It’s a massive sports week in Habersham County, as the crossover of winter and spring sports has put plenty of games on the calendar.
On Saturday, Raider Park will feature North Atlanta taking on Habersham Central in the first regular season game on the new turf field. The Raiders have been practicing on it for more than a month and they played an exhibition last week to try it out.
The new field was a community investment of $1,546,875, and it should pay for itself in time with savings on maintenance costs and repairs due to water damage. The field can drain 12 inches of water in an hour, making it almost rain delay proof.
Saturday is a great day for folks in the community to come out, support the Raiders and see the new ballfield that should be a source of community pride for all of us.
But the fun does not stop there, as the Region 8-6A basketball tournament will be held at Habersham Central next week, featuring seven teams including our Raiders.
The weeklong tournament is a showcase opportunity for our school and community, and it gives us an opportunity to try and be that sixth man as our teams go for regional championships.
The Raider boys are likely to play Tuesday evening in a game that could determine whether they qualify for the state playoffs. The girls were playing Tuesday night after press time to grab the No. 2 seed, which would put them into the state playoffs automatically and advance them to the semifinals on Thursday, Feb. 16.
The finals are Friday night, Feb. 17, and win or lose, we have a chance to show what an incredible host we can be. This tournament rotates around and theoretically only comes here once every six or seven years, depending on shuffling of regional alignments.
On Fridays at the high school, they say it is the Day of the Raider. For our entire community, this could be the Week of the Raider, with a brilliant chance to show off the best we have to offer in our student athletes, their parents and our community partners and supporters.
Go Raiders!