starting to see more focus in practice. Hopefully, that will lead to better performance on the court."
Picking up wins for the Dogs were all of their singles players. Allen Conner won first singles (6-4, 6-3), Daniel Smith won second singles (6-0, 6-1) and Logan Plumly won third singles (7-6, 6-3).
At second doubles Dylan Moore and Blake Brand picked up a victory (6-0, 6-3).
While the first doubles team of Skip Lewan and Brett Richardson only narrowly lost, falling in a third set, 7-5, where a win would have completed a sweep for the Dogs in the boys competition.
On the other hand, the girls team struggled against Madison County.
The girls did have a bright spot, however, as Mary Helen Trulock dominated the third singles match-up, winning (6-0, 6-2).
The boys and girls will hit the court again following inter-session when they open region play with an away match-up with the Washington-Wilkes Tigers.
In middle school tennis action, the only scheduled match for the Pups teams was cancelled. They will look into rescheduling the Barrow County matches for down the road. The Pups team will also resume play following inter-session.

By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

The JV Diamond Dogs rebounded from an early week loss at Oconee to pick up a hard-earned 8-7 extra inning win over Monroe Area Thursday night in Madison.
J.R. Messer knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth for the Dogs.
"Our guys really showed they could execute down the stretch," said JV Dogs Head Coach Josh Reeves. "We did a great job of buckling down and playing defense when we needed and we were excellent on the base paths."
The effort, Reeves said, was a good turnaround from a game at Oconee where they fell 6-0 to the JV Warriors, giving up five unearned runs.
"Wesley Barrett pitched a great game but we did not back him up very well in the field," Reeves said.
The JV Dogs hosted Eastside on Tuesday night looking to build on momentum from last Thursday's win. They visit North Oconee on Thursday. Their next home match-up will be on March 18 when they host Rockdale County.

By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

The Lady Dogs golf team has gotten off to a winning start with two wins and two other good performances that were called early due to darkness, leaving them 2-0 through their first four matches.
The team is led by seniors Rachel Peters and Lauren Conway.
"Our strength is that we enjoy playing the game," said Lady Dog Head Coach Pam Hooten. "Hopefully, that will lead to a drive to practice and get better and that will improve their games in the long run."
The team has seen their scores in the low-50s in many of their matches and Hooten said she'd like to see those scores fall to the mid-40s as the season goes on in order to be competitive in region play.
"We're looking to improve," Hooten said. "The two ninth graders don't have a lot of experience playing. Hopefully, their games will come together really quickly."
The team has some time off before their next match, March 18, with Oglethorpe at Hard Labor Creek.

By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

No official records were kept, but Morgan County track coaches were pleased with the results last Thursday when they hosted Social Circle and Taliaferro County for a scrimmage.
"We were pleased it went the way it did," said Bulldog men's track head coach Charlemagne Gibbons. "We lost a lot of kids from last year."
Gibbons said his team is still in the process of finding out what races his runners should be competing in.
"I think we'll be fine in the field events," he said. "We just lost a lot of runners from last year."
Coaches were particularily pleased with the boys in the 4X100 where the team finished in approximately 44 seconds.
On the girls side of things, Thursday's scrimmage was also a success.
"It was a good first meet," said Lady Dogs Head Track Coach Courtney Castellana. "We were pretty impressed with them.”
"I think we'll have a good season," Castellana said. "Hopefully, they'll have a good year."
The Lady Dogs return Andrea Ross, who won state last year in the discus. The team expects to be strong in field events, but like the boys the team isn't sure what its strengths and weaknesses will be on the track, at least at this point in the preseason.
With the preseason home race under their belts, where they had a good showing, the team hopes not to lose any steam when they travel to East Jackson High School for their first official matches where they'll meet East Jackson and Commerce.
Their first home meet will be on March 20 at 4 p.m. when they host Salam and Ola. They host a home region meet on March 25 when they welcome Putnam County.

By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

"I'm going to continue to be a loyal Bulldog fan, it just won't be from the sideline," said Morgan County Defensive Coordinator Allen Crowley following his resignation last week.

By Greg Sullivan
Sports Editor

With their transition up to Region 8-AAA, along with some ambitious non-region scheduling by Head Coach Bill Malone, the Morgan County Bulldogs expect to see some of the toughest competition they've seen in the history of their storied football program with the approaching 2008 gridiron season.
Despite this, though, some fans in the area may be disappointed to learn that in the aftermath of recent region and class realignments the Bulldogs will, at least temporarily, lose their longest-running rivalry game, Greene County.