Summer doesn't mean vacation for sports teams

It's all over.

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Augusta Christian and Greenbrier have run out of baseball teams to beat, and the spring-filled sports season that saw four different state championships from Columbia County schools is finished.

See you later, folks. I'll catch back up with you in late August for the start of football season. I mean, after all, it is June - that sixth month of the year when absolutely no sporting events take place in the county.

June is kind of like the Friday after Thanksgiving. Technically, it's not a holiday. There's not much to celebrate. But nobody really does anything anyway.

Or is it?

Just when you thought it was safe to relax after a jam-packed, sports-filled school year, the local sports scene is full again.

Want to watch football? Check out the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Passing Camp at Greenbrier High School each Tuesday. The Wolfpack play host to several local teams including Evans High School and Augusta Christian, as some of the top players in the area hone their skills. Admission is free, and the fun begins at 6 p.m. each week.

How about some basketball? Columbia County's teams are hitting the hardwood each Thursday at locations throughout the county. Last week it was Harlem High School serving as the home team. Games will be played at Lakeside on June 14, at Evans on June 21 and at Greenbrier on June 28.

Then there's baseball. Summer league play just wrapped up its third weekend with Evans, Greenbrier, Harlem, Lakeside and Augusta Christian all in on the action.

The Lions are the host team next weekend, Lakeside will take over June 21-23 and Greenbrier has the honors 28-30. The title of "host team" is somewhat irrelevant anyway because games will be played at almost every high school field in the county each weekend.

Need any more sports action? Weekly 7-on-7 lacrosse games will take place Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon through July on the field behind Kroger in Evans. Local lacrosse expert and Greenbrier coach Jeff Becker will lead the combination of club and high school players.

Golf qualifier

Congratulations are in order for six golfers who qualified for the men's state amateur championship this past Monday. A state qualifier tournament was held at West Lake Country Club, and the top six finishers were Jamie Felder (69), Ralph Ireland (71), Mike O'Grady (72), Carter Newman (72), Tom Hardy (74) and William Stulb (74).

Felder, the tournament winner, is a former Augusta State University golfer who lives in Grovetown. O'Grady is a Martinez resident and Newman is from Evans. Hardy recently won a second-straight state championship this spring as a part of Lakeside's boys golf team.

Correction

An announcement sent in to the News-Times that ran June 2 indicated tryouts were open for Greenbrier's 2008 baseball team, but the tryouts were actually for the school's summer league team.