MACON, Ga. — The Macon Touchdown Club returned to their weekly meetings for the 2020 football season Monday night. The club is celebrating their 75th year promoting high school athletes.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club is one week behind in recognizing athletes. They've named athletes for both the week of September 4 and September 11, but only the athletes from the fourth were recognized and given their trophies so that the club could stay under the necessary numbers for pandemic restrictions from the Georgia governor's office.
OrthoGeorgia athlete of the week for the week of September 4 is First Presbyterian Day School's Jordan Jones. Jones recorded 7 receptions, 128 yards and 1 touchdown. He helped FPD beat ACE Charter Academy.
Co-lineman of the week is Mount De Sales' Kobe Butts. Butts was all over the field. He recorded 12 tackles, 1 fumble recovery and returned an interception for a touchdown. He also had 18 yards in three rushes as a fullback. MDS got the win over Jasper County.
Fellow co-lineman of the week is Tate Turner of ACE. He made life hard on FPD. He recorded 16 tackles, two pass breakups and one sack in a loss to the Vikings.
The special guest this week was ESPN senior writer Mark Schlabach. The Macon Touchdown Club realizes how lucky they are to even get to meet. As of Thursday, the club was not allowed because of the Governor Brian Kemp's restrictions on large gatherings.
After several meetings on Thursday they were given clearance to have the event with the necessary COVID-19 precautions. Members are required to wear masks, the floor of the Methodist Children's home was marked with tape to indicate six feet for social distancing and the number of attendees was capped.
Executive Secretary Russell Deese says it is so important to this club, to highlight Macon's high school athletes every week.
"It's just great to be back together again. Now we've got protocols here tonight and masks and distancing that we have to follow those rules. Just to get here tonight, Avery, was very important and to honor these kids who have missed so much over the last eight or nine months was also important," Deese said.
The club meets every Monday night.