Wednesday's Report: Scoreboard; Alligood to Jones County, FVSU, Mercer, Central alums, signings; Falcons/Ridder/Mariota, UGA/CFP, Mike Leach dies, college sports, NFL, NBA

December 14, 2022 Central Georgia Sports Report

Tuesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

High school coaches: Please put first and last names in social media postings, along with post full scores and names/stats/records/info on Twitter and/or Facebook within 30 minutes of completion. Information/boxes/ pictures of both sides of the scorebook can be emailed to centralgasports@gmail.com.

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Honor Roll/Players of the Week

SIAC MBKB-FVSU’s Doucet and Lowe

SIAC WBKB-FVSU’s Gains

Alumni Update

Ex-Central standouts in JC national title game

Jalik Thomas and Adam Lamar are amid figuring out where they’ll next play college football.

First, the former Central standouts will try for some hardware and jewelry when top-ranked Hutchinson Community College faces third-ranked Iowa Western in the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship game.

The game starts at 9 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark., and is on ESPNU.

Thomas is a second-year sophomore defensive back for the Blue Dragons, and Lamar a freshman defensive lineman.

Thomas has 15 tackles, tied for 15th, and is second with three interceptions. He has also returned six punts for an average of 18 yards.

Thomas had committed to Arkansas State – also considering Coastal Carolina and Army - but was a victim of the transition in head coaches from Blake Anderson to Butch Jones, and wanted to play defensive back. He holds the program record for the longest kickoff return, 100 yards.

Lamar is right behind, with 14 tackles, and he’s tied for eighth with 3.5 tackles for loss for 27 yards in losses.

Lamar was also a wrestling standout at Central, earning state runner-up at 285 in 2021.

They’re among 10 players from Georgia on the roster.

Thomas has gotten offers from Appalachian State, East Carolina, Florida A&M, Louisiana Tech, James Madison, Jacksonville State, and New Mexico State, to name a few.

Lamar has received offers from Murray State, Florida A&M, Northern Iowa, Gardner-Webb, Western Carolina, and Central Michigan, among others.

Iowa Western has six former Georgia high school players, including former Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern quarterback James Graham of Fitzgerald.

Signings

Bleckley County had a busy day on Tuesday. James Fordham signed with Georgia Southwestern for baseball.

A pair of Dodge County softball standouts are headed down the road to ABAC, Dylana Barton and Ava Roland.

Around/About Central Georgia

FB-Mercer’s Harper earns All-America honor

FB-Fort Valley State’s Wilson on D2 All-America team

FB-FVSU’s Boone (Westside), Moore get national HBCU honors

Alligood lands at Jones County as athletics director

At 2:34 p.m. Monday, Chad Alligood posted on social media that he was resigning as head football coach at Northside.

And at 8:27 p.m. Tuesday night, Alligood shared his next move.

Alligood tweeted simply that he was “Blessed with this great opportunity! God is good! @jcgreyhounds” with a graphic that said, “Welcome to Jones County, Chad Alligood, Athletic Director” with a picture of Alligood.

The Jones County Board of Education had its regular meeting Tuesday night. There was nothing specific on the vague agenda about the athletics director job.

The Jones County’s new athletics page on Facebook and Instagram simply posted the same graphic. There was no information on when Alligood starts.

Jones County principal Lance Rackley, a Northside grad, assumed athletics director duties – assisted by assistant principal Dean Hintz - after longtime Jones County coach and AD Barry Veal resigned last spring to take the some role at Stratford.

Alligood announced his resignation on Monday after three seasons as Northside’s head coach, which followed two separate stints as an assistant, mostly as offensive coordinator.

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Ridder next up in Atlanta’s franchise QB search

Mariota has sudden knee issue to address, may be done

Atlanta released injury-plagued RB Williams

Smart a finalist for Bryant COTY award

Report: UGA behind Florida, LSU in spending

But the support staff is still mighty massive

UGA roster tracker

College Football Playoffs

Day, Buckeyes feel urgency behind second chance

Smart sees level playing field at Mercedes-Benz

Buckeyes lose second-leading rusher