The Win Column: The best of the best of the best
What’s worse than losing the World Cup final while failing to get a single shot on goal?
Being big ol’ Argentine babies about it afterward.
Anyway … wanna talk about high school football, Austin Riley and the worst draft picks in Atlanta history?
MEET THE GEORGIA POWER 100
High school football is the best.
Georgia high school football is the best of the best.
And the Georgia Power 100? Well … that’s the best of the best of the best.
And something you’ll only find in the AJC.
Every weekday for the next two weeks, the Varsity squad is rolling out a new list of the top 10 players at a position group. You can read about quarterbacks right now. Wide receivers come Tuesday. So on and so forth.
From Varsity head man Todd Holcomb, who might also be described with multiple superlatives:
🗣️ “Finding the candidates is the easy part. I’ve got a spreadsheet of 1,000 or more names from last season’s all-state nominations and this year’s prospect rankings. It’s picking the final 100 that’s hard. There are dozens of players highly capable of making us look silly for their omission who just don’t make it for strength of competition or the simple fact that maybe we should’ve looked at somebody a little closer.”
Said a different way …
🗣️ “If we overlook somebody in the Georgia Power 100, that player can have the pleasure of proving us wrong. So I don’t worry about too much about slights and omissions. Every player will have his say on the field this season.”
Fair!
And remember: We’re talking about the 10 best players at each position, not the top 100 overall. It’s meant to be a fun exercise in preseason excitement-building … no need for hurt feelings.
There’s another reason to look closely, too.
“Each of the Super 11 players who will be unveiled in August,” Todd told me, “are hiding in plain sight inside the Georgia Power 100.”
How’s that for a tease?
As always, stay plugged in to ajc.com/varsity for the best high school coverage in the business.
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING THIS WEEK?
⚾ Braves: The Padres come to Truist Park tonight through Thursday (the latter being a 12:15 p.m. businessperson’s special) before Atlanta heads to Baltimore for the weekend.
- Probable starters vs. San Diego, in chronological order: Bryce Elder, Reynaldo Lopez, not-official-but-probably-Martín Pérez and Chris Sale.
- Also of note: General manager Alex Anthopoulos says the team could “add in all areas” before the trade deadline.
🏈 SEC football media days: The four-day interview party is underway in Tampa, and the AJC and DawgNation have a whole squad ready to report. Georgia’s representatives — coach Kirby Smart, plus quarterback Gunner Stockton, center Drew Bobo and linebacker Raylen Wilson — get the mic Tuesday.
⚽ United: Atlanta United continues its post-World Cup road show while the fine folks of Mercedes-Benz Stadium get their usual turf resituated: Wednesday night at Charlotte, Saturday night at New England.
- Freddy, the German soccer fan turned internet sensation, somehow wound up at United’s Friday night match in Nashville (a 1-0 Five Stripes’ loss). “Not the best game so far,” he wrote on X.
⭐ WNBA All-Star Game: The Dream get the week off before all-star festivities tip off on Friday in Chicago. Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese are all slated to play in Saturday’s main event. (More on Reese in a bit.)
🏆 Baseball Hall of Fame: Braves icon Andruw Jones officially becomes a Hall of Famer on Sunday. In the meantime, he’ll have to settle for a gate at Hartsfield-Jackson.
PRAYER WORKS, YOU GUYS
In Friday’s edition of the Braves Report, I sent up a prayer for Austin Riley.
And I think it worked?
Our big, beautiful boy hit two homers on Sunday, adding exclamation points to a post-All-Star break series that saw him go 6-for-12 (including a third home run) at the plate.
The third baseman tried to explain away his suddenly improved performance as follows:
- “I actually didn’t do anything after the break. Just more of a mental break. That first half, it beat me up pretty good. Just clear mind, working on a few things lower half. It’s not one thing. It’s a combination of things that we’ve been working on all season, and building the muscle memory. You can do the right moves in the cage, and everything looks right, and then you get out there, you’ll face 100 and it’s tough to repeat those movements without thinking about ‘em.”
“Clearing your head” and “working on mechanics.”
Riiiiiight.
Next you’ll tell me the Etsy witches I hired before the season have nothing to do with that 57-41 record.
🔎 Closer look: Braves offense blazes out of All-Star break
WHAT’S THE WORST DRAFT PICK IN ATLANTA HISTORY?
The Hawks got tougher over the weekend, adding All-NBA defender Lu Dort and guard Andrew Nembhard in a three-team deal involving the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks.
The other result: Zaccharie Risacher’s Atlanta era is over.
The 2024 No. 1 overall pick shipped out to Dallas as part of the deal, ending a brief and sometimes promising (but mostly un-impactful) experiment. I’m not prepared to dub the Frenchmen a bust, exactly — in hindsight, there were certainly stronger choices. But it was a weird draft year, we knew he was a project, and he’s still 21 years old.
🤔 It did get me thinking, though: What’s the most disappointing draft pick in Atlanta history, in any sport?
Shelden “The Landlord” Williams? Jamaal “No, Not That One” Anderson? Mike “Who?” Kelly, the Braves’ No. 2 overall selection in 1991?
Click the fancy form or shoot me an email to voice your choice. We’ll round ‘em up later this week.
UNCLE BOB OR BUST
The death of FanDuel Sports Network already begat BravesVision. Now it’s birthed an even better deal for Hawks fans.
National broadcasts aside, all of their games for the upcoming season will air on Atlanta News First/Peachtree Sports Network. Translation: a normal channel already available on most cable and streaming services (and free over-the-air viewing, if you’ve got a digital antenna or a more old school setup.).
This is good. Very good.
But let’s make sure to keep Uncle Bob on board, too.
Bob Rathbun has called Hawks games on TV for three decades. I, personally, have no memory of anyone else ever doing it.
I’m pretty sure he’ll keep doing it, too — he told me back in April that he’s in no mood to retire. “Have microphone, will travel” were his exact words, the theoretical “travel” being to whatever channel the Hawks landed on next.
Team executive Andrew Saltzman told reporters that the finer points of the overall agreement, including the broadcast team, remain under negotiation.
“Our intention,” he said, “is to keep the great traditions and connectivity that we have.”
We riot if they don’t.
OTHER INTERESTING STUFF TO KNOW
🙄 Not a lot to say about the WNBA suspending Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello after she called Dream star Angel Reese a “protected species.” Common phrasing in Brondello’s native Australia or not, let’s not compare anyone to an animal, K?
🏈 T-minus one week or so until Falcons training camp revs up. Beat writer Daniel Flick is filling the build-up with position-by-position breakdowns. Out now: Quarterback and running back.
😬 It’s been brought to my attention that I dubbed Kennesaw State football champions of the wrong conference last week. They’re the reigning Conference USA champs. Apologies … and hooty hoo!
PHOTO OF THE WEEKEND
Argentine angst and Spanish ecstasy during the World Cup finals watch party at Piedmont Park. More photos here.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of the Win Column. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Until next time.