STOVALL: Newton-Eastside football game sparks memories, inspiration to train new journalists

By Gabriel Stovall

Newton vs. Eastside is special. It’s high school football theater. 

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Eastside coach Jay Cawthon. 

“Well, man it’s special,” Cawthon said. 

He said that Friday night, standing in front of the Sharp Stadium field house just moments after Friday night’s 26-15 win over No. 10 Newton. By now you know it’s the first win for the Eagles over the county “big boy” since 2018. 

“And I told them that,” he continued. “I’ve been here for 20 years, so I remember that [game]. It was the same type of game.” 

I remember that game too, Coach. Eastside rushed for over 200 yards in that 27-20 win six years ago. A guy named Noah Cook was the quarterback. A guy named Taylor Carter was one of four tailbacks that was thrashing Newton’s front seven that night, seemingly running the same counter play over and over again. 

This year, it was Georgia Tech commit Jayden Barr and his two rushing scores. It was Myles Mims putting in work with the dagger touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. 

It was Barr doing yeoman’s work, playing both sides of the ball all night and shining just as bright as a linebacker as he did a running back. 

It was 6-foot-4, 210-pound Tennessee pledge Christian Bass, the other linebacker who, with Barr, makes up one of the best linebacking corps in Georgia. 

It was “Lil Ol’ Eastside” proving once again that every now and then it can grow up enough to jump up and slap “Big Brother Newton” in the mouth. 

I remember 2018. But you know what else I remember? 2016. 

That was my first-ever Newton-Eastside game. I remember they told me to get there early — like an hour or so early. I remember underestimated that admonishment and paid for it when I had to walk almost a mile to get into the stadium, getting there maybe a couple of minutes before kickoff, yet feeling tired and winded as if I’d been the one playing. 

I remember the names — some of which now are apart of Newton County/Covington sports royalty, like Eric Stokes in particular. 

I remember Newton having more than a dozen college prospects on the Rams’ roster, just like every year it seems. 

I remember the 41-41 tie. The decision (as it was told to me) that Newton’s head coach at the time decided to opt for GHSA’s no mandatory overtime clause for non-region games. 

The drama. The intrigue. The packed Sharp Stadium stands. The intensity of the back-and-forth nature of the game. It was only right that my sports journalism baptism into the Newton County sports scene came at Sharp Stadium in a tussle between Newton and Eastside. 

It was my first real collective glimpse at what makes the Covington/Newton County community so awesome.

It also was only fitting, then, that one of the first high school football games covered by the Newton County Journal was Newton vs. Eastside. And fitting even more that three young men from our staff — two of them covering a high school football game for the first time — got the chance to get baptized into the lore themselves. 

So many amazing aspects of Newton County exist. A plethora of places where one can receive a proper introduction to this special place. But I often tell anyone who’s new here: If you really want to get a good bead on what makes this place so amazing, go to a Newton-Eastside high school football game. 

Why? Because bottled up in old Sharp Stadium is a picture of what this community is — from its ethnic diversity to its passion for young people to its school and community pride. It’s all on display here. 

That’s why sports is such a big deal to me — not because it’s the only thing I like to cover or lead coverage in. But because it’s the best example, to me, of what a community can be without all the things we entertain that divide us. 

I remember the outpouring for now-retired Covington Police officer Matt Cooper. After sustaining a life-threatening injury while on duty, Sharp Stadium was filled with community support in the midst of an Eastside football game. 

All local branches of law enforcement, the fire department — basically every service-minded entity in the community converged on that turf to pay homage to Mr. Cooper’s sacrifices and to celebrate the fact that he was still with us, despite the tragic events that made the observance necessary. 

It just underscores what I often say about sports — if you can bottle up the camaraderie found in a sports arena, where people care more about rooting their team to victory than they do who you’re voting for or what your views are about fill-in-the-blank controversial hot topic, then we may be able to make some true civic progress. 

Sports is also one of the best ways I’ve found to help tutor young, aspiring journalists. You have to learn how to observe and record information that’s often coming at you at a fast and furious pace. You’ve got to do it while taking note of the variables that could cause things to change quickly from moment to moment. 

Then, you’ve got to efficiently wade through and decipher all that information and compile an accurate report of it on a tight deadline. 

Those are skills that, once mastered, you can translate into any area of journalism — be it a county commissioner meeting, a crime report or summary of important school board initiatives. 

Call me biased, but I’d say sports is a much more fun way to learn those things. 

It was like music to my ears to hear how excited our young, aspiring journalists were to take this game on. I had a high school freshman learning how to shoot for a news publication on the fly and two young college students learning the difference between creating regular prose and producing journalistic writing. 

Our young publication has already endured a few obstacles, including the hacking of our website, which is why we’re still publishing on this Substack page. But even that is part of the learning for these young scribes and content creators. 

I’m excited for them, though, because I know that no matter where their careers take them from here, they’ll be able to point to this football game as one of the more meaningful aspects of the foundational part of their careers. 

And they’ll always have such memories to remind them of the absolutely amazing community they covered in the beginning of stages of their careers. 

And that, in a nutshell, is my mission here. I’m so proud of our small, young staff, and I can’t wait to see how many more stories they’ll find to tell in this one-of-a-kind community.

Gabriel Stovall is the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of the Newton County Journal. He can be reached at gstovall@newtoncountyjournal.com. Follow him on all social media channels: @GabrielCStovall.