Sports Year in Review
Each week during the summer, The Columbia County News-Times highlighted a different high school with a look back at its five biggest stories from the previous school year.
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This week's focus is on the school year's other top stories.
Each school's year in sports has been chronicled during the look-back series, a rotation Grovetown High School will crack next season. The Warriors filled out their athletic staff as they prepare to field teams during the 2009-10 school year. They will compete in Class AAAA the inaugural year, with the exception of the football team. Warriors football coach Rodney Holder scheduled a mix of established powers and new programs for the Warriors' first season.
A pair of athletic icons at the middle school level stepped into retirement after more than 20 years as coaches and administrators. Glen Roberson, a longtime Riverside coach and athletic director who ended his career at Stallings Island, said he planned to devote time to his artwork after 29 years as an educator. Harlem Middle coach Benjie Moore planned to delve into real estate and do some fishing. One of Moore's basketball players, seventh-grader Olivia Fitzgerald, continued to show teachers, classmates and spectators the power of persistence.
And former Greenbrier coach Alex Box, whose uncle of that name attended LSU before he was killed in World War II, provided an emotional story when he threw out the first pitch at the Tigers' new stadium, named for his uncle.
To end the year-in-review series, here is a look back at five big stories from outside the realm of high school sports.
Harlem Middle coach ends an era
By Stephen Fastenau
Oct. 12, 2008
Benjie Moore walked to midfield at halftime of Harlem Middle School's final football game this season and sheepishly took the microphone.
The coach, who retired Feb. 27 after 24 years teaching and coaching, wasn't aware he'd be recognized.
"I appreciate you all coming out today," he told the Harlem crowd Tuesday. "It's been a pretty good run, but it's time for me to go somewhere else." And that was all.
Harlem Middle principal Carla Shelton presented Moore with a plaque, and he returned to his players on the sideline. The Bulldogs then wrapped up a loss to Grovetown.
On the sideline for the Patriots was coach Dan Sneeringer, who started his career on Moore's staff at Harlem Middle.
"He's like a papa to me," Sneeringer said.
Moore and Sneeringer posed for pictures at midfield after the game. Sneeringer joked that Moore could assist him next year, even if the 54-year-old Moore might be lying on his back by then. Moore told him the only place he'd be lying was in a boat.
"I figure I better retire while I'm still young enough to go do stuff," Moore said. "Sell a little real estate and do a lot of fishing."
Coach excited by retirement
By Stephen Fastenau
Dec. 21, 2008
Glen Roberson walked away from coaching and teaching after 29 years.
The county's teachers are eligible for retirement after 30 years. Roberson, Stallings Island Middle School's basketball coach and a former teacher and coach at Riverside Middle, bridged the difference with 180 sick days.
His newfound freedom will give him the opportunity to work on his art.
"I'd honestly just like to teach a half day and go home," Roberson said. "I've got a studio. I'd love to get in it and produce some artwork."
Roberson coached his final two games at home against Columbia Middle. His RedHawks split, with a girls win and a boys loss.
Between games, Roberson was honored with a glass plaque, as Casey Heckathorn, the school's athletic director, read the highlights of the 57-year-old's rsum.
Roberson spent 17 years at Riverside Middle and served as athletic director and coach. He also taught art.
When Stallings Island opened on Blackstone Camp Road, Roberson was initially torn about leaving Riverside. But Riverside Principal Don Putnam was leaving for Stallings Island, and Roberson embraced the opportunity to open a new school.
Seventh-grader continues to amaze
By Stephen Fastenau
Nov. 16, 2008
Two girls were talking in the stands before a middle school basketball game last week.
One was telling the other about Harlem's No. 10, the seventh-grader with the ponytail.
"She plays first base in softball," the girl told her friend. "She was like the best one on the team. And now she's playing basketball."
The girl went on to explain how No. 10, Olivia Fitzgerald, lost her right arm from the elbow down in a lawn-mower accident when she was 3.
But there was Olivia on the court.
She had moved from driveway games of HORSE with her dad to trying out for the Bulldogs' middle school squad. Now she is in the starting five.
On Oct. 28, Olivia sank a 3-pointer to beat Columbia Middle, 17-15. It was her first game of organized basketball.
"I'm always amazed at her," said her father, P.K. Fitzgerald. "I never cease to be amazed."
Box opens new LSU stadium with pitch
By Stephen Fastenau
Feb. 25, 2009
The burial flag given to former Greenbrier High School baseball coach Alex Box's grandparents at the end of World War II had been folded away until recently.
Box was born in April 1945, a little more than two years after his uncle, also named Alex Box, was killed during the Allied invasion of North Africa.
The uncle was a 1943 graduate of Louisiana State University, having graduated with a degree in petroleum engineering after playing football and baseball for the Tigers. The school's baseball stadium soon was named for the fallen war hero. His nephew was invited to throw out the first pitch at the debut of the Tiger's new Alex Box Stadium.
Box also presented the school with the burial flag, to join his uncle's Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross already displayed in the Tigers' baseball hall of fame. A new display area was built into the new stadium.
"A lot more people are going to see it there in the museum than would see it in the cedar chest here," Box said.
First Grovetown team takes shape
By Stephen Fastenau
May 3, 2009
The aluminum bleachers were full at Grovetown Middle School when a bus pulled in to drop off more potential members of Grovetown High School's first football team.
The Warriors started spring practice in April, and coach Rodney Holder said the practices were averaging 53 players each. Holder expects the number to rise during summer workouts.
For now, without pads, the Warriors have worked on special teams formations and devoted a bulk of time to the run game.
Holder said June passing camps would provide ample opportunity to air it out.
He said the most important aspect of spring practice would be meshing all the new faces.
"The biggest thing is us getting to know them and them getting to know us, and coming together and starting to build that unity," Holder said.