Local athletes have been playing hard all summer around the state and throughout the United States. Some of the more recent accomplishments include:

n LET THE SHOW BEGIN: Griffin High School third baseman Telvin Nash playing in the East-West Showcase on Thursday in Lakeland, Fla.

This is the showcase where if you’re not invited you need not apply or bother attending.

It’s serious stuff and could easily up his stock in next year’s MLB Draft, not to mention an already strong standing with colleges if he has a good showing.

Nash, who led the Bears state finalist team this past season in home runs (7), RBIs (51 tied with Xavier Randolph) has played in a number of tournaments across the country this summer and hit for average and power.

n AND THREE MAKE FIVE: Three more Spalding High football players area headed to the college ranks.

Defensive back Tavares Jackson (Fort Valley), linebacker Bernard Goodrum (Fort Valley) and defensive end Marcus Duvall (Georgia Southern) joined offensive lineman Woody Duke (LaGrange) and Jared Hernandez (Georgia Military) as players on last year’s team who will continue their gridiron careers this fall at the next level.

Goodrum was the 2007 Griffin Daily News Co-Defensive Player of the Year in the Area with fellow SHS defensive lineman Darrell James. Goodrum, Jackson, Duvall and Hernandez were also All-Area selections.

n HEAVY MEDAL: First-year Spalding High head football coach Clint Ashmore won the gold medal last month in Olympic Lifting at the Georgia Games in Newnan.

Ashmore, who lifts in the Super Heavyweight Division for 45-49 year olds - he’s quick to point out he’s the lightest one in the class - cleared 92 kilograms (about 203 pounds) in the snatch and 115 kilograms in the clean and jerk.

He nailed his winning lifts during his first of three lifts.

“I didn’t hit great lifts, but they were good enough to win,” said Ashmore, who earned bronze medals at nationals the past two years in Savannah.

This year’s national will be held in El Paso, Texas, the first week in April. Ashmore said he’ll be there.

“It’s a great stress reliever, a great way to blow off steam,” he said.

n FAST AND FASTER: Griffin High School cornerback/wide receiver Denarius Appling took part in a Rebok combine two weekends ago at Tara Stadium in Clayton County and was named “Best Camper.”

His posted the best time of anyone in the 40 with a 4.52, while his time in the L-Drill of 6.82 was the best they had ever seen.

n LINKS PROWESS: Henry Mabbett, a rising sophomore at Spalding High, shot a 73-73-146 to win the Male 14-15 Division at the William Bryan Memorial on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Lookout Mountain Golf Club in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The three-stroke win in a field of 13 golfers was his best finish in eight events this summer on the Southeastern Junior Golf Tour.

Closer to home on Thursday, fellow Griffinite Carson Willis shot a 74-83-77-234 to finish fifth out of 29 golfers in the 18-hole Open Boys 13-14 Division at the Atlanta Junior Golf Association’s Grand Championship being staged at the Callaway Garden Resort’s Mountain View Course in Pine Mountain, Ga.

That’s not bad considering he was eighth, 15 shots off the lead, heading into the last day of the three-day event. He was 11 strokes off the lead by tourney’s end. Also at the Grand Championship, Griffin’s Tye Waller (79-78-90-247) finished seventh out of 14 golfers in the 18-hole Boys 12-and-under Division, 25 strokes out of the lead.

n SIX IN A ROW?: The Hoby Davenport-coached Griffin Thunder will go after their sixth consecutive Men’s 40-and-over GRPA state softball championship Aug. 9.

Unlike last year’s tournament in Augusta, this year’s tournament will be in Lovejoy.