Sports

Chatt Tech Aiming for National Title

The Golden Eagles enter their second football season ranked seventh in the nation.

Chattahoochee Tech is building its young football program into a national power by focusing on the talent all around the two-year college’s campuses in Marietta, Canton, Woodstock, Northeast Cobb, Acworth, Dallas, Austell and Jasper.

The goal is to build locally, then reach across the state, head coach Tim Freeman said Wednesday. “Georgia has some of the best high school football around.”

The media day on the main campus in Marietta was a first for the football program as it enters its second season, and college officials said the team gives them reasons to be proud on and off the field.

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On the field, the team finished its first season competing in the National Club Football Association with a 4-4 record and a No. 7 national ranking.

The Golden Eagles enter this season with that same national ranking and a 10-game schedule, although the season opener against Shorter University’s junior varsity team has been canceled.

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Chat Tech will play all home games at , including homecoming Oct. 30 against Rollins College and the season finale Nov. 12 against the defending club national champion, the University of New Orleans.

After playing last year with 53 players, Chattahoochee Tech has a roster of 67 this season, most of them freshmen. Freeman said his recruiting philosophy, in addition to emphasizing local talent, is to start with the offensive line and build from there.

All the players are benefiting from one of the off-field improvements, a new weight center, which Freeman said is helping his players develop and is preparing them to play JV teams from four-year schools as well as other two-year colleges.

The coach said his goal is to win the national championship this year, then move up to the National Junior College Athletic Association. That’s the process the college has used for all of its growing number of intercollegiate sports.

“We do not spend state dollars on athletics,” college President Sanford Chandler said. “We’ve had to scrap to make this work.”

He and Associate Provost Ron Dulaney, who oversees athletics, said that financial situation makes local support and strong attendance crucial, another factor in recruiting locally as much as possible.

One of the dozens of local players is freshman cornerback David Pollock from .

Pollock said he didn’t do as well in the classroom in high school as he should have, and Chattahoochee Tech gives him a place to improve academically and athletically so he can get a shot at a four-year school. He said he has his eyes on Valdosta State.

But first he and the rest of the Golden Eagles have work to do this year to achieve the goal of a national title.

“We have a very strong group of guys,” Pollock said.

According to a roster handed out Wednesday, three of the team's players are from Powder Springs:

Damian Butler, freshman defensive back (Hillgrove)

David Pollock, freshman defensive back (Hillgrove)

Myles Bass, freshman tight end ()


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