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Laurens Academy Salutes It's Best Athletes At Annual Awards Banquet

By Gary Dillon

Staff Writer

      Laurens - Laurens Academy held their annual varsity Sports Banquet for the 2009-10 school year on May, 21 at Presbyterian College in Clinton.

With nearly 30 awards presented, the crowd of 200 was served a meal and athletic director Ryan Maloney served as master of ceremonies.

 For a baseball team that brought home their fourth consecutive SCISA state championship, several key awards were presented. Senior Ryland Culbertson was named Best Defensive Player, while junior J.E. Satterfield was honored for the Highest Batting Average. Taylor Sims was named Most Improved. Brandon Martin and Chrisitian Greene received Coaches Awards. 

 In boys basketball, Martin was again honored as the Best Defensive Award winner, while Blake Mills was named Best Offensive Player. Alex Satterfield won the 6th Man Award, Kyle Maddox won the Most Improved Player Award and J.T. Lee won the Coaches Award.

The honors kept coming for Alex Satterfield, as he was named football’s MVP. Martin won the Best Offensive Award, while Lee was named Best Defensive Player. The Coaches Award went to Devon Sprouse, while, Ty Williamson took home the “Big Wheel Award“.  

Katie Rockefeller was honored as the girls basketball Best Offensive Player, while Lauren Broome took home the Best Defensive honors. The Most Improved Award went to Marci Rockefeller. This year’s “Toughness Award” went to Meredith Griffin.

 In softball, Ana Rodriguez and Katie Rockefeller both took home Coaches Awards. Callie Holmes was named the Best Defensive Player.

Volleyball Coaches Awards went to Laura Langston and Danielle Koon. Holmes took home another award as the Most Outstanding Player. Broome was honored for her defensive hustle.

 

Contact Gary Dillon at gdcanfield@yahoo.com

Laurens Academy wins fourth straight SCISA Class A Baseball Championship

By Gary Dillon

Staff Writer

     Laurens - For the fourth consecutive year, the Laurens Academy Crusaders (16-7) won the SCISA Class A baseball championship, with an 11-4 come-from-behind win in the second game of their best-of-three series against Coastal Christian.

Coastal Christian took the early 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Laurens Academy would put-up two runs in their half of the second inning to cut the deficit to 3-2. Laurens would add four more runs in the bottom of the fourth, two more in the fifth and three more in the sixth inning, to win, 11-4.

With a veteran laden team head coach Travis Casey and his Crusaders did not miss a beat again this season. He kept his talented players constantly focused on the big prize, taking it one step at a time.

For their efforts, the Laurens Academy's Championship Baseball team was recognized by SCISA with several region awards. Senior Ryland Culbertson was named Region Player of the Year and a North-South All-Star. Juniors J.E. Satterfield and Brandon Martin were also named to the North-South All-Star team. Christian Greene, a junior, was named to the SCISA All-Region team.

Contact Gary Dillon at gdcanfield@yahoo.com

 

 

le="font-size: 13px;">By Scott J. Bryan
Special Writer
Laurens (10/29/09)  Laurens Academy coach Todd Kirk's football team has been on a roller coaster ride of sorts through much of the season.
The Crusaders mentor hopes this latest dip is the last he'll see in a while.
Laurens Academy is currently 4-5 on the year, but the Crusaders have lost back-to-back games and four of their last five contests entering Friday's regular season finale at home against W.W. King.
Fresh off a thorough dismantling at Dillon Christian, 42-0, Kirk is less than pleased with his team's overall play.
"Overall, I don't feel like we've played hard all season," Kirk said. "We seem to have not found our grip offensively. We haven't found our stride offensively.
"I think defensively we've played hard. We've got some younger kids who are playing awfully hard and doing good things. We gave up 42 points Friday night, but previous to that, we've played pretty good defense. We've kept teams under 20 most of the time. I've been pleased with that."
Despite the losing skid, Kirk has constantly praised his younger charges for their initiative and effort.
"I think they see an opportunity to play, in general," Kirk said. "Our young guys have come in and played like that. They've played with excitement. They've made some plays at times. Typically, the kids who have not played are excited to play. They've pretty aggressive. We have not been as aggressive, in general, as we should have been."
Kirk credited nose guard Devin Sprouse and defensive end J.T. Lee as two defenders who have performed well.
Offensively, Kirk said Alex Satterfield has continued to play well when the offensive line presents him the opportunity to do so. But the Crusaders' lack of play-makers has been a bugaboo all season.
"Alex has been our big-play guy," Kirk said. "When we give him time, he does well. We haven't given him many opportunities though.
"Brandon Martin is our best wide receivers and defenses have been taking him away. They bring six and take away Brandon, and we're stuck trying to find more answers. That's been the story the last three or four ballgames. Once you get the film on us, they have a pretty good idea what we're going to do."
Up next for Laurens is King, a 6-3 program with plenty of talent.
"King is a good, sound football team," Kirk said. "They run the option, and when they stop running the option, they spread it out and throw it well. Their probably our biggest rivalry since they're down in Batesburg. It's about an hour and 15 minutes away. They're very well coached."