A big night for Upson-Lee and Travon Walker

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By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          There was more than a spring football game between Upson-Lee and Westside Friday night in Thomaston, and more than retiring the jersey of Travon Walker.

          The former Knight football and basketball standout also made public the Travon Walker Foundation.

          He and his sister Charmaine presented checks of $44,000 each to the Upson-Lee football, basketball, and track programs, and the athletics department in general.

          Walker visited Upson-Lee Middle School Friday afternoon, as well as his high school alma mater.

          Speakers included Mike Cavan, a former standout at old Robert E. Lee Institute whose father Jim went 140-84-14 at the school as head coach in the 1950s and 60s, current head football coach Justin Elder, and former coach Matt Bentley.

          Walker’s foundation was publicly introduced Friday. It’s a community-driven non-profit designed to “improve the quality of life for young people while inspiring the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and community builders,” according to a release.

          The #blessup44 campaign will donate $4,400 44 times a year to organizations that “align with its mission, vision, and core values of loyalty, commitment, discipline, leadership, consistency, and structure.”

Video: Sara Beth Kirskey
Photos: Phyl M. Gatlin, Travon Walker Foundation

          “Growing up, I always felt the love and support from my county, my town, and my entire school district, so it’s a real blessing to be able to come back home to Upson County to officially launch my foundation at Upson-Lee High School on the same day they are retiring my jersey, #44,” Walker said in a release. “I’m a Jacksonville Jaguar now, but I’ll always be an Upson-Lee Knight and a Georgia Bulldog at heart, so coming home to Georgia to share this news means the world to me.”

          Walker spoke for less than two minutes at the end of the program, thanked supporters and his coaches in a variety of sports throughout the years – he posed with head boys basketball coach Darrell Lockhart, for whom he played during a historic 75-game winning streak that included consecutive state championships – and ended with a simple, “Go Knights.”