Belcher will be good addition to USC team
News of Nolan Belcher's verbal commitment to the University of South Carolina came down Monday. Some local fans might have been surprised he didn't follow his teammates to Georgia or Georgia Tech.
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Greenbrier baseball coach Rodney Holder wasn't surprised at all.
"That's where he wanted to go," Holder said. "They'll have a good staff there with his cousin."
Belcher's second cousin is North Augusta High School senior Marty Gantt. Together, the two have dominated their respective sides of the Savannah River. One can only imagine how strong of a pitching rotation South Carolina will have a few years down the road.
Serious business
Enough of that boring baseball news. Let's talk ping pong!
No, seriously, it's a competitive sport. And don't call it ping pong. It's table tennis, and there are a few local players who are more than casual competitors.
Dorothy Li, Robert Dong and Jenny Mi, all of Martinez, competed in the 2007 Table Tennis Championships at the Georgia Games in Roswell, Ga. The two-day event was held July 21-22, and our three hometown athletes brought home some hardware.
Li took the silver medal in the juniors under-14 division. Dong and Mi took silver and bronze, respectively, in the juniors under-16 division, then teamed up for a bronze in the juniors under-18 doubles event.
All three table tennis competitors are now eligible for the State Games of America in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Aug. 2-5.
No local competitors reached medal status in badminton, ultimate Frisbee and billiards, though all three were offered at the 2007 Georgia Games.
Reality TV
Check out one of Columbia County's own on the television screen this week as he competes for major prizes and global recognition.
David Jones, a longtime Martinez resident, has been competing on the Golf Channel's new series Fore Inventors Only each week in hopes of getting his invention publicized.
Jones recently made it through to the field testing round for his simple contraption called the Club Caddie, a small, easy-to-use clip that holds a golf club upright instead of dropping it on the ground or sand on a golf course.
Tune in to the Golf Channel on Tuesday at 10 p.m. to find out whether Jones' idea flops during the field-testing phase, or if he moves on to become one of the 10 semifinalists.