It was February 1996.
​
The half-inch layer of coarse black soot covered the street, likely coming from the smoke stacks of the nearby nuclear power plant.
Use two fingers to move the map
​
Hefei City, China welcomed the five American couples with temperatures in the 30s after their 18-hour flight to Hong Kong and subsequent arrangements through the city of Guangzhou.
​
Clabe Polk had $14,000 cash in his luggage along with his Chinese visa, American passport and adoption approval from the United States Immigration and Naturalization office. He and his wife, Pat, were ready to buy a baby.
​
Herded together, Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) Group 20 moved in a pack from airplane to bus to hotel lobby. One by one, the hotel assigned the couples to their rooms. Twin-sized beds filled the small room. Hot water flowed from shower faucets only a few, scheduled hours a day. A master power switch controlled the intake of electricity. Drinking water would be delivered every morning, purified and kept hot in a thermos.
She had been a Christmas present from CCAI just months before. Her orphanage gave her a name, Jaing Anna, and she was one of many whose mothers had left them in streets or on doorsteps with no notice. “Jaing” took the place of the children’s actual family names, since their family existed only within the orphanage. “Anna” gave her a unique identity.
​
But to her new American parents, she was Cristalei, and she was beautiful.
​
The director from the orphanage watched the expectant parents with great scrutiny, looking for signs of discontentment. For the Polks, an uninhibited joy colored their faces as the director from the orphanage placed Anna, now Cristalei, in their cradled arms.
​
The sweet eight-month-old whose face adorned matching handmade coffee mugs in the cabinet back in Florida came wrapped tight – so tight that her ability to develop normal movement was severely hindered. The Chinese constriction was quickly removed and replaced by a Western freedom to move and grow. She would wear “normal baby clothes” now, one of her first gifts from her new family.
WRITING
READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE
LIFE WITH THREE MOMS: A Story of Adoption, Loss and Enduring Love
It was aggressive. It was angry. It was the Georgia College women’s basketball home-opener 58- 53 win against Fort Valley State. The win moves GC to 2-1 in the young season.
​
The Bobcats went into the locker room at halftime shooting only 8-of-24 from the field and having yet to hit a three. With help from a 100 percent shooting performance from the line, they remained on top of the Wildcats 21-15.
​
The second half was again a slow start for the GC squad. They failed to rebound the ball, both defensively and offensively, and continued to hand the ball over to the Wildcats. The mistakes quickly brought the Bobcats lead to just one point. The Bobcats entered the fourth quarter down 31-30, but GC outscored Fort Valley 27-23 in the final quarter to seal the victory.
​
Sophomore forward Alyah McGriff helped the Bobcats in a big way, tallying a team-leading 12 points. She also added six rebounds.
Junior guard Veronica Ryan also contributed for the Bobcats, sinking two timely three-pointers late in the game. Ryan finished the night with 10 points and 2 assists.
​
“We showed heart,” Ryan said after the game. “Yeah, they shouldn’t have stuck around with us, but that didn’t that deter us.”
Head Coach Maurice Smith loves his team’s confidence but knows they have a lot of work to do throughout the season to get where they need to be to reach their goal of winning the Peach Belt Conference.
​
Coach Smith said. “We’ve got to realize that there’s a lot of work to make that happen, and we’ve got a special group that can make that happen.” Coach Smith said. “It’s about how we respond to this and the next one and the next one.”
​
The win did not come without a loss, however. LaRice Walker, Team Captain and junior guard, went to the floor screaming with a little over a minute left in the game. The trainers and coaches said that there is no structural damage to her left knee but more tests will be done.
​
The Bobcats travel to the UNG Nighthawk Classic in Dahlonega Nov. 20 o take on Catawba, followed by a Saturday matchup with Trevecca Nazarene. They return home Dec. 3 to take on Clark Atlanta at 5:30 in the Centennial Center.
BOBCATS OUTLAST WILDCATS IN NAIL-BITING WIN
SEE THE PUBLISHED PIECE HERE
For many, softball is a simple sport, one for collegiate stars and church leagues alike. But for the people of Uganda, the large yellow ball, bat and four bases mean opportunity, a word that rarely appears in Ugandan vocabulary.
Georgia College Softball alumna Joni Frei (’04) took her 2003 NCAA Division II Region Championship title, two All-Region honors and countless school career records over 8,600 miles to the Pearl of Africa to make the impossible possible.
She made the trip from her home in British Columbia, Canada, to Uganda three times before bringing the team of 14 women back to Canada with her for the 2016 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) XV World Softball Championship at the end of July.
With the help of her two Ugandan assistant coaches, Frei traveled around the country hosting camps, gifting equipment and educating teachers on the sport to keep the Ugandans’ opportunity to play alive. From those camps, a roster of 24 potential national athletes narrowed to a team of 14 ready for Frei to unify and prepare them for their international adventure.
Frei and her assistants had 14 days to transform the 14 unique players into a team. But their to-do list was not limited to skill development and tactical strategy. In two weeks, the entire team needed plane tickets, passports, yellow fever shots, travel insurance and international documents. Eleven of the players had never before boarded an airplane, and a 36-hour trip loomed ahead before the calendar turned.
The team faced a strong wall of doubt and disbelief, but a North American attitude motivated them. Frei told them to respond to their doubters with a simple “Watch This.” Those two words quickly became the team’s battle cry.
“Regardless of any doubt, adversity, challenge, perceived impossibility, we were going to show people that this was going to happen,” Frei said.
​
And “watch this” they did. The team competed in six games, winning two against Ireland and neighboring Kenya and accumulating 24 total runs from the nine-day tournament. The team is ranked top-25 in the world.
Frei’s next vision is to see a yet-to-be-formed Ugandan Junior National team compete in the 2017 XII ISF Junior Women’s World Championship in Florida next July. She is also hoping to help Ugandan players get on European club teams and American collegiate teams.
Her softball academy, “Beyond the White Lines,” continues to grow in Uganda and other countries she has worked in, including her Canadian home, where she is the Director of Coaching for Softball BC.
“I love this game – not only for the game between the white lines, but for the vehicle that it is beyond the white lines,” Frei said.
​And “watch this” they did. The team competed in six games, winning two against Ireland and neighboring Kenya and accumulating 24 total runs from the nine-day tournament. The team is ranked top-25 in the world.
Frei’s next vision is to see a yet-to-be-formed Ugandan Junior National team compete in the 2017 XII ISF Junior Women’s World Championship in Florida next July. She is also hoping to help Ugandan players get on European club teams and American collegiate teams.
Her softball academy, “Beyond the White Lines,” continues to grow in Uganda and other countries she has worked in, including her Canadian home, where she is the Director of Coaching for Softball BC.
“I love this game – not only for the game between the white lines, but for the vehicle that it is beyond the white lines,” Frei said.
'WATCH THIS': How One Bobcat Alum Defied Doubt and Built the Ugandan National Softball Team
AOPI HOUSE BURNS
Emergency personnel responded to a 911 call on the corner of South Liberty and West Greene streets Wednesday afternoon at approximately 3:15 p.m.
​
The faint smell of burning wood clouded the south side of Georgia College’s campus as flames blazed from the second floor of the Alpha Omicron Pi house. No injuries were reported, but the fire caused serious damage to the majority of the house.
The building housed three AOPi members, none of whom were home at the time of the incident, according to the statement sent out by University Communications.
​
Due to the old layout of the house and curve of the stairs, the firemen had to hack through the roof to access the fire with the hoses.
AOPi neighbor Hannah Smith, sophomore political science major, saw the fire from the beginning.
“We saw smoke. A couple girls fled from the house before the fire department got here,” Smith said. “As the fire trucks came one by one and piled up on the street, the fire grew bigger and bigger. And then all of a sudden, you see sparks. You could just hear it was coming from the house, it was like electricity.”
After about two hours on scene, the fire was extinguished, but its cause still remained a mystery.
“We haven’t had time to investigate yet,” Milledgeville Fire Department Battalion Chief Wren Marshall said on site at 5:15 p.m. “We had fire coming out, but we don’t know what caused it.”
He said that an investigator would be sent inside the house once the site was deemed safe enough.
Most of the damage was caused by water, not fire, according to Chad Harrell, a firefighter and paramedic who worked inside the house. The process of putting out the fire left about two inches of water on the second floor.
“All the electronics are wet, I can tell you that,” Harrell said.
Rumors swirled in the aftermath. Some say the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction while others say a lone candle started the blaze. But the true cause will not be known until an official investigation has been conducted.
The university will be providing housing and meals for the three women affected, according to an official statement made by Kyle Cullars, interim associate vice president of University Communications.
“Right now, it’s all about having a conversation as to what’s been lost and what’s needed to ensure they’re moving forward and they’re able to have the things that they need for the rest of the academic year,” SGA President Juwan Jackson said. “[We’re going to] find out what we can do as a student government to help our fellow students out.”
Though the fire was responsible for great loss, Vice President for Student Affairs Bruce Harshbarger focused on the positives in his official statement to students.
“We are very thankful that no one was injured, and we appreciate the quick response of the local firefighters and other emergency authorities,” Harshbarger said.
The women of AOPi declined to comment on the situation.
GC MEN'S BASKETBALL DOMINATES FOR FIFTH-STRAIGHT WIN
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The Georgia College Men's Basketball team (5-2) brought in another win against the Golden Tigers of Tuskegee University (0-7), this time on the Bobcats' home court. The Bobcats bested the Tigers 65-56 after a dominating first half and gave Coach Mark Gainous his first career five-win streak.
The victory resulted primarily from the hot start the Bobcats had in the first half. Huge blocks from freshman Kohl Roberts (Atlanta) and a nearly perfect half from point guard Desmond Mitchell-LaFlam(New Smyna Beach, Florida) put the Bobcats up early. They went into the locker room with a nine-point lead, 30-21.
The Golden Tigers fought back in the second half, but the nine-point deficit proved too large to overcome. Both teams netted 35 points a piece in the second, but the explosive second half from sophomore Chaz Berry (Fayetteville) kept the Bobcats just far enough in the lead to secure the fifth win of the season.
Berry and Mitchell-LaFlam tied for tops on the Bobcat roster, each recording 13 points. Mitchell-LaFlam was perfect for 19 minutes, gaining all 13 points in the first half. Before missing a three-pointer at the end of the first, Mitchell-LaFlam drained three of three from three, a perfect two free throws and an extra layup.
Berry had a slower start with just one point going into the locker room at halftime. But in true Chaz Berryfashion, the forward found holes in the Golden Tigers defense during the second half, going 4-for-7 from the floor and snagging four free points from the foul line.
Junior Brice Booker (Atlanta) remained a force from the bench, reaching double-digits for the fourth time this season. He went home with three assists and three rebounds as well.
With seven games in the books, Georgia College holds onto the best Peach Belt Conference (PBC) defense from points per game allowed and field goal percentage allowed. Thomas is the 10th-best in the PBC for rebounds per game with 7.7, and freshman Austin Dukes (Lawrenceville) stays in fifth in free throw percentage with .867.
The Bobcats play a non-conference match Saturday when they host Albany State University in a men's and women's basketball doubleheader. Tip-off for the men is scheduled for 4 p.m. Georgia College begins conference play after the university's finals week. They'll host Armstrong State University Saturday Dec. 16 at 3:30 p.m.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at @GCBobcats on social media for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.