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Meet the Blazers – August 28th

Jenny Warren — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:51:18 +0000

Come out to the annual Meet the Blazers this Saturday, August 28 from 9-11 am at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. Registration for children between the ages of 5 and 13 starts at 8 am. Kids will get a chance to interact with the VSU football players. They will get to run through drills with the players, get autographs and take photos with the Blazers plus get a free t-shirt and lunch. This is a FREE event so everyone is welcome. For registration forms, click here.

And don’t forget to join Ed Hooper & Mike Slater for a special X’s and O’s show brought to you live from Bazemore-Hyder Stadium from 8:30-10 am. Guests will include David Dean, quarterback Jimmy Coy, All-American DeMario Jones and much more!

GO BLAZERS!!!!

Follow Matt McMurray with LAMP

Jenny Warren — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:55:22 +0000

Click here to follow Matt McMurray with LAMP.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!!!

Jenny Warren — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:40:17 +0000

Get ready Valdosta for The South Georgia High School Tailgate Show on Friday nights!!! Listen from 5-7 pm as Big A and Slater from the X’s & O’s Show dissect and discuss South Georgia’s high school football. Each week they’ll be breaking down the top games in the region while the Valdosta Daily Times reporters call in from these games to give their insights. So listen and call in with your input. Then after the games, come back and join us at 10 pm for the two hour Georgia High School Football Scoreboard Show and get caught up on all the high school football action from all around the state.

I-75 Lake City bill-board

Jenny Warren — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:13:08 +0000

The photo below is of a billboard recently established on I-75 just south of Lake City [Florida]. We gathered there today to celebrate its unveiling. The cost of 10 months rental of the billboard and doing the artwork was $6500. We feel that is a reasonable cost to reach out to 1,000,000 vehicles per month and perhaps motivate their participation in the electoral process to get our country on a sound footing.

Coach Mike Helfer Show from February 1st

Dustin Swedelson — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:01:40 +0000

Click here for this past weeks show

Mike Helfer Coaches Show from January 25th

Dustin Swedelson — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:37:06 +0000

This past weeks Coach Mike Helfer Show from Blazers Tavern. Join us at the Tavern every Monday from 7-8 pm

White Tiger “Gladiator” Workout

Jenny Warren — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:33:12 +0000

A new 12 week workout program offered by White Tiger Martial Arts Academy in Valdosta, GA. Coming in January 2010!! These are just a few of the exercises!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYFjaABjnZ0

Letter from the US Department of Justice regarding the expansion of the Lowndes County Commission

Jenny Warren — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:44:55 +0000

Below is the entire letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Office of the Assistant Attorney General in Washington, D.C. dated November 30, 2009.

U.S. Department of Justice

Civil Rights Division

Office of the Assistant Attorney General

Washington, D.C. 20530

November 30, 2009

Walter G. Elliott, Esq.

Elliott, Blackburn, Barnes & Gooding

3016 North Patterson Street

Valdosta, Georgia 31602

Dear Mr. Elliott:

This refers to Act No.247(1(3 756) (2009), inst as it provides for a redistricting plan and the implementation schedule for the county commission in Lowndes County, Georgia, submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S 1973c. We received your responses to our August 21, 2009, request for additional information through November 13, 2009.

We have carefully considered the information you have provided, as well as census data, comments and information from other interested parties and other information, including the county’s previous submissions. Under Section 5, the Attorney General must determine whether the submitting authority has met its burden of showing that the proposed changes have neither the purpose nor the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or membership in a language minority group. Georgia v. United States, 411 U.S. 526 (1973). Procedures for the Administration of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 28 C.F.R. 51.52 (c). For the reasons discussed below, I cannot conclude that the county’s burden under Section 5 has been sustained in this Stance. Therefore, on behalf of the Attorney General, I must object to the 2009 redistricting plan.

According to the 2000 Census, the county has a total popi4tion of 92,115 persons, of whom 31,311 (34.0%) are African American. Of the 67,981 persons of voting age, 21,171 (31.1%) are black persons. According to the American Community Survey, conducted between January 2006 and December 2008, the total population of the county is estimated to be 102,187 of whom 34,120 (33.4%) are black persons.

The county’s proposed redistricting plan adds two single-member commissioner districts that overlay the existing commissioner districts and divide the county in half Proposed District 4 encompasses the eastern part of the county and, based on the 2000 Census has a total black population of 49.0 percent. The second district covers the western part of the county. It has a total black population of 19.3 percent, also based on 2000 Census data.

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Based on our analysis, the county’s proposed plan unnecessarily reduces the level of black voting strength in the county and thereby reduces the ability of African Americans to elect their candidates of choice. Currently, African American voters have the ability to elect a candidate of choice in one of the three single-member districts in the county. Under the proposed plan, African Americans will have the ability to elect a candidate of choice in one out of five single-member districts, Thus, the plan, which places black voters in a worse electoral position than under the benchmark plan, is retrogressive.

Moreover, the evidence establishes that this retrogression was avoidable. Several alternatives exist that meet the county’s stated criteria and do not have a prohibited retrogressive effect. For example, it is possible to create an illustrative plan that fellows the counts 3-2 configuration, but which, unlike the county’s proposed plan, creates a second district in which census data show that the African American community would be able to elect a candidate of choice. The most recent data indicate that African Americans constitute 53 percent of the registered voters in this illustrative district. Although the county’s contention that the 2000 Census data understate this district’s current African American population percentage appears to be correct, it does not after our conclusion, based on an analysis of voter registration data from October 2009, that the district would not afford black voters the ability to elect candidates of choice to office.

In addition, our analysis of the evidence precludes a determination that the county has met its burden of showing that the proposed plan was not adopted, at least in part, with the purpose of making minority voters worse off.

First, the retrogressive impact of the proposed plan was easily avoidable. The county justifies the proposed plan by stating that a minority commissioner helped develop the plan, the black population in proposed District 4 is the largest racial group in the district, and the proposed plan has a stronger minority population than previously-developed alternative plant As noted, supra, proposed District 4 required only minimal adjustments to create a district in which black voters would have the ability to elect their candidates of choice, resulting in an overall plan that did not retrogress minority voting strength.

In addition, despite the fact that the county’s primary redistricting criterion was to maintain or increase minority voting strength, the proposed plan does not meet that goal. In fact, not only does it fail to maintain black voting strength in the county, it has the opposite effect; it decreases it. Thus, the county’s proposal deviates from its own redistricting criteria to make minority voters worse off.

Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the submitting authority has the burden of showing that a submitted change has neither a discriminatory purpose nor a discriminatory effect. Georgia v. United States, 411 U.S. 526 (1973); 28 C.F.R. 51.52. In light of the considerations discussed above, I cannot conclude that your burden has been sustained in this instance.

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Therefore, on behalf of the Attorney General, I must object to the county’s 2009 redistricting plan. Because the implementation schedule is directly related to the validity of the redistricting plan, it would be inappropriate for the Attorney General to make a determination on this related change. 28 C.F.R. 51.35.

We note that under Section 5 you have the right to seek a declaratory judgment from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia that the proposed change neither has the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color. 28 C.F.R. 51.44. In addition, you nay request that the Attorney General reconsider the objection. 28 C.F.R. 51.45. However, until the objection is withdrawn or a judgment from the District of Columbia Court is obtained, the submitted change continues to be legally unenforceable. Clark v, Roemer, 500 U.S. 646 (1991); 28 C.F.R. 51.10.

To enable us to meet our responsibility to enforce the Voting Rights Act, please inform us of the action Lowndes County plans to take concerning this matter. If you have any questions. you should call Mr. Robert Lowell (202-514-3539), an attorney in the Voting Section.

Sincerely,

Thomas E. Perez

Assistant Attorney General

At Valdosta High, Times Change but Expectations Don’t – article in The New York Times

Jenny Warren — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:31:13 +0000

November 26, 2009

At Valdosta High, Times Change but Expectations Don’t

By DREW JUBERA

VALDOSTA, Ga. — Players still bang their helmets against the corrugated metal roof of the walkway outside the locker room before rushing onto the field here, the collective rumble like a storm coming up from the Gulf. An end-zone billboard continues to welcome visitors to Death Valley, a bold declaration of trouble ahead.

Those are props from another era.

“When we walked onto the field, you could look at the other kids and see the fear,” said Berke Holtzclaw, the quarterback for Valdosta High School’s 1984 state championship team.

While traditions endure, fortunes have changed at Valdosta, home of 23 state championships. The team has been named a national champion six times by various organizations and, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, is the country’s all-time winningest high school football program with a record of 850-200-34.

But the Wildcats lost their third coach in seven years after the school decided not to renew his contract days after a 57-15 loss to neighboring Lowndes last month. Valdosta’s 11,000-seat stadium, once packed for nearly every kickoff, has been two-thirds empty some game nights, even after a $7 million facelift in 2004. Despite eight playoff appearances in this decade, including this year, Valdosta has not won a championship since 1998.

That is unacceptable in this quaint town of 48,000 near the Florida border.

The scene here now unspools like “Friday Night Lights” at a crossroad. Politics, race, a shifting population, competing camps of influence, and boosters who raise $100,000 a year and dissect game film every Monday night with the coach all play a part.

“There’s a bad vibe going on,” said Buck Belue, an Atlanta sports radio host and former Wildcat, who quarterbacked the University of Georgia’s 1980 national championship team. “It’ll take a special guy to come in here and get into the politics: who’s sitting on the school board, whether there should be a black coach or a white coach. It’s become a lot more complicated.”

The biggest complication, many team supporters say, is that people have fled the city for the suburbs. Since 1990, Lowndes County has added almost 30,000 residents, swelling its population to 100,000.

That has left Valdosta High, which is about 75 percent black, with fewer than 1,800 students. This year enrollment fell below the cutoff for 5A football, Georgia’s highest classification, but the school plans to remain at that level.

Lowndes High, not far from the city limits, has 1,000 more students, is predominantly white and has won four state titles since 1999. A number of its current stars developed in Valdosta youth leagues, then moved out of the city.

“Most of our friends’ kids go to Lowndes even though we all went to Valdosta,” said Robert DeCesare, a restaurant owner whose youngest son plays for a Lowndes County middle school. “Valdosta went from all-white to almost all-black. It’s sad the way some people talk about it.”

Winning at Valdosta used to be automatic. The Boys Club and middle school teams ran the same plays as the high school team, so Valdosta freshmen arrived with virtually the whole playbook in their heads. The roster was so deep, the fight song had to be played twice while the players ran onto the field.

“Playing for Valdosta on Friday night was as big as the dream got,” Belue said.

Coach Wright Bazemore won 12 titles with all-white teams, beginning in 1947, then two more after the school was integrated in 1969. Bazemore retired after his 1971 team went undefeated and was named a national champion. His successor lasted only two seasons despite a 17-3 record.

A sermonizing Tennessean named Nick Hyder followed. His first team went 3-7, with the freshman Belue as its starting quarterback.

“We both had For Sale signs in our front yards on Saturday mornings,” Belue recalled.

Four years later, Hyder won the first of his seven state crowns. He nurtured Bazemore’s rugged pro-style system. Then in 1996 he had a heart attack in the school cafeteria and died. More than 8,000 viewed his coffin — in the school colors, black and gold — on the stadium’s 50-yard line.

A longtime assistant, Mike O’Brien, took over and won a state title in 1998. But four years later he was fired after compiling a 70-20-1 record. At the time, he attributed his dismissal to disagreements with powerful boosters.

Then a well-regarded coach from Florida arrived, and he replaced many of the routines and assistant coaches dating to Bazemore’s time. He lasted three seasons.

Rick Tomberlin, winner of three Georgia 2A titles, knew what he faced when he took over in 2006.

“The football I.Q. here is off the chart,” he said. “People come up to you and want to talk about a receiver’s footwork. They might not know who their state representative is, but they know the Lincoln score from 10 years ago.”

Tomberlin’s first team went 1-9 but made the playoffs the next season. The young Wildcats were 4-2 this year when Lowndes handed them the worst loss in team history. The superintendent told Tomberlin the following Tuesday that his almost $100,000 contract as coach and athletic director would not be renewed but that he could finish the season.

William Cason, the superintendent, said the Lowndes loss was not a “defining moment,” even though “I don’t like to lose that badly.”

The local paper editorialized against the midseason firing, and a poll favored giving Tomberlin more time. Holtzclaw, the former quarterback, said he sympathized with the coach, but added that he would have fired him at halftime of the Lowndes game.

“People felt the Valdosta mystique was tarnished,” said Tomberlin, whose team finished the season 7-4.

Race has become a more visible issue. When Valdosta High declined to show President Obama’s back-to-school speech live to students in September, some black leaders called for the resignation of Cason, who is white. A group of black parents and boosters have discussed forming their own search committee for a coach.

“I don’t think we need a black coach for the sake of a black coach,” said Stan Rome, who starred on Valdosta’s first integrated team, went on to play in the N.F.L. and is the father of a Wildcat player. “But we need to dispel the myth that there will never be a black coach at Valdosta. You’re still in the deep, deep South. A lot has changed, but there’s still a lot that hasn’t.”

Others wonder aloud whether Valdosta will ever regain its regional dominance and national prominence.

David Waller, 76, has missed four games since 1947. He is treasurer of the Touchdown Club and curator of the team’s 3,200-square-foot museum on the stadium grounds. Waller said he is the one who is blamed “every time a coach is fired.”

Nobody bleeds black and gold like Waller, who intends to be buried beside Hyder in a cemetery within earshot of the stadium’s roars. Yet even he knows the landscape has changed.

“We have to get used to the fact that times are different,” Waller said. “I don’t think it’ll ever be like it was. We can still work for it, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

When asked what he expected from the next coach, Waller did not hesitate to say, “State championships.”

A version of this article appeared in print on November 26, 2009, on page B10 of the New York edition.

Click here to see the full article from The New York Times website as well as pictures of the Wildcats, the stadium, and Coach Rick Tomberlin.

Football teams lose football games: It happens

Dustin Swedelson — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:36:08 +0000

Valdosta State lost to Ouachita Baptist over the weekend. It happened, get over it. What’s being said is a joke to me: “how could this happen?”, “I’m embarrassed” and the rest of this holier than thou mentality. First off you shouldn’t be embarrassed you don’t play the game. No matter how big of a check you write you’re not on the team, as a fan there is no embarrassment. Your upset but you can’t be embarrassed, because that would mean you were actually involved in the outcome of the game.

Being upset over a loss I get it, but don’t hold anything negative towards the players. I witnessed the game, that team didn’t execute but they put forth the effort. Had they given a half-way effort than yeah, go ahead criticize. But this team played pretty hard, they just got beat. They bit on fakes, couldn’t finish a tackle, missed some blocks but that was all failed execution not failed effort. But they attempted to score until the last possible second showing a sense of personal pride that has to be respected. They didn’t kneel the ball as the clock ticked down trailing two scores; they tried to get points on the board.

Take off the red and black and look at what happened as a football fan for a second. If you love the game of football, truly love the game of football, you have to understand that any team can beat any other given team on any given day. That is precisely what happened. Ouachita Baptist had the biggest win for their program in the last decade; it just so happened to be against your Blazers.

At the Division I level people root for this all of the time. People cheered as USC fell to Washington, as local star Greg Reid led Florida State to an upset against BYU, but Valdosta State losing…now that’s just embarrassing? I don’t think so. If you pull your fandom out of the equation, you’ll find as a football fan this was a monumental event.

The Blazers are a young team this year. They are a team centered around juniors, sophomores and freshmen. The few seniors on the depth chart outside of Melvin Black, Cedric Jones, Carlos Anderson and RJ Bastone haven’t played in the current system significantly enough to play like a senior, there is a learning curve involved with them even though they are seniors. I said in the preseason this team reminded me of the 2006 squad; junior heavy, young captains, a Callaway brother as the backup QB, coming off a down title defense year. This team is talented to compete this year but think about all this team has been through since the end of the 2008 season.

They lost a three time All American in Sherard Reynolds and three year starter Everett Kitchens. Valdosta State tried to replace them with two freakish athletes in the spring, Georgia transfer Donovan Baldwin and a JUCO transfer Jasmon Watkins. Those two didn’t make grades and it took until three weeks before the 2009 season to figure out and find replacements.

GSC Co-Freshman of the Year quarterback Chris Hart left the school for Georgia Military College, leaving a huge gap at quarterback that looked to be filled for the next 3 years. Then TJ Williams opted to leave Valdosta State which turned out to be a positive move for the locker room at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium but a talent blow nobody can deny. Other young guys like Brian Buford, Kiece Crite, Bryant Thorpe and Chris Grant who have all seen a lot of playing time over the last season or two were not back with the team for a variety of reasons.

This team had a lot working against it before the season started yet they are still a talented team. Freshmen are starting and playing significantly all over the field. They’re going to make mistakes; this is their first year playing at this level. But at the same time they’re very talented freshman with incredible upside. The last two freshmen classes have some of the most talented first and second year players I have seen in my time covering the Blazers.

The season however is far from over. Is it possible the Blazers can beat both Delta State and North Alabama? Absolutely, anything is possible. Is it likely? Probably not, but beating one and getting help from another team could aid Valdosta State, especially if that team is Ouachita Baptist who has Delta State at home this weekend. Again, likelihood of that is slim, but still possible.

Just because the Blazers probably won’t be in the playoffs doesn’t mean its time to stop watching Valdosta State football. Teams all over the country don’t even contend for their conference title on a yearly basis yet they get support, and people in Valdosta tend to lose site of that. Yes, people here are used to winning but it’s more than that. This town prides itself on being tight nit, now is the time to prove it.

These Blazers go out there every week with V-State on their chest and represent that school, this community and for some of you, your alma mater. They are the team you supported when they won; don’t turn your back because you think they might be down this year. It’s the fourth game of the year and stranger things have happened than Valdosta State winning some ball games. If you love the game of football and believe any team can beat any other team on any day, well I guess I’ll be seeing you two more Thursdays and four more Saturdays this season.