The past couple of weeks have seen a real uptick in our spring athletic programs. Many state events have taken place with more to come. I am excited to extend my congratulations to the following All-State FA student-athletes.

All-State Golf

All-State Tennis

All-State Track

Congratulations to our golf team for taking 2nd in the State tournament this past week as well.

We begin another busy week starting with our baseball team in the first round of the GISA State playoffs against Pinewood in Bellville. This will be a doubleheader today at 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. It's a best of three series; therefore, if there is a third game it will be at Pinewood on Tuesday (tomorrow).

Our girls' and boys' soccer teams are at home today with the girl's match against Gatewood from Eatonton. Their match starts at 4:00 pm. To round out the night, the boys' team will take on The Cottage School from Roswell at 6:30 p.m. Both matches are in the first round of the GISA AAA State Soccer Tournament.

Our Tennis team is back at it, traveling to Macon for the GISA state tennis team matches next week. It will be an all-day event at The John Drew Tennis Center. The state tournament was originally scheduled for this week, but it has been moved due weather concerns.

Good luck to all of our teams and student-athletes this week in the GISA state playoff games and matches.

Go Knights!

Coach Carl Nash

FA Athletic Director

Frederica Academy is proud to announce that senior Cate Seymour has received the 2020-2021 Morris C. Johnson-GISA Coaches Association Academic-Athlete Award. The award is given annually to the best senior student-athletes in the GISA. It was re-named the Morris C. Johnson GISA Academic-Athlete Award in 2002 in recognition of the outstanding contributions Mr. Johnson made to the GISA during his tenure as Executive Director.

As a two-time All-State soccer player and the Salutatorian of the Class of 2021, Cate is very deserving of this prestigious award. She will attend Washington and Lee in the fall. At W&L, Cate will major in information technology/computer science and will walk on the women's soccer team.  

GISA AAA State Baseball Tournament

First Round Doubleheader @ Pinewood

Click here for bracket

Dismissal @ 12:00 PM

Depart @ 12:30 PM

Admission: $10 (Adults); $8 (Students)

GISA AAA Girls State Soccer Tournament

First Round

FA @ Home vs. Gatewood

Click here for bracket

Admission: $10 (Adults); $8 (Students)

GISA AAA Boys State Soccer Tournament

First Round

FA @ Home vs. The Cottage School

Click here for bracket

Admission: $10 (Adults); $8 (Students)

GISA AAA State Tennis Team Tournament

John Drew Smith Tennis Center

Macon

Click here for bracket

Second Round

(If FA beats Pinewood in First Round)

@ Winner of Creekside Christian vs. Southland

GISA AAA State Soccer Tournaments

Second Round

(If FA Girls and/or Boys win on Monday)

What a great week at the State meet! Frederica Academy was represented as Andrew Kaminer and TJ Jackson both ran great.

On Thursday, Andrew ran the 1600 in a PR and school-record time of 4:52 and placed 3rd in the state finals. TJ ran a very good race and was right in it right to the finish, just missing 2nd place by inches. He got 3rd in state with a PR time of 2:09 taking three seconds off his last race time.

The 3200 for the state title took place on Saturday and Andrew didn't disappoint anyone. He ran a very smart race, taking the lead at the 300-yard mark. He held off the 2nd place runner and won in a photo finish. He had a time of 10:39, which is a new PR and school record. With his victory, Andrew is now a GISA AAA State Champion!

Go Knights!

Coach Al Stasko

The GISA AAA State Individual Tennis Tournament was held at the John Drew Smith Tennis Center in Macon last Tuesday and Wednesday. FA team members that qualified to play in the tournament were: Region Girl's Singles Champion, Merrill Been; Region Boys Singles Champion, Adam Elsharkawi; Region Girls Doubles Champions, Bekah Brooks and Rebecca Tiller; Region Girls Singles Runner-Up, Kate Walbridge, Region Boys Doubles Runners-Ups, Andrew Kaminer and Jaxon Grotz; Region Boys Doubles Playoff Winners, David Weaver and John Alden Beimler; the doubles team of Greta Johnston and Ali Brown-Winans, and Dylan McHugh.

The GISA put together a very strong tournament, the FA players did a great job competing against the state's best players.

Bekah Brooks and Rebecca Tiller had Frederica's top result from the tournament finishing as AAA State Girls Doubles Runner-Ups with All-State Honors. It is the highest finish for a doubles team in Frederica history since the school moved to the AAA classification. Brooks and Tiller had an incredible tournament; their semi-final match against a tough Valwood team was one of their best. Unfortunately, their final match was against another really tough Valwood team that had won the past three State Doubles titles.

Merrill Been also had a great tournament finishing the tournament with All-State honors and a top-4 in the state position. Merrill won against her first two opponents, Megan Ryan of Notre Dame Academy and Emma Perry of the Westfield School before losing to Erin McGrath of Heritage in the Semi-Final. Singles Players Kate Walbridge, Adam Elsharkawi, and the doubles teams of Andrew Kaminer/Jaxon Grotz and Greta Johnston/Ali Brown-Winans all won their first matches and finished within the top 8 at State. Dylan McHugh and the doubles team of John Alden Beimler/David Weaver finished within the top 16.

It was truly an incredible tournament for our players. We had six of our eight players/teams win their first-round matches, but to end the tournament with 3 players with All-State Honors and a doubles team with a runner-up finish was a dream come true!

Coach Brian Wyrick

The Frederica Academy Varsity Golf team finished second in the state tournament at Brunswick Country Club shooting a 298 total. Brookwood won the event with a 290. Jack Boltja of Brookwood was the low medalist of the tournament with a 7 under 65 total. Jack Roberts, Roy Boyd, and Jackson Byrd all made the all-state team for Frederica. Individual FA scores were as follows:

Jack Roberts (70)

Roy Boyd (74)

Jackson Byrd (74)

Thomas Henderson (80)

Aarnav Nath (81)

Jack Roberts had a good day. He started on the back and birdied 12 and 13 to get two under quickly, but had a few bogeys and turned at even par. He then holed out for eagle on number one and followed it up with a birdie on two. A three-putt on 6 is the only stroke he gave back that side and it was good enough to finish in second place individually in the tournament. I had a feeling he was going to play well today, he has been trending upward lately and is hitting it well. He is an excellent putter too and has a ton of tournament experience so this stage was nothing new to him.  

Neither was it a big stage to Jackson Byrd, who had a terrible lie in the bunker at two and made double but got it back to two under by number 12 with the help of an eagle on the par 4 seventh on which he hit a 3 wood to 12 feet and made the eagle putt. He owns that hole, it seems like he drives that green every time. Jackson stumbled a bit coming in so it wasn't his day, but he was able to still make the All-State team, which he certainly deserves. He had a good season. Even when he plays poorly it is a good score for us. He and Jack have a great future ahead of them, they will be fun to watch.  

Roy Boyd had an excellent day too. He bogeyed the 4th, birdied 7, but then bogeyed 8 and 9 to turn at 38. He parred 10 and then had great back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12 to get it back to even. He had a couple of bogeys coming in, but it was good enough to earn all-state honors and cap off a good day. Roy has hung tough this year. He's been having to fight to earn spots in the lineup with this very deep team and he has come through strong and shot a lot of good scores for us from the 4 and 5 positions.  

Thomas Henderson and Aarnav Nath struggled a bit today. Aarnav got off to a bad start with a big number on 12 after a bad lie in the bunker, but he played pretty well after that. And Thomas had it going pretty well through 13 at only one over, but the putter was cold for him and he got some tough breaks coming home. Both he and Aarnav are great golfers, with big accomplishments this year. They just had a tough day, which is pretty common in golf. They will bounce back.

Thomas Henderson (82-73=155)

Jackson Byrd (74-81=155)

Jack Roberts (82-81=163)

Roy Boyd (82-82=164)

Coach's Comments: This is a fantastic event, one of the best high school golf tournaments in the country as far as talent level goes. We had to apply for the invitation and only the top teams are accepted, so just being in the field is an honor. The course is very difficult, the toughest course we played all season, with the holes very tight and the greens extremely fast. None of our players had ever played the course before and there are no practice rounds allowed, so it was tough for us just getting used to the course and the conditions. Jackson Byrd had a good round the first day, taking advantage of 5 birdies on his way to a 74. He did well to overcome an early triple bogey on the third hole to get it back to even before dropping a few strokes coming in. Unfortunately, the rest of the team couldn't give him much help, we were all struggling early and had a good day on the backside to keep things from getting out of hand. 

On the second day, Thomas Henderson was the leader with a very solid round, playing even-par golf for most of the day and avoiding the big numbers. It was a great showing in his last round for his high school career. I enjoyed getting to know him and watching him play. He has a great game and will likely have a strong college golf career. As on the first day, we just couldn't get another low score to move up the team leaderboard. We just had too many big numbers.  

Monday 4/26 vs. FPCA (Away)

Won 5-2

This was a great Region win at a difficult place to play. The field is not suited to our playing style and it is a tough environment to have a high motivation level.

Goals:

Eli Fritchman - 1

David Garcia - 2

Jacob Leonard - 1

Jacob O’Connor - 1

Tuesday 4/27 vs. St Andrews (Home)

Won 3-2

We had another good performance by the team and a great win for the boys. St. Andrews was previously undefeated and ranked 3rd in GISA. Our guys not only played well but controlled big stretches of the match. It is a good way for us to enter the playoffs and should give us confidence that we can beat anyone in the playoffs.

Goals:

Jacob O’Connor - 2

Eli Fritchman - 1

Go Knights!

Coach Tim O'Sullivan

4/24) W 2-0 @ St. Andrews

(4/26) T 1-1 @ Hilton Head Christian Academy

Comments:

I thought the girls competed very well and implemented our style of play in both matches. Overall, we are on an upward trajectory and hope we continue our good form into the first round of playoffs today at home versus Gatewood. Kickoff will be at 4:00 p.m., please come out and support!

Go Knights!

Coach Gabe Gabriel

Last Tuesday proved to be a special day for the Knights as they wrapped up their Middle School Golf season in style, and can now call themselves champions. With 9 teams and 91 players, it wasn’t going to come easy.

I don’t think they expected us to win, and so we had a brief meeting before they teed off and I told them, "Let’s go out and send a message.” It seemed to work because Jayden Roberts, Robert Stephens, and Thomas Sams all put up scores in the 30s on the par 37 front 9 at Savannah Golf Club. We were the only team to do that, and It was enough to win by one stroke over Hancock Day School. Frederica’s 162 was enough to win by that narrow margin. Coastal Homeschool came in third with a 169.

Frederica was led by Robert Stephens and Thomas Sams' low scores of the season at 38 and 39 respectively, and what a day to save their best for last. Both boys struck the ball so well throughout the day. Their rounds seemed stress-free. Thomas' round included a nice eagle on the par 5 first hole. Robert came on this season helping the team in many matches. Jayden Roberts birdied the par 5 first hole, but couldn’t get his round jump-started as he wanted, yet his solid play today was similar to the consistency he provided the team all year. All three of these players will be a force to reckon with in the future.

Frederica’s final two scores were Jacob Katz, 46, and Cullen Kazimir, 48. Jacob may have struggled somewhat today, but he had a great season. He worked hard last year, and this year he made the most of his opportunities and shined a good part of the season. Cullen’s 48 was his lowest score of the season, and he did exactly what any coach or parent would be proud of. He worked hard and showed steady improvement each match, and that’s all I could’ve asked for.

I am proud of the team ,and I couldn’t have been surrounded by a classier bunch of kids. I hope this win has created that spark that inspires them to keep working hard. They represented Frederica Academy well, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for each of these boys.

Great season boys! Words can’t express how proud I am of you all.

Go Knights!