Football Camp at Kolomoki

A long standing tradition in Early County Football is Football Camp at

Kolomoki Mounds. They took several years off, but Football Camp is back,

and has been for the last couple of years. There are horror stories from

years past, such as running up the mounds and up the hills with

absolutely NO water, trying to get a little something to "drink" out of

the sweat in their shirts, and when they finally did get something to drink,

it being Kool Aid that tasted like they put 1 packet of mix to 50 gallons

of water.... Daddy and Mr. Ric have said over and over they thought it was

the closest they have come to dying. Needless to say, things have changed

since way back when. They get tons of water breaks, rest, and we serve

great food. The only thing that hasn't changed is that there is STILL no air conditioning at Kolomoki. THAT is what makes the experience

unforgettable, in my humble opinion. However, it is fun for

the boys and a great chance for them to spend time together as a team.

A few mamas and fans made a little visit to spread some

Bobcat Spirit before the boys got there.

The Head Chef, Sloppy, and his trusty assistant, Mr. Ric.
Great job Sloppy! The planning and the food were great!
The Saturday night meal, Hog Wings, Baked Beans,
Mashed Potatoes, and Rolls......Jordan and Charodd or Charond..
Maybe I'll figure out which one is which by the time they graduate :-)

Getting drinks and waiting for food....

Everybody loves to pick on Jarrett Heath, who is

Jordan's little brother...and has somewhat

become the team's "little brother".....

Kaylon, Coach Mo, Jordan, Scooter & Zack

The Sophomores...

You know the Seniors JUST LOVE IT when the mamas

show up in their cabin to take pictures...

Just play along boys, it's only gonna get worse as

the season goes on :-)

The Senior Bobcats and the Coaches

A little Saturday night practice...

Helping each other get ready for practice...

Sunday lunch....You gotta pay your dues...If you're

gonna play Bobcat football in high school, as a 9 year old, you've

gotta start in the kitchen. Jarrett, brushing butter on the rolls.

We renamed him Emeril, as he begged to help me flour the

chicken before Sloppy fried it....so we scrubbed those hands real good

and taught him how to prep fried chicken...as his reward, he got to ring

the dinner bell...something he'd been wanting to do ALL weekend!

Thanks for all the help Jarrett!

We had such GREAT help in the kitchen and at the grills/fryers all weekend.

Thanks to Randy Cooper, Jimmy Heath, Jarrett Heath, Keith Rice,

Alan Hawkins, Pat Storey,Hank Jester, Joe Cason,

Ric Hall & Michael Allred (aka Sloppy).

We couldn't have done it without you!

Fried Chicken, Grilled Pork Chops, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes,

Macaroni & Cheese, Rolls, and Victory Cake (Strawberry). Since

they survived camp, we consider it a Victory, hence the need for

some Victory Cake, another Bobcat tradition....

The work is never done...Practice all weekend, in the hot,

and then even have to pack, load, and clean before they get

to go home. Who knew linemen could mop so good??

Overall, it was a great weekend for the boys....

Looking forward to the scrimmage with Terrell County!

Thursday, August 20th, Standifer Field

Midnight Madness-Football Style

I've always heard of Midnight Madness... shopping style. However, in Early County, we do Midnight Madness....FOOTBALL STYLE!!! This was Friday night, or shall we say, Saturday morning, August 1st. GHSA dictates that no "real practice" can begin until August 1st. So at about 12:05 am, they hit the field. And yes, there were spectators, even at that hour!

The Bobcats hit the field... we are SO ready for some FOOTBALL!!
The leaders of the pack....
Here we go....lets see what we've got...

Water break...

A few instructions....

Coach Woolf sharing his thoughts...

Another week of practice.... then on to FOOTBALL CAMP

at Kolomoki Mounds, Camp Hicita....

Coleman Reunion

The Coleman Reunion.... Every year our Coleman side of the family get together at a cousin's lake house on Lake Martin, you know, in close proximity to God's Country....Auburn. The reunion this year was our first chance to get to meet and hang out with Cade, our newest cousin at the reunion. Cade belongs to my cousin Wesley and his wife, Danielle. It appears that it was more of a "Cade" reunion, because when I got home, I realized, he's all I took pictures of . Knowing how I take tons of pictures, you know that is really odd. We ALWAYS take the "me, Wesley, Danielle, Ryan, Jess & Tim picture" and we didn't even do that....oh well, there's always time for that at the Auburn games. The BEST part of this post is the video at the bottom. This video is PROOF that new grandchildren can make grandparents do ANYTHING! Although I obviously didn't have presence of mind to take pictures, it did occur to me to use my cell phone to record this hysterical moment between Cade and his "BC" or "Billy Coleman" or whatever he may decide he's gonna be called..... for those of you who know Billy....get a load of this!

Cade and his daddy, Wesley

He looks just a little bit like Wesley....ya think?
You talking to me Gigi?

A little bit messy....

A LOT messy....but precious!

<<<<>>>>

Double the Celebration: The Birthday Weekend

Barton Turns 40...Surprise! Fun on 2 birthdays...Me & Barton. You know surprise parties are the hardest to "pull off", however, Andrea started working on this one months before July 5th. Barton's 40th had been on all of our calendars for months, and he truly had NO IDEA! (for those of you who maybe have not read posts below, Barton is one of my partners in Freezer Locker Films, the Executive Director of EC2055, and one of my greatest friends!) As the day drew closer, we were all struggling with the "foot in the mouth" disease, but we all made it and managed not to spoil the surprise. Barton's party was on Sunday night at Kyma and Whiskey Blue. The next day Brad and I moved to Barton and Andrea's house to hang out for the next two days. Monday night, for my birthday, we went to Stoney River for dinner and on Tuesday we spent the day at Six Flags. I don't think any of us had been to Six Flags in about 20 years....so that was interesting to say the least!

So now for a little explanation of the pictures...below, the gathering of Barton's friends as we are waiting for him to walk in. Barton thought that it was going to be just a few friends for dinner. Because of a minor slip up in our "story", he knew Brad and I were coming to Atlanta and going to dinner with them, so we took a cab out to their house and rode back to the party with them in the stretch Hummer, another little fun thing for a birthday!

Barton greeting all his unexpected guests!
Dinner at Kyma

Barton thanking everyone for being there and for their friendship...

Brad and "Miss" Catherine (Barton's mom)...

A toast from mom...with a little singing..

The Early Co. 2055 crew just before moving the party to Whiskey Blue...

L to R - Brad, Me, Barton, Andrea, Lisa & Georgina

Me and Barton's wife, Andrea, before dinner

Me, Barton & Brad at Whiskey Blue

Me, Barton, Brad & Kim Wall. Kim was in our second movie, SAVAGE,

and has been a friend of Barton's, literally, since they were born. A little

Blakely connection that Kim has....Dr. Wall was her grandaddy.

This was on Monday, just hangin' with the Rice's :-)

Me and John Patrick

On Tuesday, Brad and Nicholas getting a little rest

on the way to Six Flags....

Under this Six Flags sign should hang another sign that says "If you are

30 or older, keep your butt on the bench and watch...you are OLD and

will regret this in the morning".... I think that is self explanatory!

I don't know why it is that normal, intelligent people get the "oh we're gonna

get wet anyway" mentality....."so let's just get it over and ride them all first".

So our FIRST RIDE was the water logs...and as we rode ALL of the water rides,

Nicholas would absolutely fall in love with them and immediately say "let's ride it

again". Since Six Flags truly is for kids, we would promptly step back

in line. The picture below is of us after our 1st ride on Thunder River.

For those of you who have not been on that in a while,

you NO LONGER get damp, you get SOAKED.

Everybody on the boat....every time. You have been warned.

Brad & Andrea....Believe me...these pictures do not do the "wet factor"

justice. It was no problem to ring a bucket of water out of our shirts....

Me, Nicholas & Brad waiting in line for our SECOND RIDE of

Splash River Falls. Shoes squeaking, jeans soaked....but all still fun.

Andrea had funnel cakes on her mind all day, so as we tried to find

some dry clothes to buy or dry out the ones we had...we stopped

for a snack....the funnel cakes. Here is Brad

as he almost got face down in it!

This is THE DEMON of Six Flags, formerly known as The Scream Machine....

I had forgotten how incredibly ROUGH wooden roller coaster tracks are. After

a 5 minute ride of being snatched and slung in every direction and having

the crap beat out of our legs....Praise the Lord...we survived.

Nicholas still smiling as the day was coming

to a close on the Merry Go Round....

And who says Merry Go Rounds are just for kids....

More like kids of all ages! Notice the birthday boy's change

to dry clothes...sporting his new Six Flags t-shirt!

Happy 40th, again, Barton! What a terrific weekend celebrating

your birthday and my birthday too! You and Andrea are great

friends and your boys are amazing! So glad we could be with you

to celebrate such a great occasion in your life!