Sherwood, Tiftarea win easily
The two will now face off in the GISA Region 3-AA boys championship game tonight.
Paul Dehner Jr. paul.dehner@albanyherald.com

CHULA — The stage is officially set.
Sherwood Christian Academy and Tiftarea both blew out its semifinal opponents at the Region 3-AA tournament on Thursday to set up a much anticipated third game between the two Class AA heavyweights tonight at ABAC.
Sherwood got 15 first-quarter points from leading scorer Cameron Williams en route to a 70-42 romp against Southwest Georgia.
Dequan Green added 18 points for SCA.
“We played OK,” Sherwood coach Matt Ruta said. “You could tell we were looking forward to (today), but we did enough to win. I think we are really ready to go for (today). We are excited.”
Nobody more than Williams who helped SCA jump out to a 36-20 lead by halftime.
“He came out ready to roll,” Ruta said of Williams, who led all scorers with 27 points.
Ruta drove to Chula early to catch the Tiftarea-Windsor semifinal and the No. 2 seed Tiftarea jump out a 30-point lead going into halftime.
Sherwood and Tiftarea split the season series with both teams winning on its home floor.
Tonight ABAC represents a neutral floor and Ruta know his team can’t wait to go after only its second region championship in school history.
The last was captured in 2004.
“It should be pretty packed,” Ruta said. “I talked to a lot of students talking about coming out. It’s a chance at a region title and we are ready to go after it.”

REGION CHAMPION BOUND

WE ARE GOING TO THE REGION CAHMPIONSHIP GAME!!!

click on the white text for our news spotlight

Lets GOOOOO EAGLESSS

Media Day at Practice

Ok so now Matt can know what it feels like to be a big time college..... well they have been practicing at the local Junior College to get used to the larger gym for regions and yesterday the newspaper and local news cam out to their practice and interview Matt and some of the boys!!!

REGION TOURNEY STARTS TONIGHTTTTTTTTTT!!!!

GOOOO EAGLESS

(sorry that they news guy doesnt know how to say RUTA hahah its kinda funny)

WATCH THIS

Getting Ready for Region Tourney

Whole new attitude
Behind Dougherty transfer Cameron Williams, the Sherwood Christian Academy boys basketball program shed its losing image this year as it enters as the No. 1 seed in the Region 3-AA Tournament, seeking a rare shot at a region title.
PAUL DEHNER paul.dehner@albanyherald.com
ALBANY — Cameron Williams didn’t know much about the Sherwood Christian Academy basketball program before transferring there this offseason.
Partially because there isn’t much to know.
In a city steeped in basketball tradition at public school programs, SCA barely serves as a footnote. The program has lived near the cellar of GISA with only one region
championship (2004) in more than a decade.
Final Fours? There was that one time. State championships? Never.
Yet, phrases like state championship and region championship slip off Williams’ tongue with confidence, just like it did Wednesday during a break from practice at Darton College.
His Eagles are in the midst of an 18-4 season and preparing to open the GISA Region 3-AA tournament today as the No.1 seed. The buzz around SCA — which faces Southwest Georgia Academy in the semifinals today — revolves around a likely rubber match with No. 2 seed Tiftarea on Friday at ABAC. It’s the type of intense basketball atmosphere rarely felt off Old Pretoria Road.
“I thought we would win more than we lose,” first-year coach Matt Ruta began, “but I didn’t think it would be like this.”
And Williams is the main reason why. The senior is averaging 24 points and 14 rebounds a game. He set the single-season school rebounding record halfway through the year and grabbed the school career mark after just one season.
Twice this season Williams broke the school single-game scoring record, the first time with 34 points and the second dropping 41 in the first of two heated games against Tiftarea.
All the pieces seemed to have fallen perfectly into place for Sherwood Christian, but this was hardly the plan Williams imagined two years ago.
For two varsity seasons, Williams sat on the end of the bench at Dougherty High. His sophomore year, inexperience locked him on the sidelines and during the first half of his junior year, a knee injury kept him out of the action. Even when healthy, his minutes were minimal as the team added a second consecutive GHSA Region 1-AAA championship last spring.
And Williams’ frustration mounted.
“I was one of the hardest working guys in practice,” he began, “but I never was able to get into the flow of the game.”
Ultimately, all he ever wanted was an opportunity.
So, Williams sought one out. When he walked into the hallways of Sherwood this summer, he found he wasn’t alone.
He first came across coach Ruta, who was a former assistant coach at a high school in Orlando ready to run his own program. He bolted Florida two weeks after getting married, shunned job offers closer to home and settled in Albany.
All Ruta wanted was an opportunity to coach.
Williams then reacquainted himself with a gritty point guard named Wesley Pittman he knew from playing with the Albany Hawks a summer earlier. Pittman stewed in the demoralizing nightmare of falling behind, 52-4, at halftime against rival Deerfield-Windsor last year.
All Pittman wanted was to be excited for game night.
This school appeared to be the perfect fit. So, along with freshman Dequan Green, son of former Westover High legend and NBA player Dontonio Wingfield, Williams enrolled and began changing the face of SCA basketball.
“Cameron brought a toughness and competitiveness,” Ruta said. “It was something we weren’t necessarily lacking, but he kind of drew it out of them.”
When Ruta first met Williams, he ushered him down the hall to meet football coach Rock Knapp. As Williams tipped the scales well above 200 pounds, he looked more like a center on the offensive line than a center on the baseline.
“I told Rock, ‘I got a football player for you,’ ” Ruta said. “Then when I first saw him play basketball, I saw he has some skill; I knew he could be special at our level.”
This entire season has been special for SCA. Crowds now flock to games and Ruta expects the same as the region tournament begins tonight at 8:30 p.m. in Tiftarea against No. 4 seed SGA (4-19).
The season hasn’t been as special at the school Williams left behind as Dougherty struggles through a disappointing two-win year. Williams wouldn’t mind a game against his former team to see what would happen, though he admits the competition level is much different back in GHSA.
But as he prepares to try and lead the Eagles into the postseason with realistic hopes of competing for the school’s first state championship in boys basketball, it’s clear to him he made the right choice.
“Sometimes I think about it,” Williams said of how he’d feel if he’d stayed at Dougherty. “Some of my friends, the season at Dougherty didn’t go how they planned for it to go, so I am kind of happy that I transferred.”

What we are doing for the next three weeks

Today Matt was involved in a coin toss... we split with TIFT AREA ACADEMY.... so we were both tied for first place in region and a coin flip decided that we are the one seed in region tourney…

So this is what the Georgia RUTAS will be doing for the next three weeks....
This week:
Thursday @ Tift Area we will play at 8:30

Friday @ ABAC we will play at 8:30


Then Next week the games are Thursday(19th) and Saturday (20th)

If we win Friday we will play at 7:00pm at Brewton Parker on Feb 19th

If we loose this Friday we will play at 4:00pm at Brewton Parker on Feb 19th

Then if we win on Thursday the 19th…. We will either play at 1:00pm on the 20th or at 4:00pm on the 20th again at Brewton Parker

It all depends on this Friday’s game… PRAY THAT WE WIN!!!

If we win this Friday we play at 7:00 on the 19th and 4:00 on the 20th

And then if we loose Friday we play at 4:00 on the 19th and 1:00 on the 20th.

THENNNNNN WE ARE PLAYING WITH THE BIG DAWGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS....
week 3:
The Final four is Friday Feb 27th at 4:00 or 5:30 @GA College & State Univ., Milledgeville (OUTSIDE ATLANTA)

And State championship game is Feb 28th at 5:00pm

so now you know where to find us... or you know why we arent answering our phone... we will be either stressed out or at a ball game... oh gosh we pray that God blesses our team with one more month of BASKETBALL!!!!!!

SENIOR NIGHT ARTICLE- Front page !!!

Solid sendoff
With the red-hot, reinvigorated Sherwood boys basketball team barreling into the GISA playoffs next week as a top seed in Region 3-AA, Friday’s “Senior Night” saw the Eagles’ elder statesmen go out with a bang in a 71-52 romp against Fullington.

ALBANY — A Sherwood Christian fan approached Eagles’ head coach Matt Ruta Friday night and congratulated him on a great regular season.
“We haven’t had that in long time,” the Eagles’ supporter said.
Sherwood’s boys basketball team flipped last year’s dismal 4-19 season on its head and turned it into an 18-4 regular season, capped on Senior Night with a 71-52 win against Fullington Academy.
“It’s been a turnaround,” Ruta said. “Especially for the kids last year who haven’t won. They’re loving it and it’s been great for their confidence.”
The Eagles will enter the GISA Region 3-AA playoffs next Tuesday as the No. 1 or 2 seed.
A coin flip Monday will decide the top seed, currently a tie between Sherwood and Tiftarea.
Ruta’s coaching style in his first year at the helm has been a welcome addition to the Eagles’ players and a key to the successful turnaround. Of course, area transfers like Cameron Williams and Dequan Green haven’t hurt either.
“The couple transfers helped for sure,” Ruta began, “but the kids who returned have bought in and helped turn things around.”
Williams, who came over from Dougherty County High and broke the Eagles’ single-season rebounding record by averaging more than 14 boards a game, scored 25 points Friday in his last game on Sherwood’s court to cap off a memorable final year.
“I’ll miss everybody here,” Williams said. “They’ve been great to me. We just want to try to make a little noise in the state playoffs this year.”
Green, a freshman, led all scorers with 25 points Friday and will be a force for years to come at Sherwood. Williams is the only starting senior, although big man Taylor Ours got the start Friday in his final home game.
“There’s a lot of emotion,” Ours said afterward. “Last year, we didn’t win many games, but this year we’ve been pretty successful. (Coach Ruta) has totally changed the atmosphere here. Now we’re excited and we’re winning.”
The Lady Eagles’ home finale wasn’t as fitting, ending in a 50-26 loss to Fullington Academy, although hope still remains with the region playoffs beginning next week. Sherwood’s senior girls have gone through three different coaches in the last three years, but first-year head coach Rebecca Fyock has seen steady improvement throughout the year.
“All our girls are real young basketball-wise,” she said. “We’ve come a long way. They’ve had to learn different coaching styles (in consecutive years) and I think they’ve been lost in the shuffle the last couple years.”
Senior Amber Lane scored six points in Friday’s loss, while Princess Williams and Emilee Cook led the Lady Eagles with seven points apiece. Sherwood led, 9-7, after one quarter of play but Fullington outscored the Lady Eagles, 34-13, in the second half to run away with the win.
“As a team, we’re young, but we still work together,” Lane said. “There’s not a team in our region we can’t beat if we play like I know we can.”
Sherwood’s two seniors, Lane and Cassie Nobles, will need one more win in the region playoffs next week to move on to the state tournament. Regardless, they believe the foundation has been set for future success.
“We’ve improved a whole lot,” Nobles said. “Hopefully it will lead to a good year next year.”

PLEASE GO HERE before you do anything else

PLEASE GO TO THIS WEBSITE IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE - http://www.iamsecond.com/

so I have been thinking today about our life with Christ... I think many Christ followers live in guilt and bondage....why when all through the scriptures it speaks of FREEDOM

dont we all remember singing the song in youth group if the son has set you free you are free indeed?!?!?! WE ARE FREE if we follow Christ....

we are not bound to going to church... we arent bound to following rules.... we arent bound to programs and responsibilities... we arent bound to anything but CHRIST!!!... it actually says in the word to ABIDE in him... sounds better than bound... Christ always puts things better than me anyways .... ABIDE... like abiding in bed for ten more minutes while I hit the snooze every morning... ABIDE... there is comfort in that word.... when you abide Him you see his Beauty you have an appreciation for Christ... like Abiding on the couch watching basketball with your husband.... its sweet sweet fellowhsip with the best friend you will ever have in your life... and you maybe wanting to watch WHAT NOT TO WEAR or HGTV but you dont not out of guilt or responsilibilty but out of love and appreciation and the beauty you see in him... and the more you watch basketball you start to develop an appreciation for it... you know the more we spend time ABIDING in Christ the more we will fall in love with the things he loves... or how in the busyness of life you find time to meet with your best girl friend for coffee..... and before you know it that one hour lunch date turned into a three hour one....

I think too many times we equate following God to repsonsibilities.... like we HAVE to spend time in the word for this amount of time at this hour of the day....

so many times we are contridictory to the WORD OF GOD!!!

like we have to think this type of church has it right and this type has it wrong.... you know or because I dont do that and she does ... she must not follow Christ....

Look at what the very words of God say....

ROMANS 14
1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.
2-4For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.
5Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.
6-9What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.
10-12So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly—or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture: "As I live and breathe," God says, "every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God."So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.
13-14Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about: that you don't get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I'm convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.
15-16If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don't eat, you're no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? Don't you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning!
17-18God's kingdom isn't a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness' sake. It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you'll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.
19-21So let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don't drag them down by finding fault. You're certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God's work among you, are you? I said it before and I'll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don't eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.
22-23Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong.

I sure as heck dont have it all right in this life... I mess up daily... actually probably more like minute-ly... I left my cell phone at Cracker Barrell on Sunday went and got it around 2 and then threw it away in the DUMPSTER that night... I mean seriously if a girl does that she really doesnt have it all together.... ( by the wy I went dumpster diving for it and got it :) )

I want to seek him more, ABIDE in him more like I do in my big comfy white bed each morning... or on my comfy brown leather couch ( thanks dad rick and carrie) with my best friend each evening.....

and I want to place myself SECOND!