Casey Grant tops local standings in football contest with one week to go

Week 14 of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest wrapped up over the weekend and when the dust settled after the final game on Saturday night, Casey Grant found himself atop the local standings. Casey finished the weekend with 105 total points in the contest, just one point ahead of second-place finisher, Clint Hyde.

Jesse Jordan, Blake Stringer, Drew Skipper, Mark Cotten and Brett Loftin were all tied for third place with 102 points each. Justin Chandler and Arthur Ingram III were tied for eighth place with 98 points each. Austin Weaver was in tenth place with 97 total points, and I was in 11^th place with 96 points.

This coming Saturday will mark the final weekend of our local contest, so it’ll be interesting to see who will win this year’s contest. Can Casey hold on for one more week or will someone else in the top 10 swoop in and knock him off the top of the hill? Only time will tell, but this year’s contest has been a lot of fun.

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This time next week, local high school basketball will be in full swing in Conecuh County, and it’ll be interesting to see how our local teams fare as the season progresses.

Sparta’s two varsity teams have gotten off to an uncharacteristic slow start, but the season is still young. I look for them to break out of their early season funk soon and to get back on track, especially once they get into area play. Don’t be surprised if Sparta’s varsity girls eventually win their way into the AISA’s Top 10.

Hillcrest’s boys and girls are getting a late start, not starting their season until tonight (Thursday) at J.F. Shields. This should be a good set of games to go watch. It’ll be Jamal Smith’s first official game as Hillcrest’s head boys basketball coach, and I know he’ll want to get off on the right foot.

Tonight’s game will also mark the return of Hillcrest girls coach Tammie Patrick to her alma mater. Patrick played high school ball at Shields, which traditionally has had one of the top prep basketball programs in the state. Coach Patrick always wants to win, but she really wants to win when her Hillcrest girls play Shields.

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The New Orleans Saints have a big football game coming up this Sunday when they take on the San Francisco 49ers. That game will kick off at noon in the Superdome and will be televised on FOX.

The Saints, which have already clinched the NFC South Division title, enters the game with a 10-2 overall record. San Francisco is also 10-2 and while they are currently leading the NFC West, they have yet to clinch their division. Both of these teams are sporting the best records in the NFC right now, so there’s a lot riding on this game, including a bye week in the first round of the playoffs.

Both of these teams are good defensively, so this should be a smashmouth game. New Orleans will have the home field advantage in this one and that may be the difference in the game. After this one, New Orleans has just three more regular season games left on its schedule – Dec. 16 against the Colts on Monday Night Football, Dec. 22 at the Tennessee Titans and Dec. 29 at the Carolina Panthers.