Sportopia Sports Saturday with the Atlanta Rollergirls

They’re baaaaaaaack!

Conceived in 2004, the Atlanta Rollergirls get the 2012 season rolling Saturday with a doubleheader at the YAARAB Shrine Temple at 400 East Ponce de Leon Avenue. At least we know track announcer Lucky Yates is excited about this news. (see video) At 5 p.m., ARG’s all-star Dirty South Derby Girls will skate against Maine Roller Derby 's Port Authorities. Then at 7:30, witness home team rivalry as Apocalypstix and Denim Demons take the track. Tickets begin at $15 and children 3 and under are free. See here for more information.

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Grady High School's Athletic Booster Club is currently accepting nominations for one current Grady parent and one community representative to serve on the interview committee to select Grady's next athletic director. Coach Doug Slade is scheduled to retire at the end of this school year after devoting many years to Grady. Individuals interested in serving on the interview committee should send a statement of interest to ABC President Lisa Seiler at laseiler2@aol.com no later than March 12. 
 
Individuals interested in applying for the Grady athletic director position should consult the Atlanta Public Schools website for information about the position and application deadline. If you have questions, contact Seiler or Jennifer Roorbach at jenniferroorbach@comcast.net.

The Athletic Booster Club would like to invite parents, team liaisons, coaches and athletes to hear a presentation by Jason Thomas at the next ABC meeting on Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Thomas is the owner-director of training for Thomas Training Systems and would like to present his services for strength conditioning and training for student athletes for all teams. He has provided pre-season training for Grady's soccer team, and received great reviews from parents and kids.

The ABC is looking for more people to get involved with the club, which is seeking those to serve as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, liaison, fundraising coordinator, and concussion awareness coordinator. All of this will be discussed at the Feb. 27 meeting.

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The college basketball regular season is winding down and while overall production of the state’s major teams has been disappointing, the ATL television numbers have been solid. Today at 3 p.m., Georgia Tech, losers of 12 of its last 14 games and currently residing in the basement of the ACC standings, travels to the Commonwealth State to face Virginia Tech. And the Jackets have done so without guard Glen Rice, Jr., who has been suspended indefinitely by Tech coach Brian Gregory.      

The 6-foot-5 Rice leads the Jackets, 9-16 overall, 2-9 in league play, in several statistical categories and ranks 14th in the conference in scoring and 11th in rebounding.

At this point, Tech hoops supporters are pointing to next season, when the McCamish Pavilion, currently under construction, makes its debut. The new facility that is replacing Alexander Memorial Coliseum, will feature an open concourse that will stretch 270 degrees around the court. With that, plus wider aisles and more chairback seating, the McCamish Pavilion’s seating capacity is expected to be 8,900, around 300 less than the former coliseum.    

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On a bright note, Tech’s nationally ninth-ranked baseball team opened its 2012 season Friday by splitting a pair of games at the Rock Hill Coca-Cola Classic in Rock Hill, S.C. The Jackets, who welcomed back 23 letterwinners from last year’s team that went 42-21, lost its season opener 5-0 to Kent State Friday, but bounced back to blank Winthrop by the same final score.

It’s another doubleheader Saturday, as Tech will face Kent State at noon and Winthrop at 7 p.m. The home opener is set for this coming Friday against Ohio State at 4 p.m. Games will be broadcast this season on WREK Radio 91.1 FM and online at RamblinWreck.com.

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And just because, it’s mid-February, why wouldn’t we talk about football? The Rumble Seat ran an interesting article this week in posing the question as to whether it would be a good idea to bring back former Tech assistant Ralph Friedgen to the Flats as the Jackets’ offensive line coach?

And congrats to four Tech football players who were recently named to the All-ACC Academic team. To be eligible, a student-athlete must earn a 3.0 GPA for the previous semester and maintained a 3.0 average for his academic career. Those honored from Tech were guard Will Jackson, B-back Preston Lyons, defensive end Jason Peters and defensive tackle Logan Walls.

It marks the third time in coach Paul Johnson’s tenure at Tech that the school had four players represented on the team. Duke had 18 members on the team. The Blue Devils were followed by Clemson and Wake Forest with five each, and then came Tech and Maryland with four each.

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Finally, this week Nightclub & Bar and Technomic Inc. released its list of the top 100 grossing nightclubs in the country and Midtown’s Opera was one of two Georgia clubs on the list. Maybe that’s one reason the Atlanta Hawks Foundation will be returning to Opera this spring for its annual fundraiser, “Casino Night.”

Every single member of the Atlanta Hawks roster is scheduled to participate in the April 1 casino related activities, and all proceeds from the event will go directly to the Atlanta Hawks Foundation for community programming and grant giving throughout the state of Georgia.

Hawks public address announcer and V103 on-air personality Ryan Cameron is serving as emcee for the event. Tickets cost $125 for the general public and $100 for season ticket holders and can be purchased here or by calling 404-878-3497. Guests must be 21 years of age or older to attend.