Thursday's Report: FVSU wins, GMC Prep opening, Mercer 🏈 ; GHSA finals, Manchester investigation, UGA, Hawks, Falcons, Braves; NCAA transfer rule, College 🏈/ W&M 🏀/📰, NFL, NBA, MLB, golf

December 14, 2023 Central Georgia Sports Report

Coming every day: The only place in Central Georgia with daily high school scores, and the only place with college – Mercer, FVSU, Georgia College, CGTC, MGSU, GMC, Wesleyan – coverage (when info is offered).

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Pro

🏀🏀🏀NBA🏀🏀🏀

Toronto 135, Atlanta 128

📰C📰O📰V📰E📰R📰A📰G📰E📰

Alumni Update

Baldwin’s Bullard forgot what it’s like to lose at UGA

Around/About Central Georgia

FVSU wins first Florida Beach Bowl, tops Johnson C. Smith

In the process, FVSU’s current head coach beat FVSU’s last head coach, Shawn Gibbs succeeding JCS head coach Maurice Flowers.

Wildcat quarterback Kelvin Durham was the game MVP, going 10 for 14 for 167 yards and two scores, connecting with Westside grad Jaren Lawson for the game-clinching 84-touchdown.

GMC Prep in the market for a head coach again

The Bobby Rhoades Era at GMC prep lasted about 11 months.

Rhodes has resigned after one season at the school, going 3-7. The Bulldogs won two of their last three games after a 1-6 start, en route to their 18th losing season this century on their seventh head coach in that span.

He was hired from the staff at Pepperell High in February to replace Lee Coleman. Coleman spent four years at GMC, highlighted by a historic 10-1 season and region title in 2021, GMC’s first in the GHSA era (late 1940s).

“I thought we were in a tough rebuilding situation,” Rhoades told the Union Recorder of Milledge on Tuesday. “It would be hard to argue that this team wasn’t a lot better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning.”

He declined to offer specifics to the paper about his next step.

The school will start 2024 with a new athletics director. Andrew Grodecki is leaving to join his wife, former Georgia College softball coach Jamie, in North Carolina. She has taken a job at Barton College as an associate athletics director for external affairs.

Head baseball coach Rusty Courson is replacing Grodecki, effective this week. He has been at the school for a decade, six as head baseball coach, while serving on the football and basketball staffs.

Kyle Redmond, in his first year at GMC, will succeed Courson as head baseball coach.

Other Central Georgia head football openings: Baldwin, Dodge County, Twiggs County, and Stratford.

Mercer’s James, Wise earn another All-American honor

Around/About Georgia/Southeast

Investigation continues on death of Manchester player

Few details have emerged on the death of Manchester football player Brandon Smith, found dead on Sunday, a day before his team was to play in the GHSA Class A/Division II state championship game in Atlanta.

His grandmother, who had raised him, has told media that he went missing on Thursday night, and it was her understanding that he had been shot multiple times. He was officially reported missing on Saturday.

She told the New York Post on Wednesday that “The way he looked at me, like he wanted to tell me something he couldn’t.”

The Meriwether County coroner wouldn’t confirm a cause of death, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was reportedly to conduct an autopsy on Tuesday.

Manchester entered the field with captains holding his jersey. Opponent Bowdon did the same with a No. 52 jersey. Bowdon barely beat Manchester 28-27.

A vigil is tentatively planned at the school on Friday, and a GoFundMe page has been set up.

Cedar Grove handles Savannah Christian

Coffee finishes perfect season

Milton surprises Walton

Breaking down UGA’s 2024 schedule, now official

Column-Hawks still stuck in the middle

Siakam scores 33 points, Raptors beat Hawks to end 4-game losing streak

Falcons facing injury issues on both lines as Kentavius Street ruled out against Panthers

'It will be a crazy finish': Falcons preparing for Panthers, crucial 4-game stretch ahead

Atlanta injury update

Outfielder Kelenic eager to change the narrative after trade to Braves

College Sports