The Brunswick News

FridayJanuary 30, 2015 8ASports

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Blue Devils part ways

with junior guard

Duke has dismissed junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon from the team.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Thursday Sulaimon “has been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program.”

Sulaimon remains in good academic standing, said the school, and is expected to inish the spring semester.

Sulaimon was averaging 7.5 points, 2 rebounds and 1.8 assists this year as a reserve.

The move comes a day after the fourth-ranked Blue Devils lost at No. 8 Notre Dame.

‘Mr. Cub’ to pay one

last visit to Wrigley

Ernie Banks will make one inal trip to Wrigley Field.

The Chicago Cubs say the procession following Satur-day’s memorial service will take “Mr. Cub” past his statue at Daley Plaza downtown and the ballpark’s famed marquee at the corner of Clark and Ad-dison on the city’s North Side.

There will be tributes and readings from dignitaries, and Hall of Famers Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Lou Brock are also scheduled to speak.

A public visitation is sched-uled for today — a week after Banks died of a heart attack at 83.

Conferences altering

basketball ‘Challenge’

The Big 12 and SEC are moving their non-conference challenge series to late January, right in the middle of league play.

The two conferences said Thursday the annual 10-game Big 12/SEC Challenge, played over several days in early December this season, will be held Jan. 30 next season, a move the commissioners believe will raise the proile of the event.

ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU again will televise all 10 games in the challenge. Each league hosts ive games, and the matchups for next season will be determined later. The four SEC teams not included in the challenge will be matched in conference games that day.

Rasheed Sulaimon

DaveJordanSports Editordjordan@TheBrunswick News.com

DJ’s Dish

Part and parcel to this wonder-ful job I am privileged to be paid to do are my many friends who are certain they can do the job better.

To be fair, none of them have actually said that to my face, nor would they. It’s all good-natured fun. Still, you can imagine how often the “experts” I know chime in with their opinion on some sports-related topic.

Now, I am not foolish enough to think I know everything, nor do I even want to. I can’t tell you what number race car Brian Vickers drives, nor what brand of golf clubs Jordan Spieth uses. I do know who the San Diego Padres’ fourth outielder is, but I can’t name one starting offen-sive lineman for the San Diego Chargers.

I know all the nicknames of

the teams that make up the four major sports, but can only tell you the home base and name of a handful of Major League Soccer or National Women’s Soccer League franchises.

As I wrote a few weeks back, my prognosticating days are over for a while since I can’t seem to predict a sunrise. I’m tempted to weigh in with my Super Bowl prediction since it is the biggest game in town and one of the most-watched and talked about events of this or any year.

More than 110 million people

will be tuned in Sunday evening to see whether Seattle can repeat as NFL champions or New England can punch through that vaunted Seahawks defense often enough to bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

I polled a few of my very learned friends — and Bruns-wick’s newest sports igure — to see how they think the big game will unfold. Who will win and why, I queried?

Brunswick native and for-mer Brunswick High baseball and football standout Jaysen Blocker: “I’m prepared to take New England over Seattle by, say, 27-24. New England’s run defense is surprisingly good. Tom Brady and the ‘Evil Genius’ of the NFL (coach Bill Beli-chick) are hitting on all cylinders right now.”

St. Simons Island attorney Reid Zeh, who starred at golf and soccer at Frederica Academy and was inducted into the school’s sports Hall of Fame in 2012: “I will be rooting hard for the Seahawks to repeat as champs, 31-20. Jack-sonville head coach Gus Bradley was the defensive coordinator in Seattle (from 2009 through 2012) and has brought a lot of players from Seattle to Jackson-ville. Seattle simply reloaded. I’ll be pulling for the team that doesn’t excessively bend the rules.”

New Brunswick High foot-ball coach Larry Harold, who won a national championship as an offensive lineman with Southern University in 1997: “Seattle has an edge to them. When everybody counted them

out (early in the season), they banded together. I like to go with the better defensive team, so I see them winning 24-21.”

Frederica Academy football coach and former star high school quarterback Brandon Derrick: “The Seahawks will have to get pressure on Tom Brady and shut down his short passing game and will have to be able to establish a running game early in order to help Russell Wilson in his play-action passing game. It will come to down to turnovers and ield position, like most NFL games. I like New England, 31-20.”

St. Simons Island’s Rob-bie Robinson, a mortgage broker and insurance pro and possibly the world’s biggest Joe Montana fan: “This year’s Seahawks defense doesn’t seem

to have the same pass rush as last year’s team. Because of this, I feel Brady will have a good game, and (tight end) Rob Gron-kowski will be very impressive. I feel like this one isn’t close most of the way, but Seattle scores some trash points late to make the score closer. Patriots win 38-25.”

So there you have it: Expert takes from my experts in the ield. Five opinions from people I know for a fact know what they are talking about.

Add it all up, divide by two and carry the one, and their con-sensus pick is ... New England 27, Seattle 25.

We shall see.• Dave Jordan is The News

sports editor. Contact him at djordan@thebrunswicknews.com, or at 265-8320, ext. 319.

By DAVE JORDAN

The Brunswick News

Taylor McMinn has been there before — and won championships. She’s ready to do it again.

McMinn and her Frederica Academy team-mates are on the road today, headed for Atlan-ta. On Saturday, they will be in the pool, vy-ing for top honors at the Georgia Independent School Association State Championship swim meet at the Georgia Tech Natatorium.

McMinn, a senior and 2014 state cham-pion in two events, will be joined by fellow senior Katherine Parks, juniors Maya Stucky and Lexi Harmon and freshmen Amelia Ham and Emily Parks at the state meet, along with three junior varsity swimmers: John McMinn, Kelly Quinn and Kate Worthley.

“Taylor is defending two individual titles, her 500-meter freestyle and 100 breaststroke, and every one of the (varsity) girls is seeded in the top eight in the events they are swim-ming,” Frederica swim coach Karen Parks said. “They will all have a great opportunity to hit the podium (as a winner). Also, the re-lay team is seeded second in third in their two events (the 200 medley and 200 free).”

McMinn said she feels good about her chances for repeating as a state champ. She knows what time to shoot for and thinks she

can hit it.“The 100 breast is my best,” Taylor Mc-

Minn said. “It’s my favorite race, and it’s just really fun to swim. I’m trying to break 1 min-ute, 7 seconds, and I go 1:07.45 right now. My winning time last year was 1:08.38.”

She said swimming just came natural to her after she realized she wasn’t very good at oth-er sports.

“I’m honestly very uncoordinated, and swimming doesn’t require very much coordi-nation. I often trip over my own feet, so swim-ming is a lot easier for me. I’m not really fast

at running, either.”At least two of her teammates, Emily Parks

and Ham, have a good chance to bring home a state title this year, said McMinn, who will also swim the 200 free and is part of both re-lay teams.

Ham said her best event is the individual medley, which is basically four races com-bined. She has a target time as well.

“It’s all of the swims, and you do a 50 me-ter of each: a butterly, then a backstroke, a 50 breaststroke and a 50 freestyle,” said Ham, who will also swim the 100 free, 100 breast and both relays. “Breastroke is probably my best of all those. That’s where I catch up to people. I just happen to be good at all of them.

“In the 200 medley, best time is 2:16. It will probably take a 2:14 to win state. I believe I can do that.”

Parks said her girls are dedicated to be-coming good swimmers and are not afraid of hard work. In addition to McMinn and Ham, Katherine Parks will compete in the 500 free and 100 back, Emily Parks will swim the 200 free, 500 free and 100 ly, Harmon will swim the 100 back and 50 free, plus both relays, and Stucky is the alternate for the relay teams.

“These girls practice eight times a week for 2 to 2 1/2 hours of practice each time,”

Swimming for state

Frederica Academy varsity swimmer Taylor

McMinn won state titles in two events in

2014 and hopes to add to her trophy case

at this year’s meet on Saturday.

Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News photos

Frederica Academy varsity swim team members Maya Stucky, from left, Emily Parks, Amelia Ham, Katherine Parks and Taylor McMinn

swim a kickset during practice Thursday at the Howard Coffin Park pool in preperation for their state swim meet Saturday.

Frederica athletes eyeing top honors at GISA championship

Plenty of opinions on how ‘Super’ contest will unfold

Please see STATE, 9A

The Brunswick News

More than 80 of the world’s inest ama-teur golfers tee off today in the Jones Cup Invitational on Sea Island.

Ocean Forest Golf Club is the site of the prestigious amateur event, which boasts alumni ranging from PGA Tour ma-jor champions Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson to St. Simons Island residents Harris English, Brian Harman and Hudson Swafford.

Thirteen countries are represented in the 84-player ield, including 50 U.S. players.

St. Simons Island natives Dru Love and Scott Wolfes are in the ield, as is Dylan Freeman, a 2014 NAIA All-American who led College of Coastal Georgia to the men’s national championship last season.

Canadian Corey Conners is back to de-fend his 2014 title in the 54-hole junior golf event. The Kent State graduate won in a playoff over Austin Connelly of Texas, who is also back this year.

Past champions of the much-revered Jones Cup include PGA pros Patrick Reed, Nicholos Thompson and D.J. Trah-an, who won the inaugural Jones Cup event

in 2001. Trahan’s three-day score of 210 is the lowest recorded in the Jones Cups con-tested at Ocean Forest. Luke List won with a 206 in 2007 when the event was played at Frederica Golf Club on St. Simons Island.

This year’s Jones Cup carries extra pres-tige: the winner is guaranteed a spot in this year’s Masters, the irst of four golf majors held each year at hallowed Augusta Na-tional Golf Club.

This year’s Masters tees off April 9.Four players in this year’s ield have

already qualiied for the Masters: Scott Harvey of North Carolina as the reigning

USGA Mid-Amateur champion, Byron Meth of California as the USGA Public Links champion, Bradley Neil of Scotland, the British Amateur champion, and Con-ners, who was the USGA Amateur run-ner-up.

Ocean Forest plays to 7,321 yards with a par of 72. Play begins with threesomes teeing off at 9 a.m. at the Rees Jones-de-signed course on Sea Island with the last of 28 groups scheduled to begin play at 11:10 a.m.

Play continues through Sunday in the event, which is open to the public.

Top amateurs teeing off at Ocean Forest

By DOUG FERGUSON

Associated Press

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tiger Woods helped attract a record, raucous crowd to the Phoenix Open on Thursday, the irst big event in a week that concludes with the Super Bowl.

They didn’t see much of a game — at least not from Woods.

In his irst appearance at the TPC Scottsdale in 14 years — and only his second tournament in six months — Woods couldn’t hit the green with three chip shots and was near the bottom of the lead-erboard until two key shots on the back nine salvaged a 2-over 73.

It was the irst time in his career that Woods shot over par in his irst round of the year. And he already was nine shots behind Ryan Palm-er, who opened with a 7-under 64 to build a one-shot lead when play was suspended by darkness.

“This is my second tournament in six months, so I just need tour-nament rounds like this where I can ight through it, turn it around, grind through it and make adjust-ments on the ly,” Woods said.

He was 5 over through 11 holes when Woods hit a 5-iron to a foot for a tap-in eagle on the 13th hole. After making it through the par-3 16th hole, where he twice had to back off shots when someone shouted as he stood over the ball, he hit his best drive of the day that bounded onto the green at the par-4 17th and set up a two-putt birdie.

The fans didn’t seem to mind. They were happy to see golf’s biggest star at their outdoor party for the irst time since 2001, back when Woods was No. 1 in the world and headed for an unprece-dented sweep of the majors.

The attendance was 118,461 — more than the Super Bowl will get on Sunday — and broke the Thursday record at the Phoenix Open by just over 30,000.

Palmer up one at PGA eventTiger sputters at Phoenix Open

Please see PGA, 9A

The Brunswick News / Friday, January 30, 2015 9A

By EDDIE PELLS

Associated Press

PHOENIX — Put Bill Beli-chick behind a microphone and he’s C-SPAN — minus the infor-mation.

Pete Carroll is more like a Life-time movie. Or, as defensive line-man Michael Bennett puts it, “He has that Benjamin Button effect on everyone.”

The Super Bowl coaches ap-proach their obligations to the public and media from opposite ends. Belichick, coaching for his fourth championship in New En-gland, is dry, offers little to no insight and rarely makes anyone laugh. Carroll, looking for his sec-ond straight title, is a high-iving, ist-bumping extrovert who started one of his news conferences this week with a welcoming, “What’s up?!?”

Different styles have produced similar results, though.

Belichick is making his sixth Super Bowl appearance as a head coach and his Patriots are as close as there is to a dynasty in the cur-rent NFL. Carroll’s team is being mentioned as a possible dynasty, as well, and that notion will only gain steam if the Seahawks win Sunday and become the irst back-to-back champions since, who else?, New England in 2003-04.

Dissimilar as they are, they have both built their teams on a founda-tion of unlinching candor inside their locker and meeting rooms — a quality Carroll brings to some of his public speaking, but one that Belichick eschews.

“What you see on TV is what you get, pretty much, from the two,” said Patriots cornerback Brandon Browner, who previ-ously played for Carroll in Seat-tle. “They have similarities too, though. Their football IQ is way up there. They are so different, but at the same time they’re the same. That’s why they both have suc-ceeded at this level.”

Over his 15 years in New En-gland, Belichick has made it in-creasingly dificult for anyone outside of Patriots Nation to love him. Nobody likes a boring cheat-er, and that is how he’s sometimes portrayed. It’s all summed up in his handling of the controversy of Super Bowl week — Delate-gate — a subject he has refused to talk about since Saturday, when he held a news conference to deny wrongdoing and announce he was moving on. “We’re just focused on Seattle this week,” he’s said, re-peating some version of that time and again.

A much fuller picture of the coach was painted in the 2013 NFL Network production “A Football Life,” which gave an inside and genuinely absorbing look at the coach — miked up and behind the scenes during what turned out to be a disappointing 2009 season.

“Hard not to get choked up about it,” Belichick said, barely controlling the tears as he toured his old stomping grounds, the old Giants Stadium, where he won his irst two Super Bowl rings as New York’s defensive coordinator. “I spent a lot of hours in that room.”

One trait his old boss, Bill Par-cells, turned into an art was igur-ing out how to get the most from each of his players by treating them individually.

It’s not a trait Belichick shares, at least in the sense that no one seems to get the Superstar Treat-ment in New England: High-priced cornerback Darrelle Revis got sent home one day for being late for a meeting. Jonas Gray ran for 201 yards in a win against Indi-anapolis but has barely been heard from again after showing up late for a meeting.

“He’s done a good job of treat-ing everybody fairly, treating ev-erybody the same,” said Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich. “If something goes wrong, he makes sure we know about it. It’s all about knowing how to get the best out of everybody.”

Carroll does the same thing — just differently. Quirky as they come, he once said a book that guided many of his core philos-ophies was, “The Inner Game of Tennis,” a 1974 self-help manu-script about inding “the state of ‘relaxed concentration’ that helps you play your best.”

It’s also about tennis, but “the

stuff really resonated,” Carroll said in an interview while he was coaching Southern California.

In keeping with the touchy-feely theme, he has repeatedly made it clear this week he respects the in-dividuality of his players — from Richard Sherman, who is willing to speak on just about everything, to Marshawn Lynch, who doesn’t want to talk about anything.

The coach’s willingness to bend, however, does not mean

he deviates from the consistent routine he established when he came to Seattle after nine years at USC. Wednesdays are “Competi-tion Wednesdays.” Thursdays are “Turnover Thursdays.” And so on.

“He’s got a philosophy he stays true to,” said offensive line coach Tom Cable. “For a lot of us who’ve coached a long time, we’ve been around a lot of great teachers, but their philosophies can go up and down. For him, he’s the way he is

every day.”Patriots owner Robert Kraft,

who hired Carroll in 1997, then Belichick in 2000, called his for-mer coach, “pretty special to be around. A lot of fun.”

There’s no big mystery to coach-ing success, Belichick insists.

“It’s about players making the plays that your team needs to win,” he said. “I think as a coach, you want to make sure you don’t screw that up.”

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Sports

Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News

Frederica Academy varsity swim team member Emily Parks

practices in the Howard Coffin Park pool Thursday along with her

teamates in preperation for the GISA state swim meet Saturday at

Georgia Tech.

said Parks. “They come in two mornings a week at 5:30 a.m. — doesn’t matter what temperature it is — and come in every after-noon and Saturday mornings.”

Golden Isles Swim Team coaches Mike Irish and April Royal train the FA swimmers at Howard Cofin Pool in Bruns-wick. Parks said their help has been invaluable, as has the ability to use the public pool to practice.

“Frederica has a great rela-tionship with Golden Isles Swim Team, and we utilize their coach-ing staff and their facilities,” Parks said. “They train the kids, and I coordinate the meets and

races. This is our fourth season at Frederica. We recognized we had a lot of club swimmers who wanted to swim in high school, but they couldn’t. So we went to Frederica’s athletic director and head of school and talked it out, and they said, ‘try it out and see.’”

Ham said the site of the swim meet is a great movitator itself. Swimming there, she said, is as good as it gets.

“The feeling of the pool helps you because it’s such a grand pool. The adrenaline helps you.”

• Sports Editor Dave Jordan writes about local sports. He can be reached at djordan@thebrunswicknews.com or at 912-265-8320 ext. 319.

State: Swimming Knights eye titlesContinued from page 8A

‘Super’ coaches a study in contrasts Belichick, Carroll employ different methods to achieve similar results

By MARK LONG

Associated Press

OCALA, Fla. — Ha Na Jang went from qualiier to leader in just a few days at LPGA’s season opener. And it surprised no one.

The 22-year-old South Korean, ranked 21st in the world, shot a 7-under 65 in the second round of the Coates Golf Championship on Thursday and opened up a four-shot lead over Stacy Lewis head-ing into the third round.

Jang has full status on the LPGA Tour. But because the opener isn’t a full-ield event, she had to qual-ify last Saturday. Her extra time at Golden Golf & Ocala Equestrian Club certainly paid dividends. She made one bogey in two rounds, and responded to that miscue with birdies on two of the next three holes.

“I hope to play well these next two days so people get to know who I am,” Jang said through an interpreter.

The start of the second round was delayed 90 minutes because of frost, and the interruption pre-vented 50 players from complet-ing 18 holes. They will return Fri-day morning to inish.

Jang might not want to wait to get back on the course. She sank a curl-in, 25-footer on her inal hole in near-dark conditions to get to 12-under 132.

Although Jang is technically a rookie, she has plenty of experi-ence. Her best LPGA inish was third in the 2014 Evian Champi-onship last year. She also won six tournaments in ive seasons on the KLPGA Tour and inished tied for 42nd at the Korean Women’s Open as a 12-year-old.

Lewis, one of three players to shoot 66 in the opening round, was 8 under heading into Friday’s third round. World No. 2 Lydia Ko and Azahara Munoz were ive back at 7 under. So were Angela Stanford and Austin Ernst, but they had holes to inish.

Cheyenne Woods, the niece of Tiger Woods, likely made the cut. She birdied No. 18th to get to 4 over, which is expected to be safe. Woods is playing her irst tournament with full-time status, although she got in on a sponsor’s exemption because she didn’t have enough priority to make the 120-player ield.

Local pro

In the second round of the Coates Golf Championship:Katie BurnettBrunswick native shot 73

and was at 7 over when the second round was suspended by darkness78-73 – 151

Qualiier Jang leads LPGA event

Local pros

In the first round of the

Phoenix Open:

Zach Johnson

St. Simons Island resident

shot 66 and is 2 back

33-33 – 66

Brian Harman

St. Simons Island resident

shot 68 and is 4 back

34-34 – 68

Matt Kuchar

St. Simons Island resident

shot 70 and is 6 back

34-36 – 70

Charles Howell III

St. Simons Island resident

shot 70 and is 6 back

33-37 – 70

Harris English

St. Simons Island resident

shot 72 and is 8 back

34-38 – 72

What they saw was a player who suddenly has developed grave is-sues with his short game.

Woods is working with a new swing consultant, Chris Como, who is not in Phoenix this week. He still has trouble taking his game from the practice range to the course, which is nothing new. But when he last played, at the Hero World Challenge, what stood out was a series of chips that he either stubbed or bladed. Two months later, nothing changed.

The focus on Woods quickly shifted from a chipped tooth to simply his chipping. He twice chipped with 4-irons, which he called my “old-school shots from Augusta.” Two other times, one after a chip he knocked across and over the green, he opted for a put-ter. Not a bad play, but it used to be rare to see Woods choose to putt from the fairway instead of chip.

PGA: Isles pro Zach Johnson 2 shots backContinued from page 8A