The following, a weekly feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, allows our reporters to open their notebooks and provide even more information from our local teams that we cover daily. We think you’ll find it informative, insightful and fun.
It’s his first season with the Falcons, but it’s not the first NFL rodeo for quarterback Kirk Cousins.
So what has Captain Kirk learned over the years? The importance of the team being ready to roll out of the gate on Week 1.
“I think it’s such an important deal to hit the ground running when Week One gets here,” he said.
Cousins believes there needs to be a major sense of urgency for the 2024 Falcons, primarily because of:
-The new players and coaches (himself included) want to see their hard work in training camp turn into success in the regular season.
-The first three games of the regular season are brutal – at home against the Steelers and Chiefs, with a Monday night road game against the Eagles in the middle.
“You got to get the wind at your back,” Cousins said. “And you do that by winning early.”
And winning early avoids this scenario.
“Yeah, I’ve been on teams where you start 1-5 and you look up and it’s like, oh no,” he said. “And then we worked our way back, but it’s too late.”
Hart leaving Georgia Tech
Tech’s swimming and diving coach Courtney Shealy Hart announced Wednesday that she is resigning after 15 seasons at the helm of the Yellow Jackets to pursue a new professional opportunity outside of sports.
John Ames, who has served as Tech’s diving coach for 23 seasons, has been appointed as the Jackets’ interim head coach while a national search is conducted for Hart’s successor.
Hart was named Tech’s coach in 2009 and steadily built a nationally competitive program, capped by the Tech men finishing in the top 25 of the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America poll six times in the past seven seasons. She coached 71 NCAA championship participants, 21 NCAA All-Americans, 12 ACC individual champions and 29 all-conference performers at Tech.
Every women’s program record and all but one of the men’s program records have been set during Hart’s 15 seasons as coach. She also coached 16 Olympians, including five that competed at the 2024 Paris Games.
An Olympian herself, Hart won gold medals in the 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
UGA’s medal count in Paris was six
The Georgia Bulldogs brought home some metal from Paris.
That’s metal as in Olympic medals. Four current and former Georgia athletes combined to win six medals for Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. In all, 33 UGA athletes represented their countries during 17 days of competition in Paris.
UGA swimming alumnus Nic Fink collected one gold and two silvers to lead the Bulldogs in the medal tally. Former Georgia basketball player Anthony Edwards also came home with gold after scoring in double figures in four consecutive games for Team USA. It was the fifth consecutive gold medal for the U.S. men. Croix Bethune earned Georgia women’s soccer’s first gold medal in program history following the United States’ 1-0 win over Brazil on Saturday, while rising junior Aaliyah Butler snagged a gold medal as a member of Team USA’s women’s 4x400-meter relay squad.
In addition to Georgia’s six athletes, David Dantes, UGA volleyball’s director of operations, served as the technical coordinator for the U.S. men’s team. That team secured a bronze medal with a straight-set victory over Italy (25-23, 30-28, 26-24).
Here’s a brief summary of Georgia’s medal winners:
Fink: Earned the first Olympic medal of his career in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, tying Great Britain’s Adam Peaty for silver with a time of 59.05. Later, Fink teamed with Ryan Murphy, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske to win the mixed 4x100-meter medley relay in world-record fashion, recording a 58.29 split in the 100m breaststroke to help the quartet clock a 3:37.43 for his first gold medal. On Olympic swimming’s final day, he joined Murphy, Caeleb Dressel, and Hunter Armstrong in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, winning silver with a time of 3:28.01. UGA swimming and diving’s total medal count now stands at 41, including 16 gold, 16 silver, and nine bronze.
Edwards: Opened the men’s basketball tournament with four consecutive double-digit scoring performances for Team USA, including a game-high 26 points in the United States’ 104-83 group-play win over Puerto Rico. The Atlanta native tallied eight points while adding one rebound and a steal in nine minutes of play in the United States’ 98-87 win over France in the gold-medal game. Edwards is one of three Bulldogs ever to earn an Olympic medal in men’s basketball and the first to win gold since Vern Fleming in 1984.
Bethune: Originally selected as an alternate, Bethune earned a call-up and made her Olympic debut in the United States’ 2-1 victory over Australia, making her the first UGA soccer player to appear in the Olympic Games. The Americans went on to win gold with a 1-0 win over Brazil in the final match.
Butler: A current UGA sprinter, Butler joined fellow Americans Quanera Hayes, Shamir Little, and Kaylyn Brown in the first round of the women’s 4x400-meter relay and clocked a time of 3:21.44 to win the prelims, finishing over three seconds ahead of the next closest competition. The squad qualified for the finals, and Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabby Thomas and Alexis Holmes posted an American-record time of 3:15.27 to help the team capture gold in the final track event of Paris 2024. Georgia track and field now holds 18 Olympic medals in its history, nine of which are gold.
Another win for Meti
Atlanta resident Phillis Meti won the World Long Drive (WLD) World Championship last week in the competition held at Eagles Landing Country Club. It’s the fourth title for Meti, who also won in 2006, 2016 and 2018. Meti, ranked No. 2 in the world, outdrove Mai Dechathipat with a 310-yard drive. Meti had the longest drive in the women’s competition with a 354-yard drive in the semifinals.
For the event, Meti’s longest drive was 339 yards and she averaged 314 yards per drive.
Sean Johnson won his first career event in the WLD World Championship last week in the men’s Open Division. His drive of 411 yards was one yard better than Jack Smith. A former baseball player at Ole Miss, Johnson was runner-up in the 2023 World Championship by one yard. Zach Holton had the longest drive of the competition at 430 yards.
-Sports editor Chris Vivlamore and staff writers Chad Bishop, D. Orlando Ledbetter and Chip Towers contributed to this report.
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