tra X TIMES-HERALD
AUGUST 30 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
INSIDE ➤
DISCOVER
DOWNTOWN
free
— a vibrant mix of restaurants, shops, music, art, and year-round events
see pages 4 & 5
your weekly connection to local news & entertainment
Rolling at Riverfest
Sylvia Yaeger and Emmaline Giles try their hand at paddling a canoe during the annual Chattahoochee Riverfest Aug. 19. The event, which is in its fourth year, is put on by the Friends of Chattahoochee Bend State Park. Proceeds from this year’s event will go into the mountain bike trail fund. There are plans to build a major network of mountain bike trails at the park. PHOTO BY CLAY NEELY
‘There Goes Another One’
Trinity Christian student-athlete Jayce Blalock hits deep homers, but values being a good teammate BY JEFF ARMSTRONG
jarmstrong@newnan.com
G
rantville native Jayce Blalock, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Trinity Christian School, is your typical teenage kid. After football practice, he can been seen hanging and talking with his teammates and classmates — talking about everything from TV shows to girls to sports. The only difference between Blalock and his buddies is he has this propensity to hit long home runs in baseball. The fact that Blalock is bigger than your average 13-year-old helps — he’s a solid 5-foot-8 and 177 pounds and he can bench press 205 pounds and squat 250, which is outstanding for his age. The world focused on Coweta Count y ea rlier t h is mont h, thanks to Blalock’s power. During his stint on the Peachtree City National Little League baseball team, he hit a 375-foot grand
I want to be known as a good teammate instead of just being a home run hitter.
slam against the South Carolina LL team on Aug. 6 in the Little League Baseball Southeast Regional Tournament in Warner Robins. Blalock’s homer was picked up by ESPN and other sports and national news outlets across the country, and everyone was stunned to see a kid his age hit the ball that far. Ever yone except h is best f r iend a nd Pe ac ht re e Cit y National teammate Aaron Gates. Gates, a 12-year-old seventhgrader at Trinity, knew the ball was long gone as soon as it left
UWG Newnan Enrollment Up 32 Percent BY WALTER C. JONES walter@newnan.com
Fall enrollment at the Newnan campus of the University of West Georg i a s o a r e d by n e a rly
Kiwanis
midway by Dixieland Carnivals
Newnan
one-third over last year, accord i ng to f ig u res administrators released this week. The 979 students signed up for the 83 classes at
Blalock’s bat. “As soon as he hit it, I said to myself, ‘There goes another one!’” said Gates, who was on first base during the grand slam. “Hitting home runs is what Jayce does. I’ve seen him hit a homerun in the lights during travel ball.” Blalock, an outf ielder and third baseman, said he knew the ball was gone as soon as he swung the bat. “I thought it would be my longest homer so far. When I participated in the travel ball home run derby at Starr’s Mill High, I hit a ball 380 feet,” Blalock said. “What was crazy about my grand slam was that it had over two million views on all of social media.” Blalock, who lists baseball and football as his two favorite sports, said he remembers hitting his first home run at age eight. And while he likes hitting home runs, he said he doesn’t go up to the plate looking to
the campus is 31.5 percent higher than the 744 in place last fall. The number is edging toward the school’s 1 ,000 i nteri m goal. “I’m so excited about the growth,” said Provost Michael Crafton. “The rate is fantastic.” The most popular majors are early childhood development, community health and sport management. The community health courses are new to Newnan and already well-attended, he told members of the university’s local advisory board Thursday. Nursing is also a popular major, with 159 students in the program and a not her 14 0 pre-nu rsing students taking core courses. Cra fton sa id ad m i n-
PHOTO BY JEFF ARMSTRONG
Peachtree City National and Trinity Christian teammates Aaron Gates, left, and Jayce Blalock, enjoyed their run in the Little League Baseball Southeast Regional Tournament earlier this month.
blast every pitch out of the park. In fact, before he hit the grand slam, Blalock said his mindset wasn’t on hitting a homer. “All I wanted to do was just ma ke contact with the ba ll
ist rators a re pla n n i ng new programs to offer in Newnan, including a bachelor of interdisciplinary studies next fall that is flexible enough to quickly adjust to local employers’ changing demands for workers. University officials believe the ability to rapidly match economic conditions will give Coweta County an advantage is recruiting both students and industries. Another major being considered for Newnan is in organizational leadership, which is mostly offered online. Crafton is weighing an introductory course teaching how to succeed in online studies. President Kyle Marrero crowed about the expanding enrollment in Newnan and the university overall. This year’s freshman
class has the highest highschool grade-point average in the university’s history. “Growth is important, but what about student success?” he asked. T he g raduation rate rose 6 percent in the last year to a UWG record. A major focus of the administration is to raise private funds to complete the renovation of the former hospit a l complex that houses the Newnan campus. There is 24,000 squa re feet of u nused space requiring finishing and furnishings. The sale of the former Newnan classroom building in the Shenandoa h industrial park brought $875,000 t h at w i l l be ava i lable to complete the former hospital basement and
THE FAIR IS COMING! SEPT. 22 – OCT. 1r Get You Tickets Now!
275 Pine Road • Newnan
Find us on
follow us on
CowetaCoFair
and hope for the best. I wasn’t nervous or anything like that,” he said. “Despite the fact the game was on ESPN, it felt like a normal game.”
BLALOCK, page 2
top floor and the unused por t ion of a one-t i me nu rses’ dor m itor y. He a lso a n nounced t wo major donations to the university’s foundation that funds, among other t h i n g s , c ol l a b o r a t i o n with high schools and te c h n ic a l c ol le ge s to prepa re g raduates for e m p l o y m e n t . AT& T Georgia donated $30,000, and Piedmont Newnan Hospital committed over the next three years to give $75,000. Hospital CEO Michael Robertson noted that he’d recently hired 35 nurses and that he considered UWG critical to his nursing “pipeline.” “This gift is a way to help our county. We have benef itted many, many ways with this partnership,” he said.
presenting sponsor
our sponsors PURCHASE BY Midnight SEPT. 21
available onlin e an at select locatio d ns
(see website for locations)
cowetacountyfair.org
BB&T Home Mortgage Chick-fil-A Georgia Power Crain Oil Company Headley Construction Lindsey’s Realtors McKoon Funeral Home
Shine ‘N Drive SouthTowne Motors State Farm – Jake Stanley UBS WaterSource Plumbing Welden Financial Services