Dan Washburn’s Sporting Life

March 28, 2002 — Lacrosse is North America’s oldest sport. You would think, then, that most people would have heard of it by now.
That’s not the case in Northeast Georgia. Even though lacrosse was played religiously here by the Cherokee, Creek and Oconee Indian tribes hundreds of years ago (the town of Ball Ground, in [...]

February 7, 2002 — There was so much enthusiasm in the gym, I was surprised there was room for anything else. The Johnson High cheerleaders may be small, but their sound is decidedly big.
From the moment the Knights opened their collective mouth, they owned the room. They controlled everything inside of it. Including me.
Mighty blue [...]

January 24, 2002 — Clinton Howard stood up and screamed: “Ohhhhh! Ohhhhh! Ohhhhh!”
He pointed his finger outward repeatedly at nothing in particular. In several settings, such behavior would merit a trip to the mental ward. But not at a boys high school basketball game between East Hall and Gainesville.
No, at such a slugfest you’re considered [...]

“You gotta love it,” West Hall High head football coach Tim Marchman says of his job. “It’s just a way of life around here.” Coaching high school football is a year-round [...]

MACON, March 10, 2001 — Coach Seth Vining was smiling. And laughing. And jumping up and down.
His players were, too. Chanting and screaming, the team became one big mass of celebration in the [...]

November 14, 2000 — You can only run from reality for so long. And last week, I believe reality finally caught up with me.
It’s been nearly a decade [...]

August 8, 2000 — Good golfers generally aren’t good miniature golfers, somebody told me recently.
That person was wrong. And so was I, for assuming that the opposite also holds true: That awful [...]

March 28, 2000 — Wrestling is perhaps the most basic and intrinsic of sports. One on one. Man against man. Strength, cunning and endurance your only weapons.
There are not many sports [...]