Pick any sport and you’ll hear people complain that professional athletes make too much money for playing a “kids game.”

Hopefully those athletes are taking the game as seriously as kids these days seemingly are supposed to.

In the past month I’ve attended a few youth football games involving 7-year-olds. I hope they’re having fun, win or lose, because the adult spectators seem a bit too involved with the competition.

I understand the concept of playing to win, but sometimes parents and coaches, are carrying things a bit too far.

Evans High School’s Jacob Buchanan never played organized sports until he found basketball in the fifth grade.

“I wasn’t really an athletic person, I was more of a nerd,” he said. “My friends were playing it. I had tried other sports but I had quit them all. I was like, ‘I’m not gonna quit this time.’ And then I just started playing more and more and eventually really loved it.”

Now, seven years later, Buchanan is a senior and the starting forward on the Knights basketball team, one of its top returnees and one of its leaders.

Don’t be surprised if you see a Christmas tree run through Evans on Dec. 1.

The Jingle Jam 10K 2012 is bringing back its unique brand of merriment.

The road race to benefit SafeHomes, Inc. and raise awareness about domestic violence, is a Christmas-themed costume contest race over 6.2 miles, beginning at Evans Towne Center at 8 a.m.

It attracted almost 500 runners in the inaugural run a year ago, and organizers expect it to grow this year.

For the first time in school history, Augusta Christian is perfect.

In a game that quarterback Tyler Roberson would call surreal afterward, the Lions won their first state championship since 2005, beating six-time defending champion Hammond 21-14 in the South Carolina Independent School Class AAA state championship.

"It's an indescribable feeling," said Lions coach Keith Walton, whose squad went 13-0. "I'm so thankful for the senior class and the selflessness of the entire team."