By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Two Central Georgia kickers are on the national radar after performances at the renowned Kohl’s kicking camps, and one joins another area player on an all-state team.

Trinity Christian punter Wade Register, who has committed to Georgia, is ranked in the top 5 nationally among high school punters, and is currently No. 2 on the Kohl’s list. He graded out at 5-star level by Kohl’s after three charting sessions, also scoring well in placekicking, where Kohl’s has him in a large group tied at 100th. He also scored a camp high at the Underclassmen Challenge.

It all helped get him a spot on the Under Armour All-America Game in Orlando in January.

Register and Houston County defensive back Jordan Smith, a Georgia commit, made Touchdown Club of Atlanta’s preseason all-state team. Smith is a high-level prospect who picked the Bulldogs over Alabama and Auburn, among others.

Register is the extremely rare GISA/GIAA selection on a team usually loaded with metro Atlanta and big-school players.

ACE Charter’s Henry Carter gives Central Georgia two of the nation’s top kickers, the senior also competing at Kohl’s and faring well and earning a ranking of 67th nationally.

Carter, also a Gryphons soccer standout, had kickoffs of nearly 75 yards at the Kohl’s camp and had a field-goal score of 21. He has participated in several Kohl’s camps, and was the GHSA Region 2-A/Division I special teams player of the year in 2024.

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This week’s scrimmages
Thursday
FPD at Strong Rock, 7
John Milledge at ACE, 6
Mount de Sales at St. Anne-Pacelli, 7
Piedmont at Strong Rock, 6
Southwest at Westside, 7
Friday
Athens Christian at Gatewood, 7:30
Bleckley County at Wilcox County, 7:30
Dodge County at Irwin County, 7:30
GMC at Stratford 7
Jasper County at Crawford County, 7:30
Mary Persons at Jones County, 7:30
Rutland vs. Central, Ed DeFore, 7
Veterans vs. Howard, Thompson, 7

One preseason all-state collection

Recruit Georgia, a website about recruiting, has posted its preseason all-state teams, and Central Georgians are all over it.

Class 5A: Houston County DB Jordan Smith and LB Wes Ard.

Class 4A: Warner Robins OL Tre Glover.

Class 3A: Howard DB Tashawn Poole; Peach County LB Ace Blunt and WR Zion Hudson; Upson-Lee LB Malachi Character; West Laurens ‘flex’ Ty Cummings and OL Grady Howell.

Class A/Division I: Dublin OL Domimarkeyo Walden; Northeast DL Amari White, DBs, Kortnei Williams and Keiland Miley; Washington County OL Javyn Brooks; Lamar County DL Bryson Johnson and LB Kaden Carter; Dodge County returner Jerimiah Burns.

Class A/Division II: Southwest DL Rinaldo Callaway; Taylor County LB Chan Lumpkin.

Early milestone watch, team version

Dodge County and Westfield will break the all-time 400-win mark at some point this year, the Indians needing two and the Hornets needing four.

Stratford passed the mark late last year and has 401 wins.

The race for the best winning percentage in Central Georgia is a tie, and it’ll be broken early this season.

Maybe when they play each other.

Warner Robins and Northside have both won 70.1 percent of their games, although the Demons have the older program and have 10 more seasons and 119 more games on the resume.

How close is it? The Demons have won 70.13 percent of the time to 70.12 for the Eagles.

Warner Robins is on an eight-game winning streak in the series and leads 42-25.

The teams play on Aug. 29, and it’s a fairly safe bet that both will be 1-1 at kickoff.

Early milestone watch, coach version

Von Lassiter of Bleckley County and Robert Washington of Washington County have the 100-win mark in their sights.

Lassiter is 95-45 at Houston County and Bleckley County, while Edwards is 91-73 at Riverwood and Washington County.

Upson-Lee’s Justin Elder is four wins from that halfway point, at 46-43. Putnam County’s Joel Harvin is next at 44-43.