The past 12 months have been special for a lot of athletes in Cedartown. From team championships to heroic individual efforts, the sporting scene was anything but boring during 2012.

The following are some of the major sporting events that happened in Cedartown in 2012.

- After losing 53 straight games, including posting back-to-back winless seasons, the Cedartown Lady Bulldogs varsity basketball team finally found themselves back in the win column.

Playing at home on Dec. 8 against their Polk County rivals Rockmart, Cedartown earned a hard fought 64-40 win. It was the Lady Bulldogs first win since Feb. 17, 2010.

- Leo Cordero and Jordan Watkins accomplished something that not many wrestlers ever accomplish – they won state championships in wrestling.

On Feb. 18 Cordero won the 152-pound Class AAA state championship and Watkins won the 195-pound Class AAA state title for Cedartown.

“As a coach, you can not ask for much more,” head coach Jerry Hartline said. “We had two young men qualify and two young men win state titles. Despite the stress, it was worth it. I am so proud to be associated with these two young men and to be able to have had a part in their success this year.”

- Despite having only three eighth graders on the roster, the Cedartown Middle school baseball team placed second in the area middle school league out of 10 teams last April. Cedartown went 12-3 on the season, only losing to Darlington. The young Bulldogs advanced all the way to the league championship game.

- Kristen Little, a Cedartown High School graduate, won a national championship last spring. Playing for Shorter University, Little and her teammates won the NAIA national championship in fast-pitch softball.

Shorter claimed the title on May 23 when they defeated Oklahoma City 1-0 in a thrilling nine-inning championship game.

- The Cedartown Middle School wrestling team ended the 2011-12 season on Jan. 13-14 with an impressive performance.

Competing in the Floyd County Area Championship tournament, Cedartown had seven of their nine wrestlers earn medals. Christopher Sherfield won first place while Brandon Brame, Cody Tibbets, Tyler Blalock and Alex Carmona all placed third. Gage Lameka and Calvin Ragsdale both placed in fourth.

- On Feb. 1, Cedartown High School senior Zach Chubb signed a letter of intent to play college football with the Air Force Academy. Chubb signed after putting together a stellar senior season that saw him run for over 1,200 yards as a quarterback.

“I’m certainly proud of the choice he made to sign with the Air Force. For him to be willing to defend our country is a wonderful thing and a great honor,” Cedartown head coach Scott Hendrix said.

- A skydiving exhibition brought 57 competitors from around the world to Polk County on June 14-15 for the United States Parachuting Association’s Canopy Piloting Championships at Skydive the Farm.

The final winners for each discipline were Thomas Dellibac for speed, Nicholad Batsch for distance and Curt Bartholomew for accuracy.

The overall winner was Bartholomew. The overall winner in the advanced level was William Mitchell.

- The Southern Misses 12-and-under fast-pitch softball team proved to be the best in the state of Georgia last summer. On June 16, the Southern Misses won the GSA softball championship in Alpharetta.

Members of the team were Blair Bedford, Aubrie Wolfe, Keely Smith, Tia Covington, Maddie Bowman, Meagan Cooper, Casey Gable, Christine Bryan, Katharine Tracy, Kelsie Motes, Lexy Smith and Sydney Greenway. The team was coached by Eddy Greenway, Travis Golden, Roy Tracy and Stacey Bowman. Shawn Smith was the statistician.

- The Cedartown Dogs 13-and-under baseball team finished second at the Dizzy Dean World Series in Southaven, Miss. last summer. The Dogs won the Dizzy Dean Georgia state championship and then advanced all the way to the World Series finals undefeated before suffereing two heartbreaking losses to the Texas Stampede to finish second.

Members of the squad were Jack Haney, Casey Newsome, Miles Minge, Henley Hayes, Dalton Prince, Zonterous Scofield, Bo Davis, Wesley Ragsdale, Walker Barrow, Drew Vance and Lee Sisson.

- During the summer of 2012, the sports facilities at Cedartown High School got an upgrade. The school had a new football scoreboard, a new baseball scoreboard and new bleachers installed in the gym. The softball team also received the old baseball scoreboard.

“The scoreboards were purchased with the money from the W.D. Trippe Trust Fund,” Cedartown High principal Hal David said. “No tax money was spent on the scoreboards. We just leveraged some of the previously approved SPLOST money to help better our facilities.”

David said because of the new bleachers being installed in the gym, they were able to get improvements to other sporting facilities.

- Lee Hayes, a long time Little League umpire and former Rockmart Little League president, became the Cedartown Recreation Department’s director of sports last fall. Hayes started filling in as interim director after David Barrow resigned in August. Hayes was later named the new recreation director.

- After posting a losing record during the regular season, the Cedartown High School fast-pitch softball team found some postseason magic. The Lady Bulldogs won three games at the Region 7-AAAA tournament to rally and finish fourth and qualify for the Class AAAA state tournament. Cedartown defeated Southeast Whitfield 5-2, Ridgeland 5-4 and River Ridge 5-4 to make state.

- The track and field program at Cedartown High School was well represented at the Class AAA State track and field meet last spring. Arkeria Boozer placed fifth in the long jump event at the state Sectionals to advance to state. Boozer would go on to place sixth at state

Tomyus Price placed seventh at the state sectionals to qualify for state in the long jump.

Price, Zach Chubb, Dee Wilson and Nick Chubb finished seventh at the state sectionals in the 4x100 meter relay to advance and represent Cedartown at state.

- The football team at Cedartown Middle School posted an undefeated record in 2012, winning all seven regular season games. Cedartown would go on to finish second in the Floyd County Association Middle School football league, falling to Pepperell in the championship game.

“I’m proud of our kids,” head coach Bob Tracy said. “I’m not going to let one game define our season. We went 7-0 in the regular season and to do that in this league is a tough feat. There are no weak teams in this association, we are proud to be in this league.”

- A region championship was brought back to the local high school this past year thanks to the cheerleading program. The competition cheerleading team won the Region 7-AAAA cheerleading championship in Dalton in November.

“All athletes dream of the big win during the season,” head coach Brigitte Tillery said. “And that dream became a reality for the cheerleaders as we became the region champs.”

- The 21st annual Doc Ayers/Ray Beck Celebrity Golf Tournament once again had a huge turnout. The tournament, held on May 11 at the Cherokee Country Club, drew 150 participants.

“We have a lot of good players,” Ayers said the day of the event. “Joe Kines is here as well as George Patton, Jimmy Hightower, M.L. Langston, Pete Cox, Elliott Gammage, Bucky Ayers, Bill Chappel, Dan Pitts and Chip Kell and many others.”

- Nick Chubb had a sensational junior year on the football field in 2012. The Cedartown High School running back made Georgia state history by rushing for 2,697 yards in 10 regular season games. Those yards were the most ever by a running back in a regular season in Georgia history.

Because of his stellar season, Chubb was named the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Class AAAA Offensive Player of the Year, the Region 7-AAAA Co-Offensive Player of the Year, the Rome News-Tribune Co-Offensive Player of the Year and he was selected to the Class AAAA Associated Press All State first team.

- Cedartown High School senior Jimmy Hand signed a baseball scholarship with Northeastern University last November. Hand inked with the northern school after putting together a stellar junior campaign in 2012. Hand had a .355 batting average with four home runs and 32 RBI in 25 games with the Bulldogs last spring.

- The Cedartown Recreation Department had two championship football teams in 2012. Playing in the Rome-Floyd Parks and Recreation Authority league, the Cedartown nine and 10-year-old team as well as the 11-and-12-year-old Cedartown club won the Rome championships.

Editor’s note: This article is not a comprehensive list of all the sporting events in 2012, but merely a story on some of the top events that occurred this past calendar year.