SOFTBALL _2018 DEKALB COUNTY_ http://www.dekalbschoolsga.org/athletics/softball/ $2.00 1 DEKALB COUNTY SOFTBALL GUIDE DEKALB COUNTY FACTS CONTENTS Address: 5829 Memorial Drive Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083 Fast-pitch softball history 2 Phone Number (678) 676-1821 2017 season in review 3 Location Northeast Atlanta Arabia Mountain 4 Number of High Schools Nineteen Cedar Grove 5 Chamblee 6 DIRECTORY Clarkston 7 Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green Columbia 8 Athletic Director James Jackson Druid Hills 9 Softball Coordinator Keith Sewell Dunwoody 10 Athletic Specialist Chris Chilton Athletic Specialist Mark Brock Lakeside 11 Lithonia 12 REGION ALIGNMENTS Martin Luther King Jr. 13 AAAAAAA-Region 7 Berkmar Meadowcreek McNair 14 Brookwood Norcross Miller Grove 15 Central Gwinnett Parkview Redan 16 Lakeside Southwest DeKalb 17 AAAAAA-Region 7 Stephenson 18 Alpharetta Johns Creek Stone Mountain 19 Cambridge North Atlanta Towers 20 Centennial Northview Chattahoochee Pope Tucker 21 Dunwoody Final 2017 statistics 22 DeKalb County season leaders 23 AAAAAA-Region 4 DeKalb season records 26 Charles Drew Mt. Zion Jonesboro Forest Park Mundy’s Mill School records 27 Jonesboro Stephenson College scholarships 30 Lovejoy Tucker State tournament results 32 Martin Luther King Jr. 2017 All-Star Game Recap 36 AAAAA-Region 5 Arabia Mountain Cross Keys CHAMBLEE EARNS ALL-SPORTS REPEAT Chamblee Lithonia Clarkston Miller Grove Chamblee used another dominating performance during the spring season to pull Columbia Southwest DeKalb away from a tight race and repeat as DeKalb County All-Sports champion in 2017-18. AAAA-Region 4 A second consecutive state title in girls tennis served as the major highlight among Druid Hills Luella many, as the Bulldogs ranked among the local elite in almost every category while Eastside North Clayton winning the award for the second time in school history. Hampton Salem Chamblee also put together stellar state qualifying team efforts in boys cross country, Henry County Woodward Academy girls cross country, volleyball, softball, baseball, boys soccer, girls soccer and boys AAA-Region 5 tennis. Cedar Grove Stone Mountain Lovett Towers Final All-Sports Trophy Point totals: Pace Academy Westminster Redan 1) Chamblee 310.5 AA-Region 6 2) Lakeside 285.5 Drew Charter South Atlanta 3) Arabia Mountain 283.5 Douglass Therrell 4) Tucker 269.5 Kipp Academy Washington McNair 5) Stephenson 262.5 6) Southwest DeKalb 257.5 CAREER COACHING WINS 7) Dunwoody 254.0 8) Druid Hills 241.0 DeKalb softball coaches with 100 wins 9) Cedar Grove 180.0 10) Miller Grove 178.0 *Kerry Brown, Dunwooody 226-189 11) Towers 173.0 *Bernice Foreman, Southwest DeKalb 206-133 12) Redan 171.0 Pat Floyd, Tucker 183-79 13) Clarkston 152.5 Steve Dennis, Columbia 177-172 14) Stone Mountain 151.5 Cheryl Finke, Dunwoody 120-23 15) Martin Luther King Jr. 146.0 *Eric Hoxie, Arabia Mountain 120-64 Duane Wilson, Lakeside 113-82 16) Lithonia 138.0 Marco Jackson, Stephenson 104-72 17) Columbia 134.5 Sean Brinkley, Redan, Dunwoody 102-74 18) Cross Keys 94.0 Lynn Maddox, Dunwoody 101-15 19) McNair 84.0 2 VOLLEYBALL HISTORY DeKalb County served as one of the main forerunners in the introduction of fastpitch softball as a sanctioned sport on the high school level. While the slowpitch version of the game has held state championships since 1981, fastpitch softball did not make its inau- gural appearance until the fall of 1993. Local schools dominated the field in that first season, as 18 of the 21 teams hailed from DeKalb County. Marist, Berkmar and Meadowcreek were the remaining three entrants. Dunwoody put together an impressive run as the initial powerhouse in the sport, finishing either first or second in the state in each of the first four years. Co -coaches Lynn Maddox and Cheryl Finke guided the Lady Wildcats to a super 101 -15 record during that stretch. Dun- woody won at least 17 games every year from 1993 -98. The initial 1993 campaign featured a memorable battle between Dunwoody and Meadowcreek for what was then listed as the Metro Championships. Dunwoody opened that tournament in dominating fashion, posting three straight shutout triumphs over Lithonia (9 -0), Redan (6 -0) and Berkmar (5 -0) to advance to the championship round. Matched up against Meadowcreek in best -of -three series, the Lady Wildcats fought to the very end before coming up just short in their pursuit of the first and only metro crown. Dunwoody actually gained the early advantage by pulling out a 2 -1 nailbiter in the first game of the showdown. Mead- owcreek, however, bounced back to sweep the last two contests by the narrow respective margins of 12 -9 and 2 -1. The Lady Wildcats used that heart -breaking defeat as inspiration in what would prove to be the first of their two state cham- pionship runs in 1994. After posting a super 22 -3 record in the regular season, Dunwoody rolled past Lassiter (3 -1), Tucker (13 -2), Brookwood (3 - 0) and Brookwood (7 -3) again in a perfect 4 -0 state march. Overpowering sophomore southpaw Adrienne Fortmann capped a stellar 15 -2 season on the mound, striking out six and allowing only two hits in picking up the pitching victory. Junior shortstop Sabrina Touchberry (3 -4, 2 RS), sophomore centerfielder Amy Thompson (2 -4) and junior third baseman Megan Galhouse (2 -4), meanwhile, shined brightest offensively for the Lady Wildcats. Other key players for Dunwoody included junior catcher Nancy Diamond , sophomore pitcher -second baseman Ashley Fawcett , junior leftfielder Shana Vidal , freshman first baseman Melissa Chastney and freshman rightfielder Jessica Tucker . Coach Pat Floyd and the Tucker Lady Tigers nearly joined Dunwoody in the championship round, dropping a 9 -3 heart - breaker in 11 innings to Meadowcreek in the semifinals. Freshman pitcher Jill Wilkinson (20 -5), senior shortstop Krissy Streid and junior outfielder Teresa Eubanks led the charge for a Tucker squad that went 3 -2 at state and finished 24 -5 overall. Redan also qualified for state in 1994, dropping two straight tough decisions to Brookwood (2 -1) and Meadowcreek (2 -0). Senior southpaw Mandy Smart was brilliant on the mound in defeat for the Lady Raiders. Dunwoody nearly earned a second straight state championship in 1995, settling for runnerup honors after a stunning loss to Douglas County in the championship round. The Lady Wildcats whipped Berkmar (9 -1), Brookwood (7 -3) and Parkview (8 -1) to advance to the final, before dropping two consecutive decisions of 3 -0 and 8 -2 to Douglas County in finishing 29 -5 overall. A brilliant group of seniors, though, made up for that disappointment by climbing to the top of the state field for the second time in three years at the 1996 AAAA tournament. Maddox was able to retire from the coaching ranks in style, as Dunwoody won three straight one -run decisions over Lassit- er (2 -1), Shaw (1 -0) and Berkmar (3 -2) and then easily rolled past Lassiter (6 -0) again in the championship contest in wrapping up a memorable 27 -4 season. Fortmann struck out three and allowed only one hit in the final blitzing of Lassiter, while Thompson, Tucker and freshman shortstop Nikki Reed paced a balanced offens that received key contributions from several individuals. Chamblee also earned a state berth on the AAA level in 1996, losing consecutive tough decisions to Columbus (5 -4) and Douglas County (6 -0) while getting eliminated in two games and finishing 19 -10 overall for the season. Tucker next ended a four -year dry spell for DeKalb County schools by advancing to the state Class AAAA tournament in 2001. The Lady Tigers posted a 1 -2 record at that battle on the way to finishing 31 -4 overall. Super junior pitcher Christy Wahl established a new county strikeout record of 445 in leading a stellar campaign. Martin Luther King Jr. garnered the next state berth for DeKalb County schools while advancing to the AAA tournament in 2004. Coach Paris Burd ’s Lions went 1 -2 there and finished 24 -10 overall. The 2017 season offered the biggest highlight in many years, as four DeKalb County squads advanced to the second round of the state tournament for the first time in county history. Region 5 -AAAAA led the way with three teams moving on, as league champion Arabia Mountain, No. 2 seed Chamblee and No. 3 entrant Miller Grove advanced and Dunwoody impressed in a first round sweep as well. Both Arabia Mountain (23) and Chamblee (22) established school records for single season victories in 2017 to add to the long list of impressive achievements on the local level. 3 2017 SOFTBALL IN REVIEW DeKalb County advanced a record four teams to the second round of the state tournament during a memorable 2017 fastpitch softball campaign. Arabia Mountain once again led the way as the lone region champion, while Dunwoody, Chamblee and Miller Grove also joined the Lady Rams as first round state survivors. Coach Eric Hoxie ’s Arabia Mountain team knocked off Southwest DeKalb (6 -0) and Chamblee (9 -1) on the way to claim- ing Region 5 -AAAAA tournament honors and securing a No. 1 seed and homefield advantage for the state Class AAAAA tourna- ment. The Lady Rams hosted Riverwood in the first round and rolled to a dominating doubleheader sweep, taking both ends of the showdown by the respective scores of 13 -1 and 13 -0. Arabia Mountain then drew Loganville for a home second round matchup and fought the Lady Red Devils to the very end before dropping a twinbill on the opening day by the final margins of 6 -5 and 4 -0. The Lady Rams established a new school record for single season victories for the second straight year, finishing with the stellar mark of 23 -6 to go along with a perfect 6 -0 slate in snaring regular season Region 5 -AAAAA honors.