The Lady Chargers gained their sixth victory of the season Wednesday night, beating the East Georgia State Lady Bobcats 83-42 at The Corral in Rome, GA. It was the Lady Chargers’ first home game of the season.

Coach Brandan Harrell described the first half as slow for the Lady Chargers. The team needed a player to step up and Jada Alston took on that challenge in a big way in the second half. 

The Lady Chargers started the second half with a 31-20 lead. Turnovers plagued the Lady Chargers in the first half so they couldn’t quite put the game out of reach yet. 

The Lady Bobcats were able to cut the lead down to single digits in the third quarter and that’s when Alston decided she needed to take over the game. 

“We started the first half slow and that’s not normal for us so we had to tighten up in the second half,” said Alston in a post-game interview.

Over the course of the next two and a half minutes, the Lady Chargers would pull away from the Lady Bobcats and expand their lead to 20 points.

Alston was responsible for scoring four of the points during the run that put the Lady Chargers up for good.

Alston had an electric end to the game, scoring eight straight points late in the fourth quarter.  

When the final buzzer sounded, Alston found herself almost averaging a double-double, with 17 points and nine rebounds in the contest. 

“It feels good to get this one out of the way,” Harrell said about the team winning their first home game, “We’re a third of the way through the season now and we just have to keep the ball rolling.”

The Chargers men’s basketball team began their season with a win over the Chattahoochee Valley Community College Pirates at The Corral.

Jayvis Harvey was a surprise lineup choice for head coach JJ Merritt and proved to be a key to the Chargers victory.

After the game, Merritt said that Harvey performed “big time. He imposed his will . . . he does everything as far as going to the glass. I even had him at point guard to show off his skills there.”

After the loss of Langston Wilson, who transferred to the Washington Huskies, Merritt had to look for options to replace him in the offseason. Harvey looked to be the go-to guy for the Chargers going forward.

Harvey started hot, scoring 11 points in the first half, shooting five-for-eight and grabbing six rebounds.

“I think that just crashing every time that I seen them shoot,” said Harvey, “Like coach said, my shot wasn’t falling so I had to impact the game in a different way.”

For the first ten minutes of the game, the two teams battled back-and-forth, going shot for shot with each other, neither team building up a big lead.

The Chargers then took over, scoring the game’s next 12 points, finally separating themselves from the Pirates.

At halftime, the Chargers found themselves with a 35-24 lead.

The Pirates would not go down easy, as they tried to mount a comeback multiple times, at one point bringing the Chargers lead down to 8.

The Chargers needed a player to step up so that they could put the game away and secure the victory, so Merritt put his starting lineup back in.

The Chargers were able to hold off the Pirates for the rest of the game. When the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 81-71 in favor of the Chargers.

“It’s always good to start our season out with a win,” said Merritt, “We don’t want to start the season on a negative outcome.”

Harvey was critical of himself after the game, saying that while this was a good start, he would rate his performance as a C minus.“I could’ve played better but we came out and got the win,” said Harvey.

Chargers basketball head coach JJ Merritt has always been a lover of basketball, so much that he decided to make a career out of it.

“Just growing up around athletics all the time, I saw the impact that those guys had on my life and all I do is try to visualize and go back to those moments where they really just stood out,” Merritt said.

Merritt started his collegiate career in 1994 at Shorter University, where he would go on to play for four years for the Hawks.

In those four years, Merritt had built up some accolades, including, All-Freshman First Team, three-time All-Conference Team, and a three-time NAIA All-American.

He was also about to become the all-time leading scorer for the Hawks with 2,146 points.

Other records include most field goals made, with 944, and most free throws, with 929.

Overall, Merritt averaged 17.6 points per game and scored in double figures in 106 of his 122 games.

With his collegiate career over, Merritt said he didn’t know what he would do, so he decided to experiment in different areas.

“I dabbled in a lot of different walks of life and really didn’t know what I wanted to do,” said Merritt. “I stayed in corporate America for 12 or 13 years and that took me into working with the Atlanta Dream and Atlanta Hawks.”

It was there that Merritt said he decided to go all in on coaching basketball.

“Sitting in some of the coaches meetings with coach Vetters when she was a coach for the Dream made me realize that maybe this is what I was supposed to be doing, but I didn’t like it at that level so that prompted me to start at prep schools to help kids get into college and get a free education,” said Merritt.

Now that Merritt said he had found his calling in life, he co-founded the Action Sports Academy, a postgraduate school in Atlanta.

Merritt proved to be a success at Action Sports Academy, winning 83 of his 113 games over the course of three seasons.

On top of the 86 wins, Merritt was able to coach 23 of his 28 players to scholarships from various levels of collegiate play.

“I just really thought that that was my calling in life. It took me a while to find it but once I jumped into it, I loved it,” said Merritt

While the success felt great, Merritt said he knew that he could transfer his success to the next level, so he waited for an opportunity to come calling.

Sure enough, Phil Gaffney, former Chargers head coach, reached out to Merritt about an opening that he had on his staff.

“One thing led to another and I was very blessed to come onto the staff with Phil Gaffney,” said Merritt.

Merritt would get the assistant head coaching job, where he and Gaffney would go on to lead the Chargers to two NJCAA Final Four’s and an appearance in the NJCAA Sweet Sixteen.

In 2019, Gaffney took a head coaching position at Gulf Coast and suddenly Merritt found himself as the new face of the Chargers basketball program.

In his first two seasons as head coach, Merritt has a record of 40-11.

While Merritt has proven to us that he can be a successful coach, he sometimes reflects on how he got in his position to grow as a coach, even if that means just a conversation with the people from his past.

“I’m still learning stuff on a daily basis,” said Merritt, “I still call coach Gaffney from time to time. Just really people that I respect and look up to in this business. I remember one game I was so mad that I called coach Gaffney and just asked him to break it down for me and tell me what I did wrong.”

Merritt’s drive to be better is one that he says comes from his competitiveness.

“I am really competitive so if I go after something, I’m going to get it,” said Merritt.

While that competitiveness can lead to success, Merritt said that he had to learn how to control it in order to see himself grow as a coach.

“Now I know the right path to channel my anger and my energy instead of putting it towards things that were just not worth it,” said Merritt.

Merritt said he has no problem giving credit to those who have helped him get to where he is today.

“I think being around the right people to help make me successful.” said Merritt, “because ultimately you’re never all the way prepared but if you’re willing to learn and willing to listen and get better, then you can make it happen.”

O’Mariyah Tucker joined the Lady Chargers in 2019 and she has made a name for herself, starting in 43 of her 56 games since her arrival.

Turner made a name for herself at McEachern high school in Powder Springs, GA, where she quickly moved up the ranks in her recruiting class.

At the end of the 2019 season, Tucker had become the fifth-ranked player in her recruiting class in the state of Georgia, eventually committing to the Lady Chargers.

The place that her presence can be felt the best is in the paint, where she averaged 7.1 rebounds per game last season.

Tucker says that the key to winning for her is by playing hard.

“Hustling and going hard every play. Play through the whistle. You’re not going to be more tired taking that one extra step so do it,” Tucker said.

Her second year on the Lady Chargers proved to be one where she had to assert herself into one of the key leader roles for the team, something that she says is an honor.

“It feels good to have players looking up to me and the coaches looking at me differently than other players. Take it head on because if I fall behind the team does,” Tucker said.

The Lady Chargers found themselves in the GCAA Championship Game against the South Georgia Technical College Jets, where Tucker said that she had to step up and be a leader for the team.

“In the GCAA championship game, I had to lead the team on the court at times because I was on the court the whole game,” said Tucker.

The Lady Chargers would end up losing the game in overtime, but they are trying to bounce back this season.

The team has now gotten used to offseason practices, something that they weren’t able to do much of before last season due to COVID-19 protocols. Tucker said this has impacted the conditioning this offseason.

“Starting slower and a lot of us are out of shape so there has been a lot of conditioning,” Tucker said.

Tucker says that the biggest strength to the team this season is their speed.

“Ability to run the floor because we’re quick and have a lot of speed,” said Tucker, “Transition points should help us get wins.”

This season, Tucker will try to continue her college career by trying to obtain a scholarship to a four year college.

“I feel like I should be at a big college by now, but hopefully I can bring a championship to Georgia Highlands. Staying here for the extra year is going to work out in the end,” said Tucker.

Tucker said the biggest thing that she keeps in mind about being a leader is the mental part of it.

“Keep an open mind and don’t be scared to make a mistake. If they make a mistake, correct them that way they know what to do,” Tucker said.

For the first time in 26 years, the Braves are World Series champions.

When Sports Illustrated released their 2021 season predictions, they had the Braves finishing 92-70, winning the NL East and having the third-best record in the National League.

Although, their path to the championship was much more complicated than that.

It was a crazy year for the Braves to say the least, but some moves at the trade deadline proved to be what they needed to secure their first World Series win since 1995.

First up is Eddie Rosario, who made a name for himself this postseason by winning the NLCS MVP and hitting a walk-off single in game two of that series. He also led the Braves in batting average with .383.

Second is Joc Pederson, who was tied for the second-most home runs by a Braves player this postseason with three, trailing only Freddie Freeman. He also provided an offensive spark in game two of the NLCS when he hit a crucial home run.

Last is Jorge Soler, who finished the postseason fifth on the Braves in batting average. Soler showed out in the World Series, hitting three home runs and driving in six runs, which was good enough to earn him the World Series MVP.

These players were ready to be traded by their former teams, so Snitker was able to get a good price on all three of them just before the trade deadline.

The Braves started the season trying to find their footing. At the All-Star break they found themselves under a .500 win percentage with fans still trying to see how well this team could really go.

On top of that, Marcell Ozuna, was arrested and would be out for the remainder of the year. Ozuna was a crucial part of last year’s team, almost going to the World Series before squandering a 3-1 series lead to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

With what looked like a disappointing start to the season, just before the All-Star Break, a gruesome injury occurred to the biggest name on the team: Ronald Acuña Jr. The former NL Rookie of the Year tore his ACL. 

The Braves suffered another major blow last season when they lost pitcher Mike Soroka. The Braves were excited to see him make a comeback, but he wouldn’t return to the mound this season, retearing his ACL on July 26.

Despite this, the Braves had the sixth-best pitching rotation in the MLB when the season began, according to Anthony Castovince at MLB.com. The team had advanced all the way to the NLCS without Soroka last season.

At this point, fans would start to wonder if the team was good enough to win the NL East. The Braves came out of the trade deadline winning 17 of their next 20 games and suddenly found themselves in a spot to make the playoffs.

On Sept. 30, four days before the regular season ended, the Braves clinched the NL East, earning them a playoff spot.

When the playoffs began, the Braves opened with the worst betting line at FOX Bet, meaning they had the lowest odds of any playoff team to win the World Series.

The Braves NLDS matchup against the Brewers left many analysts wondering if they would even advance past them, with 39 of 115 analysts that predicted the series choosing the Brewers to advance to the NLCS.

Against all odds, the Braves were able to beat the Brewers, winning the series 3-1.

The Braves would again meet the Dodgers in the NLCS, this time ready to pull out a series win. 

The Braves suddenly found themselves up 3-1 on the Dodgers, but held their breath as they squandered a 3-1 lead last year against the same team.

The Dodgers won game five, and many Braves fans started to worry that they would blow this lead again.

The Braves pitching staff wouldn’t let that happen, as they only allowed two runs in game six, securing the Braves’ spot in the World Series.

The Braves would meet the Houston Astros in the World Series, a team that was making its third appearance in five years.

The Braves were picked to lose the series by a panel of MLB experts at ESPN, with only three of the 15 experts picking the Braves to win.

Four games in and the Braves found themselves in familiar territory: a 3-1 series lead.

Again, the Braves would lose game five, needing one more win to secure the World Series victory. 

The final two games would be in Houston, so they would be in hostile territory, but the Braves would bring their bats with them and showed out in a big way.

The Braves dominated game six with great pitching and hitting, finding themselves the victors 7-0, securing their status as World Series champions.

The 2021 season was one to remember for the Lady Chargers.

They were just shy of winning the GCAA championship, but were still able to secure a spot in the NJCAA national tournament by impressing the selection committee. 

The Lady Chargers would win their first game in the NJCAA tournament before falling in the second round to South Plains, the fourth overall seed in the tournament.

Usually, new faces would come in to replace some of the talent lost, but the Lady Chargers are returning six of their biggest contributors from last season.

The Lady Chargers come into the season ranked twelfth in the NJCAA national poll.

Roster

#1 Jamariah Turner

#3 Sandra Lin

#4 Jashanti Simmons

#5 Naz Oget

#10 O’Mariyah Tucker

#11 Jada Alston

#14 Rita Kun

#15 Sasha Shishnika

#24 Crystal Corley

#32 Jenee Edwards

Head Coach: Brandan Harrell

Asst. Coach: Consuelo “NaeNae” Sexton

Asst. Coach: Eric Burkhalter

Biggest Advantage

This team is full of veterans, so it is easy to say that the team’s biggest strength is veteran leadership. 

The returning lineup of Sandra Lin, Jashanti Simmons, Sasha Shishkina, O’Maryiah Tucker and Jada Alston should be enough for the Lady Chargers to make a run for the NJCAA national tournament again this season.

Biggest Weakness

The biggest weakness of this team is the same as it was last season: size.

The Lady Chargers have players throughout their lineup that can rebound well, but there isn’t someone that could provide a good height advantage for them.

They made it work last season, so maybe they can put together enough rebounds this season to get further in the tournament.

Biggest Question

Can the Lady Chargers finally get past the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets? 

The past three seasons, the Lady Chargers have been in the GCAA Championship Game, but every time they have lost to their rival, the Lady Jets.

It isn’t a one-sided affair either, with the Lady Chargers taking the Lady Jets to overtime last season in their championship matchup.

All roads are again leading to a repeat of the matchup again in the GCAA Championship Game according to the preseason NJCAA national poll, which has the two teams highly ranked.

If the Lady Chargers can find a way to get over that challenge, it could serve as a huge confidence booster for everyone involved in the program.

JJ Merritt enters his third season at the helm of the Chargers basketball program, with impressive results in his first two seasons.

He has compiled a 40-11 record, including a 16-3 record during the shortened season earlier this year.

Last season, the Chargers were able to win the regular season GCAA title, clinching the top seed in the annual tournament.

The Chargers had high expectations for the tournament, but shockingly, they lost to the East Georgia State Bobcats in the quarterfinals.

The NJCAA predicts that the Chargers should have a good season, having ranked number 23 in their preseason poll.

Roster

#0 Jarred Rosser
#1 TJ Porter
#2 Jarrel Rosser
#3 Chris Wright
#4 Joel Pullen
#5 Bradley Belt
#10 CJ Jackson
#12 Brandon Barron
#13 Julian Dozier Jr.
#15 TJ Horton
#20 Kyree Hairston-Mitchell
#21 Ubong Ukon
#22 Justyn Smith
#23 Mamadou Diop
#24 Jayvis Harvey
#30 Jordan Brown

Head Coach: JJ Merritt
Associate Head Coach: Greg Schiefen
Asst. Coach: John Williams
Asst. Coach: Julian Reinhart
Asst. Coach: Reymond Savage

Biggest Advantage

It isn’t hard to find out that this team’s strength is their chemistry.

Bringing back an entire starting lineup of players that made a big impact on the team last season, the Chargers will have plenty of experience to go around.

In all, eight players are returning to the roster from last year’s team and will play a huge part in how this team does this season.

Biggest Weakness

Perhaps the biggest weakness on this team is the lack of a proven big man, aside from Jarred Rosser.

Merritt brought in two big men during the offseason that could be tall enough to play center, Ubong Okon and Mamadou Diop.

Okon saw three games in his only season at Chipola College last season and Diop has had zero college experience.

This will make the Chargers rely on playing what seems to be a small ball lineup, but the Chargers could use it to their advantage by spacing the floor out.

Biggest Question

How do the Chargers replace the likes of Cahiem Brown, Langston Wilson, and Keandre Bowles? Well, the question is easier to answer than it seems.

Wilson, who came into last season ranked as the second best player in JUCO, only started 3 games for the Chargers last season and played limited minutes when he was on the court.

Brown dealt with an injury midseason that restricted him to only playing 13 games.

Bowles played in 15 games for the Chargers, starting only three of them while mainly coming off of the bench.

It is safe to say that Merritt began the tall task of moving past the trio last season, finding production in players that he saw as the next stars for the Chargers.

There have been plenty of leaders come and go for the Georgia Highlands basketball program, and every year offers new opportunities for players to step into leadership roles for the teams.

This season, the Lady Chargers are returning a large part of last year’s team, with six of the ten players returning for another year.

One of those players that stick out is Sandra Lin, who enters their third season with the team.

Lin says that she has played an impact both on the court and off the court for her.

“I get more use to how teams work and how schools work so it’s more comfortable for me,” said Lin.

Lin came to Georgia Highlands in 2019 from Taiwan to further her basketball career. The 5’4” point guard plays in a way that the position has traditionally been played: a facilitator.

Last season, Lin played more of a leadership role with the team on the court, with the biggest things that she told her team during games revolved around their transition offense.

“We play transition a lot more than other teams,” said Lin, “so I so I had to let them know where they needed to run so we can connect with each other.”

Lin is excited to be a leader for the team, but she says that she has stepped up when needed.

“When I first came here, I didn’t think that I could handle a leadership role,” said Lin, “but I just kept learning from other teammates and coaches around me. I feel like I can lead better when I can pull everybody together.”

Her presence can be felt on nearly every offensive possession, with her best ability being that she is able to find an open teammate that leads to a basket for the Lady Chargers, averaging 6.8 assists per game last season.

With only three new faces on the team, Lin thinks that the team still needs to work on their chemistry on court, saying “I feel like we are still building chemistry with each other and that’s a key on how we can stay competitive.”

This season may be a new one for the Lady Chargers, but Lin says that the key to keep winning is to “play hard at every game and every practice.”

With this being her last season with the Lady Chargers, Lin comes into the season knowing that she will have to impress scouts in order to advance her college basketball career.
“This is my last chance to go to a four-year college so I need to be my best on the court.”

While Lin is still learning to be a leader, she says that she isn’t exempt from criticism herself.

“Last season, we got a lot of opportunities to score and got in position, but we really didn’t take the best shot, so going forward I need to do a better job of slowing down and organizing our players to where we can score more,” said Lin.

Women’s head coach Brandan Harrell praised Lin on her leadership with the team during the offseason on his appearance on the Post Buzzer podcast on Oct. 13, saying “I think our most consistent player is the person who is always our most consistent player and that’s our point guard, Sandra Lin.”

“She’s the one where when she comes out of the game, other players we can sub in and out that are great players but you don’t see the team drop like they do when Sandra comes out”, said Harrell.
Harrell thinks that there is still room for growth with Lin though.

“We’ve seen her take shots in some of the preseason games already that she has to take this year to stay competitive,” said Harrell.

Men’s basketball head coach JJ Merritt also spoke highly of Lin on the podcast, saying that she was an “unbelievable player.”

Leading a basketball team is not something that is easy to do, but it seems like Lin could have what it takes to take the Lady Chargers back to the NJCAA national tournament.

Dave Chappelle’s newest special, “The Closer,” has sparked controversy because it is misunderstood. While some people think that it is antagonizing to the LGBTQ community, it is actually a valuable critique of problems that he sees within the community.

His last project with Netflix, Chapelle’s driving point is that the LGBTQ community is not free from criticism. He tells the audience how he feels from the viewpoint of a racial minority.

Chappelle says in the special that he isn’t transphobic and that he wants to see trans people have more rights, even calling North Carolina’s controversial 2016 transgender bathroom bill “horrible.”

Chappelle says that the LGBTQ community has had an easier path to get their rights compared to African Americans. He says that because the movement includes white people that they have been looked upon more favorably.

That doesn’t mean that LGBTQ people don’t have struggles in their daily lives or as a community, but Chappelle uses his personal experiences to show that their struggles are not equal to those of black people.

Chappelle talks about an incident where a white person filmed him and his wife at a bar without their consent. He said that he tried to get the person to stop filming by using strong language. 

He realized the person was gay and said that the person called the police on him in response to the confrontation. Chappelle says that this is a problem that the LGBTQ community should work on.

“Gay people are minorities until they need to be white again,” said Chappelle, “A black gay person would not have never done that to me because a black gay person knows when the police show up, they’re not gonna care who called them.”

Chappelle’s critique is that the LGBTQ community can be reactionary and doesn’t always take into consideration the struggles of other minority communities. 

He points out that even those with a minority status can be blind to the struggles of other minority groups.

Chappelle has been criticized before for making misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic comments in the past, but he is speaking from lived experiences that can’t be discounted.

Chappelle makes the example of rapper DaBaby, who in 2018 shot and killed a man in Walmart with little repercussion to his career. Fast forward to 2021, and members of the LGBTQ community have boycotted DaBaby after he made homophobic remarks.

“You can kill a [expletive], but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings,” said Chappelle

Chappelle makes an important point about how voices from the LGBTQ community are sometimes treated with more credibility and weight than might be expected from a minority group.

The special ends with Chappelle talking about the story of Daphne Dorman, a friend of his that was a transgender comedian. Dorman committed suicide shortly after the release of Chappelle’s fifth Netflix stand up special, “Sticks and Stones.” 

The special was accused of being transphobic by people on Twitter. Dorman came to Chappelle’s defense, where she faced backlash from the LGBTQ community.

Chappelle explains that he doesn’t know what was going on with Dorman’s life personally, but that he credits in part the backlash she received for trying to defend him.

This shows the power that the LGBTQ community has when it comes to canceling people online and the dangers it can pose.

Chappelle pleads with the LGBTQ community to stop canceling comedians and celebrities.

Chappelle says that he is done making jokes about the LGBTQ community until he is sure that they are laughing with him and that he isn’t “punching down” on them, something that he has been accused of doing to the LGBTQ community in the past.

“All I ask from your community, with all humility, will you please stop punching down on my people,” said Chappelle.

Chappelle said that this will be his last show for a while. He said that he could face being canceled, so he needed to be precise on why he felt the way he did towards the LGBTQ community.

Chappelle’s perspective is not one that is often represented in popular media, so it is important for a broad audience, including the LGBTQ community, to consider it. 

No minority group is beyond criticism.

The men’s basketball team find themselves in a predicament: filling the void on the team left by the departure of their three biggest leaders from last season — Langston Wilson, Cahiem Brown and Keandre Bowles.

Two of the players that will be put in those leadership roles are Jarred and Jarrel Rosser, who have the unique experience of being twin brothers and teammates.

“We have a better connection because we are brothers. We know where each other are on the court and I think us playing together makes our team better,” said Jarred.

Jarrel said that while he and his brother are close, that doesn’t stop them from being close to their other teammates as well.

“We are connected with a lot of other players like Kyree, TJ, Chris and the other returning players,” said Jarrel.

The Rosser Brothers joined the Chargers last season, and both appeared impressive in the minutes that they did play. Jarred started in 14 of the Chargers 19 games last season, while his brother started in 17.

It didn’t take long for either brother to show Head Coach, Jonathan Merritt, what kind of skill set they had.

“Jarred plays harder than almost any kid I’ve coached. He has a motor that sometimes runs out quick, but he can turn it back on easily,” Merritt said.

As for his brother, Merritt likes his versatility, saying that Jarrel, “has flexibility, he has the ability to do multiple things at his size in the post and perimeter.”

Both will be given the task of being leaders for the incoming freshman coming into the program, both on and off the court — something Merritt thinks they are ready for.

“Their growth has been just in the acceptance of trying to learn to be great leaders. Not everyone learns the same way. Some guys, you gotta get the point across. Knowing their teammates better and wanting to learn that body language and not being so down on themselves,” Merritt said.

The duo play a significant amount in the paint, but Jarrel has expanded his game, according to his brother, to have an efficient mid-range shot.

Merritt spoke on the importance of them being leaders for the team this season and how the team can help them out, saying, “It is important for them to step up and be leaders, but we need all 15 of the guys to eventually be a leader, and that’s the most important part. At the end of the day, we need everybody doing their part to be successful.”

While being a leader on the court is something that is crucial, the duo also realizes that being a leader starts even before the tip-off.

“You can’t just be a leader on the court. You have to be a leader in the locker room and in life as well,” said Jarrel.

“Our biggest challenge is coming together to achieve one goal: to win and get everybody to a college,” Jarrel said.

The task of replacing the trio of Wilson, Cahiem, and Bowles will be a tough one, but one that Jarred shouldn’t have a problem with.

“Basically, we just need to stay on the same mission as last year and stick to the same goals. We lost those three, but we also got a lot [of] players in this year that have that same grind,” Jarred said.

Jarrel said he thinks that the start of filling those shoes is to “do something they didn’t do and win the conference. Finish where they left off.”