Sports

ABAC players mull future

• Signees and returning Southwest Georgia basketball players at Abraham Baldwin College weigh their options after the school drops its men and women’s programs.

Scott Chancey

TIFTON — Former Westover High School star Perry Nelson said chances are “slim to none” he will return as a sophomore to Abraham Baldwin College, which dropped its basketball programs.

Worth County’s Arthur Blackmon was more definite.

“I won’t be attending ABAC, I know that,” said Blackmon, who signed with the Stallions earlier this year.

Seven other area players are in the same situation after the school officially announced Tuesday it was dropping it’s men’s and women’s hoops programs due to financial reasons and the fact that neither program currently had a coach. Todd Sheppard left the men’s team to switch professions and women’s coach Julie Conner left to become Tift County High School’s girls coach.

“Travel, lodging, food, all these costs are going up dramatically,” school president David Bridges said in a statement. “Right now, I’m looking at energy costs alone that could be 50 percent higher on this campus at this time next year.”

ABAC also has been affected by the recent statewide five-percent budget reduction, which could carve nearly $900,000 out of the 2008-09 budget.

There are 22 vacant positions frozen, including 13 in the academic field.

Primary duties of the two basketball coaching positions involved teaching in the Division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

Nelson and Blackmon have company in their search for other places to play — Westover’s Rahaem James and Randolph-Clay’s Brian Thornton, Albany’s Ricky Coleman, Bainbridge’s Chris Watson, Randolph Southern’s Michael Gunsolus, Colquitt County’s James Trimble and Tift County’s Jonas Brown.

At this point of the year, when many college’s application deadlines for the fall semester or quarters have likely passed, the process of finding another team could be easier said than done.

“It puts a lot of pressure on me, such as getting into another school,” Nelson said.

Nelson added he is looking into other community colleges such as Iowa Western and Central Florida, and Blackmon said he is interested in schools such as Okaloosa-Walton, Georgia Perimeter and Jacksonville.

“You’ve got to stay positive,” Blackmon said. “Some things don’t happen the way you want it to, and maybe it happens for a reason. You just take the blow and roll with it.”

Meanwhile, area college coaches like Darton’s Laura Blackwell and Albany Tech’s Sylvester Patterson are hoping to benefit from the situation.

Blackwell’s women’s team has three potential spots open, and Patterson’s men’s team has room for maybe one.

“I’m getting some girls that I was second choice to,” Blackwell said. “It’s not an influx, but several have called. We are certainly trying to work with them.”

Patterson’s team will officially be eligible to win participate in the Region XVII tournament this season.

“It can benefit us, but it’s so late in the offseason that rosters are usually set,” Patterson said.

More Sports>>