By the time the 2013-14 school year begins, the Columbia County coaching landscape won’t have completely changed, but it will have received a significant facelift.

No fewer than five head coaching positions are being vacated. I would had said that five coaches voluntarily stepped down, but I think the realistic number is four.

There is a theme running through these departures. While no job is a bad job when it comes to teaching young people, consider what has become available.

Runners from the Velocity Striders AAU team competed at the Golden South Classic, an international, elite track and field meet for high school students in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday.

Runners who met qualifying standards competed in the classic division, and others competed in the prep division.

In the classic division, the boys 4x100 meter relay team – Greenbrier’s Warren Coombs, Dontae Weaver, Elias Madris and Jeremy Harden – showed their speed, finishing second in 40.73. They also finished eighth in the 4x400 relay (3:30.36).

JEKYLL ISLAND, GA — The step up in class didn’t faze the Lakeside Lady Panthers.

One year after winning the Georgia High School Association Class AAAA girls golf championship, the Lady Panthers turned around and won the 2013 GHSA Class AAAAA title Monday at the Indian Mound Golf Club on Jekyll Island.

The Lady Panthers won with Eunice Yi and Elizabeth Kim a year ago, and added Megan Sabol to the fold this time out.

Yi, who will attend Georgia Regents University in the fall, was low medalist shooting a 2-under 70 and is the state player of the year.

Three kayakers survived being sucked through the Augusta Canal Headgates Tuesday afternoon.

Three kayaks – one with an instructor and the other two with a man and his wife – were paddling near Savannah Rapids Pavilion when they were sucked through the gates that channel the Savannah River into the canal.

Terry Anthony, an Augusta Utlities employee working at the Lock and Dam, said she saw the kayakers and tried to direct them away, but the current carried them through the headgates.