As we put the high school football season in the rear view mirror and start gearing up for the state playoff drive for basketball, wrestling and swimming early next year, we have a few moments to reflect on what has happened in Cobb County sports over the last calendar year.

We are staring to compile our information for which were the top 10 sports stories in the county during 2009. Here is the list we are starting with, in alphabetical order, and we will unveil it sometime during the last week of the month:

— Brandon Westerman wins fourth state wrestling title

— Charlie Hood, Roscoe Googe and Jeff Wheeler retire from Marietta

— Charlie Hood and Roscoe Googe elected to GACA Hall of Fame

— Ed Dudley leaves Walton football after 14 years

— Hillgrove girls basketball coach Cheryl Fowler wins 500th career game

— Kell football starts 0-4, wins last 6 to make the playoffs

— Kennesaw State brings in Vince Dooley to chair football exploratory committee

— Kennesaw State has two players drafted in 47 picks of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft

— Kennesaw State’s Matt Nagy qualifies for U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur (golf)

— Kennesaw State women’s soccer wins A-Sun title

— Lassiter quarterback Hutson Mason’s record setting season and the Trojans run to the state quarterfinals

— Life Basketball returns after 5-year hiatus and qualifies for NAIA Tournament

— Marietta girls’ basketball advances to the state title game

— MDJ named one of top-10 Sunday Sports Sections in the country

— Melanie Oudin’s run to the U.S. Women’s Tennis Open quarterfinals

— Mickey McMurtry dismissed as Lassiter baseball coach

— Pebblebrook boys’ soccer goes from 0-11 in AAAA in ’08 to AAAAA state quarterfinals in ’09

— Pope wins Class AAAAA state baseball title

— Pope wins Class AAAAA state volleyball championship

— Southern Poly baseball ranked and qualifies for NAIA Tournament

— Southern Poly soccer ranked and qualifies for NAIA Tournament

— Walton girls’ tennis wins 6th consecutive state title, eighth of decade

— Wheeler’s fifth boys’ basketball state title of the decade

— Whitefield Academy boys’ basketball state championship

— Women’s Professional Soccer, Atlanta Beat, comes to Cobb



Looking at this list I can already see five or six stories which I would consider to be must haves on the list, again in alphabetical order — Charlie Hood retiring, Kennesaw State bringing in Vince Dooley for the football exploratory committee, Lassiter’s Hutson Mason and the Trojans’ success, Melanie Oudin’s run through the U.S. Open, Wheeler’s fifth boys state basketball title of the decade and the WPS Atlanta Beat.

But now, that’s just my opinion.

What are 2009s biggest sports stories from Cobb County? Are they from this list? Or did we miss a few?

What do you think?