Coweta Sports Hall of Fame to Induct 4 on April 13

From Special Reports

The Coweta Sports Hall of Fame is set to grow with a class of four new inductees at its 21st Annual Banquet on Saturday, April 13, at the Coweta County Fairgrounds and Conference Center.

The 2024 Coweta Sports Hall of Fame Class will include Blake Bass, Michael Cheever, Walter Drake and Lisa Skelton.

Banquet tickets are now on sale for the Coweta Sports Hall of Fame Banquet, to be held Saturday, April 13 at the Coweta County Fairgrounds and Conference Center.  Dinner at 6:30 p.m. and Ceremony at 7 p.m.   Tickets are $45 each and can be purchased by mail or at Dunc’s BBQ Kitchen.

To order by mail, send your check to: Coweta Sports Hall of Fame, P. O. Box 2627, Newnan, GA  30263. Make checks payable to: Coweta Sports Hall of Fame.

To purchase in-person, visit Dunc’s BBQ Kitchen, 98 Jackson St., Newnan, GA. 30263.

Deadline for Ticket Purchase is Friday, March 29. For additional information please contact Cheryl Roberts by dialing 706-672-2311, or email: [email protected].

Below are the biographies of each of this year’s inductees.

BLAKE BASS

Blake Bass is a native of Newnan and in 1971, he graduated from Newnan High School where he played several sports however, football was always his favorite. As a result of the consolidation of schools in Coweta County, Blake was a member of the last class of the Newnan High Tigers and the first class of the Newnan Cougars.

Blake Bass

His senior year Bass received several athletic awards including being named captain of the NHS football team. As early as high school Blake was a student of the game. This caught the eye of his high school coach, Max Bass. During his senior year Coach Bass had a discussion with Blake about his future. He encouraged him to go to college, get a degree and come back to Newnan to coach. Blake followed his advice, graduating from West Georgia College in 1976 and then connected with Coach Bass about a job. Max assured he would get him a job but wanted him to go somewhere else to coach for two years before returning home. The reasoning was to see how good we have it here in Newnan.

Two years later Blake returned to Newnan to teach and coach. Coach Bass was an instrumental factor in Blake’s career as a coach and administrator. In total, as a player and coach, Blake was with Max 16 years, longer than anyone else during the 29 years Max was the head coach at Newnan. Blake had opportunities to go to other schools to further his career in coaching but never had the desire to leave Newnan and Coweta County. During his coaching career, countless players left Newnan High to play at the collegiate and professional level. In 1979, Blake became defensive coordinator for the Cougars and held that position until he left coaching in 1990. In 1981, Newnan played for the Class AAAA State Championship at Drake Stadium.

Blake had a 35-year career in education. After a teaching for 14 years, he began his tenure as an administrator. He served as Assistant Principal at East Coweta High School from 1990-1994; Principal at Central Middle School from 1994-1997 and then as Director of Human Resources for the Coweta County School System. In 2004, Blake was named Superintendent of the School System. As a system administrator who also coached, Blake knew the importance athletics play in the development of student successes. From 1997 until he retired in 2011, he was a part of every decision affecting the athletic programs in the Coweta County School System including coaching hires, Title IX issues, coaching pay schedules and facility upgrades.

Over the years Blake served his community through civic work. He was named the 2011 Citizen of the Year by the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce. For his support of the Arts in Coweta County, “The Patrons of the Nixon Centre for The Performing and Visual Arts” recognized Blake with its highest honor, The Richard Brooks Visionary Award of Distinction. In 2021 the Coweta County School System honored Bass by naming its seventh and newest middle school “Blake Bass Middle School.”

Following his retirement, Blake worked for the University of West Georgia as a program director before joining Trinity Christian School as the Assistant Head of School in 2022.

Blake and his wife, Lila, have two sons – Chris (Stephanie) and Stephen (Madie) as well as two grandchildren, Ethan and Maggie.

MICHAEL CHEEVER

Michael Cheever was born in College Park, Georgia and moved to Newnan when he was eight years old. He starred as an offensive lineman for Coach Max Bass at Newnan High School before going on to play at the collegiate level at Georgia Tech and then with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL).

Michael Cheever

In high school, Cheever lettered in football four years, three times in basketball and twice in soccer. At the center position for the Cougars, he was named All-America by SuperPreps magazine and was tabbed the No. 31 prospect in the state of Georgia by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His freshman season the Cougars lost their opener to Griffin and then reeled off nine straight wins to finish 9-1 but were upset in the region playoffs by Morrow. His senior year, the team went 9-1 and beat Griffin in the region playoffs before getting beat in the state playoffs on the road at Bradwell Institute, 21-16 to finish 10-2.

He went on to play at Georgia Tech for then head coach Bobby Ross who was replaced by Bill Lewis when Ross went to coach the San Diego Chargers. By his junior campaign, Michael’s coach was George O’Leary who replaced Lewis with three games left in the 1994 season. Cheever earned the starting center job as a redshirt freshman in 1992 and was named Third-team Freshman All-America by Football News. For the 1993 season Cheever was named Third-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Second-team All-American by Sporting News. He was a key figure in Tech’s potent rushing game that ranked 18th nationally.

In 1994, Cheever led the team with 63 knockdown blocks despite missing three games with a broken arm he suffered in a pre-season scrimmage. He allowed just one sack during his four-year career on The Flats. Following his senior season, Cheever was named All Conference and All America and was invited to the Senior Bowl where he was the starting center for the South team.

Cheever was selected in the second round of the 1996 NFL draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars at number 60 overall and was the first center chosen. After being named to the NFL All-Rookie team in 1996, he took the starting center job for the team in his second season. In the ‘96 season, the Jags made a historic playoff run. In the American Football Conference (AFC) Wild Card game, they defeated Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and the Buffalo Bills, 30-27 on the road. The next week they beat the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium in the AFC Divisional round, also by a 30-27 margin. The Broncos were led by John Elway, Shannon Sharpe and Terrell Davis. Cheever helped the Jaguars rush for more than 200 yards and the coaching staff named him the Offensive Player of the Game.

A back injury cut Cheever’s playing career short during the 1998 season and he transitioned into business by starting a Fitness & Wellness Employee Benefits company. In 2000, he sold that company to a public company in California and followed his mother into the family business of real estate. He is currently the General Manager of 5 Keller Williams offices serving over 1,600 agents in the metro area.

Cheever and his wife of 25 years, Shelley, have a daughter. Ashlan and a son, Alden. His parents are Pam and John Cheever and he has six siblings: Matthew, Charlie, Lenny, Jennifer, Alden and Craig.

WALTER DRAKE

Walter Drake was born and raised in Newnan and was a two-sport star athlete during his days at Newnan High School. Excelling in soccer and basketball, he went on to a successful collegiate career on the hardwood.

Walter Drake

His senior year, Drake averaged 20-points a game and dished out an average of seven assists in leading the Cougars to a 20-7 record and the school’s first trip to the state playoffs in nine years. The Cougars made it to the state quarterfinals where they lost to Bainbridge. He was named to the All-Region team in Region 4-AAAA. Class AAAA was the state’s highest classification at that time.

On the soccer field, he lettered all four years and his senior campaign saw him score 29 goals in just ten games to lead the entire state in scoring. He also earned All-Region honors in soccer, as well as being named to the All-State team in Class AAAA.

Following high school, Drake earned a basketball scholarship to play at North Georgia College. The school, located in Dahlonega, competed in the Gulf South Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). A four-year letterman for the Saints, Drake was named to the All-Gulf South Conference team his junior and senior years and was the team’s leading scorer his senior year. He was also named North Georgia’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) for his play and production his senior season. After his basketball eligibility was complete, he played soccer his senior year and was the team leader in assists and goals.

During Drake’s career at North Georgia, the Saints went 10-16 his freshman season (1989-90); 14-17 his sophomore season (1990-91); 19-13 his junior season (1991-92) and 16-15 his senior year (1992-93). At the time, only the conference champion qualified for the NAIA National Tournament. Drake earned his Bachelors in Education from North Georgia and then got his Masters and Specialist in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi and his Doctorate in Education from Sarasota University.

Following college, Drake returned to Newnan where he coached and taught at Newnan High School. Following his time as a coach, he went into administration where he was an Assistant Principal at Newnan for three years; Athletic Director at East Coweta High for four years; Principal at Evans Middle School for three years and has been at the Central Office in Operations for the past 18 years.

Drake and his wife, Tracie, have three sons, Harrison, Wesley and Wheeler. Drake was born to Homer and Ruth Drake and has a brother, Taylor.

LISA SKELTON

Lisa Rhena Miller Skelton coached high school sports in Coweta County for 30 years and during that time won two state championships and more than 650 games as a softball coach. She also sent more than 50 softball players on the play at the college level. In addition to softball, she coached tennis, volleyball, basketball and soccer and Newnan and Northgate high schools.

Lisa Skelton

Skelton was born in Aberdeen, Miss., and attended Aberdeen High School where she excelled in softball, basketball and tennis. On the softball diamond she was named MVP three times and was a four-time MVP on the tennis court. She became the first girl in school history to receive the Bulldog Award – the highest honor given to a student-athlete. She was also voted Most Athletic her last three years of high school.

Skelton earned a fast pitch softball scholarship to the Mississippi University for Women, and she was named 2nd Team All American her junior year.

In 1989, Skelton was named the head coach of both softball and tennis at Newnan High. Her Lady Cougar softball teams were region runner-up five times back when only the top two teams in each region qualified for the state playoffs. On the tennis court she coached the Lady Cougars for ten seasons where she won three region championships and twice finished in the top three in the state.

In 2002, Skelton moved just up the road when she was hired as head coach of the softball and tennis teams at Northgate High School. By the time she ended her career there, she would lead the Lady Vikings softball team to the state playoffs in 19 of her 20 seasons. That included Class AAAA State Championships in 2007 and 2011. Her legacy at Northgate included winning eight region championships, four appearances in the state finals and 13 Elite Eight appearances.

To go along with her more than 650 career wins, Skelton was twice named the Class AAAA State Coach of the Year and was named Region Coach of the Year eight times. She was Head Coach for the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association (GACA) All-Star Game twice during her career and in 2021 she was inducted into the Georgia Dug Out Club Association Hall of Fame for softball.

Skelton retired from Northgate in 2021. She was a life-long sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) that included coaching a softball team on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic in 2013. She also served in multiple leadership roles at local churches, as well as, singing in the choir.

Lisa is married to Damon Skelton and has a daughter, Forrest Skelton Maechler; son, Damon Skyler Skelton; and stepson, Jared Adelton.