Thursday's Daily News 'n Notes: New Northside baseball boss; Falcons schedule is out; Alumni Update; Kansas in trouble? And more

Thursday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media. Updates will be noted, so check back.

Northside baseball under new management

          Mark Estes told Chad Alligood that the 2020 baseball season would be his final one as Northside’s head coach, Estes ready to pull back on the workload some while continuing as a football assistant.

          Even with the shortened season, the Northside athletics director didn’t think Estes would change his mind.

          “He told us before the season started it was going to be his last one,” Alligood said. “He’d been grinding in two sports for (two dozen) years, and so he told us this would be the last baseball season.

          “I tried to talk him out of it. I tried to talk him into one more, since this one wasn’t a complete season, because he does just an unbelievable job.”

          But Alligood didn’t have to go long or far to find a replacement. Dyron Adams will move from the No. 2 spot to head coach, Alligood announced in a Tweet on Thursday.

          That came two weeks after Alligood’s Tweet expressing appreciation for Estes work with baseball, the unofficial announcement that Estes was done.

          Estes was an assistant from 2005-13, and took over as head coach in 2014.

          “He’s as good as I’ve ever been around,” Alligood said. “Organized, he works those kids hard, he’s just what you look for in a coach, period.”

          Adams is a 1991 Northside grad who is in his eighth year at his alma mater, a stint that includes assisting in football. Adams’ sons Jake and Trey have played for the Eagles.

          Northside was, according to MaxPreps, 6-2 overall and 1-0 in Region 1-6A play when the season stopped. The final game of the season was an 11-9 win over Warner Robins on March 11.   

Falcons open with Seattle, get GB on MNF

          A pair of prime-time games and a late-season visit from the “new” Tampa Bay Bucs highlight Atlanta’s NFL schedule, released Thursday night.

          Atlanta visits Green Bay for Monday Night Football action on Oct. 5 in the fourth game of the season, and then is at Carolina for Thursday night play on Oct. 29.

          Central Georgians will get a visit near home a few times: Macon County’s Roquan Smith with Chicago on Sept. 27, Stratford’s Quintez Cephus with Detroit on Oct. 25, Westside’s Kareem Jackson and Denver on Nov. 8, and Warner Robins’ Marquez Callaway and New Orleans on Dec. 6.

Cephus is a draft pick and Callaway an undrafted free-agent signing, and aren’t guaranteed to make the roster.

Tougher start and end to the season

Breaking it down

Alumni Update

          A pair of Central Georgians was among the 70 Georgia athletes who will officially get their degrees on Friday.

          The undergraduate’s ceremony has been postponed until October.

          Stratford grad and softball standout Mary Wilson Avant will graduate with a degree in marketing, and Gatewood alum and equestrian competitor Grace Bridges graduates in management.

Around/About Georgia

Hoops quadruple header at State Farm?

Follow https://www.facebook.com/Thesportsreportofcentralgeorgia to keep up, un-Twitter-like, with the day’s events.

Around the nation/world

NCAA: Kansas’ violations are big

College football keeps playing the waiting game

NCAA women’s BKB to go from RBI to NET

How many MLBers make $100 Gs a game?

BJ, MJ, and Kobe at dinner

Vitale ready, if competitors are beyond safe

Wentz OK with draft of Hurts