TIFTON NATIVE BECOMES HEAD COACH
AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
TYSON SUMMERS IS A FORMER BLUE DEVILS ASSISTANT COACH
Tifton native Tyson Summers will be the next head football coach at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
He will be formally introduced as head coach at a press conference on Saturday, Dec. 26.
Before accepting the job,
Summers was the defensive coordinator and safety coach at
Colorado State University under
 former
Georgia offensive coordinator
Mike Bobo. His passing defense there was ranked 20th in the nation
, giving up just 186.3 yards per game heading into the Arizona Bowl. After dropping two overtime games early in the season, the team closed the regular season on a four-game win streak, with three of those victories coming on the road.
Summers was the defensive coordinator at
Central Florida from 2012-14, where his total defense was
among the top 10 overall in his final year. He was on the staff that won the
Fiesta Bowl in
2014.
He was an assistant coach at Tift County High School in 2002. He spent one year at Presbyterian College, his alma mater, as the defensive backs coach in 2003 before serving as a graduate assistant at Troy and Georgia in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
He then spent one year as the safeties coach at Georgia Southern in 2006 before spending five seasons on the staff at UAB, from 2007 to 2011, before joining UCF.
"Besides the day I married my wife and the days my children were born, this is right up there as one of the most exciting moments in my life," Summers said. "This is home for my wife, Beth, and I and we're excited to be able to get to Statesboro and carry on the proud traditions of both Georgia Southern University and the Eagle football program. I'm looking forward to building off the offense that is in place and continuing to progress with the defense. I'm just exceptionally excited to be a Georgia Southern Eagle."
Tom Kleinlein, GSU athletic director, said,
"The search committee and myself went through a long process and evaluated a number of candidates, and we have decided on Tyson Summers, who is a great fit for us here at Georgia Southern. I'm excited about Tyson coming in and leading our program. What we get in Tyson is someone who knows Georgia, someone who was born and raised in Georgia, someone who has recruited Georgia his entire career, and someone who has been a part of a Group of 5 school that has played on New Year's Day, which is the level we're aspiring to get to."
A four-year letter-winner at Presbyterian College, Summers earned preseason All-South Atlantic honors as a linebacker in 1999 and was selected as team captain as a senior. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from Presbyterian in 2002.
Summers is married to the former Beth King, and the couple has three sons, Jake, Walker and Anderson.
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YOUTH MAKES HALF-COURT SHOT;
WINS $100 AT UNITED WAY NIGHT
Last Friday, Dec. 18, was "Live United Night" at the Tift County High School boys' and girls' basketball games. The United Way of South Central Georgia, based in Tifton, sponsored a halftime competition, offering a $100 bill to anyone who could make a goal from half court. Several volunteers got one shot each.The prize, donated by Darrien Teals and the Georgia Firebirds arena football team, went to Tucker Karvonen, who hit the basketball goal from half court with "nothing but net." Pictured above, from left, are United Way board member Tamisha Blackshear, United Way Executive Director Pat McKinnon, Karvonen, and United Way board members Ebony Rowell and Glen Fogle.
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Christmas is more than presents, lights, and flying reindeer. It's the birth of our Savior and
God's hope for the world.
The people of St. Anne's Episcopal Church warmly invite you to worship with them at their Midnight Mass this Christmas Eve. Doors open at 10 p.m., followed by a Christmas concert at 10:30 p.m.
The Mass begins at 11 p.m.
A Tifton tradition for over 30 years, St. Anne's Midnight Mass is a unique way to celebrate the true reason for the season. Expect candlelight, scripture, and beautiful music featuring St. Anne's choir and
a brass ensemble under the direction of Minister of Music Stan Smith.
The Rev. Lonnie Lacy, Rector of St. Anne's, will preach.
A free, festive reception follows in the Parish Hall.
St. Anne's is located at 2411 N. Central Ave. Admission is free.
Seating is offered first come, first served. A professionally staffed nursery is available at no charge.
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WINTER BEGINS ... WITH RECORD HEAT
The winter solstice occurred at exactly 11:48 p.m. Monday, (last night, Dec. 21). It was the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
Officially, it is now winter. But following last weekend's cold snap, the Tiftarea faces record warmth for Christmas Day. The National Weather Service forecasts a high temperature of 81 degrees for Christmas, and above-average temperatures are predicted for the foreseeable future.
Christmas Day should be partly sunny in the Tiftarea. During the next couple of days, expect rain that is heavy at times. In fact, a flash flood watch is in effect until Thursday morning; a total of up to seven inches of rain could fall between now and then.
So, it definitely won't be a white Christmas but it could be a soggy one.
Stay dry.
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Think
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2 POLLS NAME COLQUITT HIGH PACKERS
AS NATIONAL FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS
Two national polls, Preforce.com and High School Football America, have named the state champion Colquitt County High Packers as national champions. However,
i
n two of the other well known polls -- USA Today and MaxPreps -- the Packers ranked No. 2 in the final polls.
WCTV in Tallahassee reported Monday night
that there is discussion about Colquitt playing in a national championship high school football game to determine the undisputed winner.
Colquitt County recently
won its
second straight AAAAAA Georgia state championship, and recorded another perfect 15-0 season.
The
High School Football America poll organization said this was
the closest national championship race it has seen since it began using its proprietary algorithm for national rankings. The organization said Colquitt County is this year's national champ based upon
computer rankings and not opinions.
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Tifton's Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival, coming in March, is having a T-shirt design contest for a $100 cash prize. Contest rules may be found on the Rhythm & Ribs Facebook page, Click Here! All submissions are due Thursday, Dec. 31, and must be submitted to [email protected] in PDF or high resolution JPEG format.
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ABAC GETS HIGHWAY SAFETY GRANT
FOR YOUNG ADULT PROGRAM
The Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) announces a $4,620 grant to Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton for participation in the GOHS Georgia Young Adult Program.
The GOHS addresses young adult driver crashes, injuries and fatalities and partners with colleges and universities
 throughout the state to implement the Georgia Young Adult Program (GYAP). The program has been successful using strategies such as peer education, providing educational speakers to schools and encouraging schools to develop creative, innovative techniques to
reduce young adult crashes, injuries and fatalities in their communities.
"The Governor's Office of Highway Safety is committed to changing the tragic trend of young adult driver deaths in Georgia," said GOHS Director
Harris Blackwood. "We're here to make changes, and I believe the students at
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College can help us achieve the goal of lowering driver, crash, injury and fatality rates statewide. Who better to address the challenges and dangers facing young adults than their peers? I'm confident these students can convince their peers to be safer, more conscientious drivers."
The GYAP program at
ABAC coordinates events such as impaired driving prevention programs, including DUI simulators and professional speakers. Programming often surrounds events such as National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, Safe Spring Break, graduation and summer orientation. Programs involve collaborations with the campus Greek community, student athletes, camps, police, health and wellness departments, and counseling services.
The grant runs through
Sept. 30, 2016.
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'YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS'
During the fall of 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun newspaper. A quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial -- the work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church.
His response has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, in other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
The message is as relevant today as it was 118 years ago.
Reprinted
below is the simple query to the newspaper, and the response for the ages:
DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
VIRGINIA O'HANLON
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET
--------------------------------
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to
watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.
Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart.
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
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