Ping: Atlanta area residents

[ahbrady]

I am an assistant coach for a high school girls basketball team. We are going to Atlanta after Christmas to play in a tournament. I don't know much about how much down time we will have yet, but I was wondering if any of you could give me some places to shop/eat/etc in the Atlanta area. We are staying pretty close to downtown and playing at Morehouse College, if you need an idea of where we'll be. If anyone knows anything about North Clayton's girls' basketball team, our first round opponent, or any sites that might have some information on them and other Atlanta-area teams that would be helpful as well.

[Ben E Lou]

As far as the basketball side of things goes, your best bet is to ask at the Georgia AAAA Basketball message board: http://mb18.scout.com/fgavsvfrm10

You have access to pretty much any and everything from downtown. What sort of things are you looking for. The newest attraction is the Georgia Aquarium, but there are plenty of options.

[ahbrady]

I don't really know what I'm looking for specifically. We have only gotten a schedule for the first round, so I don't know if we will be off a day or when we're going to play each day. So I'm looking for just about any kind of possibility for something to do. I've heard about the aquarium, but I had forgotten about it. That might be a good option. Thanks for the website too. I'll have to check that out.

[Ben E Lou]

What other teams are in the tourney, or do you know that yet? All I know about North Clayton is that D.J. Shockley went there.

[RPI-Fan]

Atlanta Underground could kill time, and it's right on MARTA (think it's actually the cross-roads, so-to-speak, IIRC).

[Ksyrup]

I thought this was going to be the announcement that Dan Kolb was traded back to the Brewers!

[ahbrady]

What other teams are in the tourney, or do you know that yet? All I know about North Clayton is that D.J. Shockley went there.

I don't have the list of teams with me, but I do remember seeing Tucker. SW DeKalb and Douglass are the only other two Atlanta area schools I can remember. There are several schools from around the country: one from NYC, Minn, two from Florida, a couple from Alabama. The tournament has a boys' division too. Which of the local teams would be good ones to watch? I'll be gone this weekend, but I'll get a list of which teams are going to be in it.

[Ben E Lou]

I don't have the list of teams with me, but I do remember seeing Tucker. SW DeKalb and Douglass are the only other two Atlanta area schools I can remember. There are several schools from around the country: one from NYC, Minn, two from Florida, a couple from Alabama. The tournament has a boys' division too. Which of the local teams would be good ones to watch? I'll be gone this weekend, but I'll get a list of which teams are going to be in it.Tucker's boys are currently ranked #1 in state and features Charlotte signee Cameron Tatum. SW and Douglass ain't exactly chopped liver, either. St. Pius and Marist would have the girls' teams to watch. I should see our boys' head coach tomorrow, so I'll try to get a list of teams from him.

[ahbrady]

Okay, thanks. I don't remember seeing either of those girls teams. I think I would have remembered St. Pius, because I remember thinking that we were the only private school in it.

[wbatl1]

I assume you'll have a school bus or some sort of vehicle to move around the city in...Atlanta isn't exactly the most pedestrian friendly city and unless you are truly in downtown it will be hard to walk to many places. That said, I'd think about the aquarium, hawks game (if you dont get to go to pro games very often, because the hawks are horrible), World of Coke, maybe go to some of the malls if yall like to shop, ... I bet you dont end up having that much time and can only knock out a couple, but anything you do should be fun.

[ahbrady]

Thanks for the suggestions. We are going to fly into Atlanta and then rent or borrow some type of bus or a couple of vans.

Here are the Georgia teams that are in the Peach State Classic.

Boys: McNair, N. Atlanta, Savannah, Riverdale, Tucker, Redan, Creekside, N. Clayton, Stone Mountain, SW Dekalb, Westlake, Spencer, Griffin, and Meadowcreek.

Girls: Tucker, Spencer, Stone Mountain, SW Dekalb, N. Clayton, N. Atlanta, Westlake, and Douglass.

The first round matches up all of these schools with an out-of-state school.

[Ben E Lou]

I'll definitely have to come and say hello.

According to what I've heard, aquarium tickets need to be purchased at least a week or so in advance right now, so be warned.

[ahbrady]

I've heard that the aquarium is pretty busy right now. I don't think we'll know a week ahead of time when we can go, so we may have to pass on the aquarium. Thanks for the heads up on that.

[GreenMonster]

Thanks for the suggestions. We are going to fly into Atlanta and then rent or borrow some type of bus or a couple of vans.

Here are the Georgia teams that are in the Peach State Classic.

Boys: McNair, N. Atlanta, Savannah, Riverdale, Tucker, Redan, Creekside, N. Clayton, Stone Mountain, SW Dekalb, Westlake, Spencer, Griffin, and Meadowcreek.

Girls: Tucker, Spencer, Stone Mountain, SW Dekalb, N. Clayton, N. Atlanta, Westlake, and Douglass.

The first round matches up all of these schools with an out-of-state school.

Rent a couple of 15 passenger vans from one of the Airport Rental lots.. This will give you the best bang for your buck, because parking is pretty cheap downtown. I can't think of many things to do in downtown even though I attended Georgia State for 5 years. I would recommend the Varsity to grab a bite to eat, but you are intown for a sporting event so hit the Varsity up on the way out.. Its great eating, but not before any competition..

[JonInMiddleGA]

If I've tracked down the right tournament, looks like it runs 12/27 through 12/30.
Not sure what your travel plans are, when you'll have free time nor what high school kids enjoy these days but in that date range:

12/27 Basketball: Atlanta Hawks vs. Charlotte Bobcats Philips Arena
12/28 Hockey: Atlanta Thrashers vs. Philadelphia Philips Arena
12/30 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Fanfest Georgia World Congress
12/30 Football: Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Georgia Dome

Try www.accessatlanta.com (free registration required) & click the link for "Advanced Search" (should be a green box centered, toward the bottom of the screen on the index page). The advanced search lets you put in a date range, search by location/type of attraction, etc. Might not produce a perfect solution but might at least provide some ideas.

Another downtown attraction (next to Underground Atlanta) worth mentioning, especially since it can be done in a couple of hours, would be the World of Coke.
http://www.woccatlanta.com/

[ahbrady]

That is the correct range of dates. Thanks for those sites. I'll check those out.

[Ben E Lou]

I forgot to touch base ahead of time. Ahbrady, if you happen to see this, I'm heading down today for the Tucker girls' game at 10:30am. I'm not sure when the guys play, but I hope to be there for that, too. I should be at other games during the tourney, too. Hope to say hello.

[ahbrady]

Sorry I didn't see this before the game, or I would have tried to make it to at least one of those games. We had a great time while we were down there. I got to go to the Peach Bowl, and while it wasn't a very good game, that was fun. The girls had a good time at a couple of the malls, and there seemed to be plenty for us to do. Our hotel was within walking distance of Centennial Park, the Underground, CNN Center, the Georgia Dome, and several other places of interest, so it was a good trip. I'll have to go back and go to the aquarium sometime though.

The basketball side didn't go quite as well as we had hoped. We won our first two games to get to the semifinals, but then lost the last two to take 4th place. Skydog's Tucker beat us in the semis in a close game, so congratulations to them. Do you know how they did in the finals, Skydog?

[JonInMiddleGA]

After searching several different places, I finally found a Dec 30th score of
Tucker 44-42 over East (TN)

Would that have been the championship game?

Other scores from 12/30 included:
Ramsay (AL) 39-33 over Stone Mountain (I think this was down the bracket a bit)

[ahbrady]

That would be the final then. Thanks for digging that up for me. We beat Ramsay earlier in the tournament, so I'm glad to see that they won too. Thanks again.