Thank You Senior Student-Athletes

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the graduating seniors from the six county high schools. Each and every one of you should be proud of yourselves. That said, this column is for the hundreds of graduating high school student-athletes of Houston County. The kids who gave me some of their personal times after wins and after losses. On the road in Atlanta, Forsyth, Griffin, Fort Valley and everywhere in between, I approached you after baseball games, basketball games, softball games, soccer matches and Lord knows how many football games and you always gave me the time of day. Never flinched in the face of my questions, always gave me the story I needed even when it was about the other team defeating your team.

Kirondria Smith, Trayvon Willis, LaShandria Mallard, Marquaveous Williams, Cole Brannen, Andrew Tarrer, Le’terria Mathis, Damion Bagley, Jhi’Marre Brown, Jaylen Lowder, BJ Fambro, Autumn Ring, Zion Johnson, Amarrian Brown, Evan Lasseter, Kezia Holmes, Amari Colbert, Eli Watson and Andrew Brown all represented their respective schools and teams (in some case multiple teams) with honor and skill.

Players like Kam Burnett who allowed me to interview him twice for the same story or Michael Bradley who talked to me over an hour on a Saturday morning for a story. Courtney Walker, Shelton Horton, Branden Smith, Austin Hittinger, Victoria Brown, Gabe Holt, Austin Langford, Kimar Robinson. Jaylan Sandifer who allowed me to talk to his father, teachers, teammates and coaches and stuck with me through two interviews and a million text messages for the story in today’s paper. All of these kids portrayed themselves more like adults (unlike some professional athletes) all year long. Their parents, coaches and teachers should be proud.

Jordan Hampton, Owen Jones, William Ford, Tim Freeman, Tatyona Owens, Logan Bracey, Caleb Kelly, Gracie Duggan, Carrington Kee, Tramontez Raybon, Deja Wilson, Jordan Leonard, Madi Slappey and Javian Bradford-Jackson. All of these players were fun to watch, write about and talk to on a daily basis.

Good luck to you all and my apologies to the senior student-athletes who I neglected to list in this column. There’s a good chance that I still wrote a story about you during one of the dozen seasons we have here in middle Georgia. Here’s to hoping we all stay in touch so I can continue to write about your exploits in college and beyond.

Congratulations,

D. Suggs

HHJ

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