As 2015 draws to a close, it is time to look back at the highlights from our local prep teams in the past 12 months. We began our review on Wednesday with a look at Coffee County Middle School. Today we will visit the highlights of the year from Westwood Middle School and on Friday, we look back at 2015 sports at Coffee County CHS.
2015 at Westwood ended much like it started, on the basketball court; only with dramatically different results. In January, the Rockets and Lady Rockets were eliminated in the 2nd round of the Duck River Valley conference as each finished with sub 500 records. The lessons learned from those young teams provided an excellent springboard to this past season. The Lady Rockets claimed the regular season conference title earlier this month and saw their season end with a record of 19 and 3 in the finals of the Duck River Valley Conference tournament. The Rockets finished 2015 with a 5th place finish in the conference tournament and a 500 record in a season that saw them defeat all but 1 of the teams in the conference. Perhaps the most impressive win of the year came against eventual conference champion Forrest on November 11th as the Rockets spanked Forrest 45 to 33 in a game on their home floor in Chapel Hill. Both Westwood 6th grade basketball teams finished with records of 4 and 2 against teams from the bigger Central Tennessee Conference.
In the spring, the Westwood Rockets claimed the conference title in the Central Tennessee Soccer Conference as the Rockets finished with an 11 and 2 record and were unbeaten in conference play. After a 1 to 0 nail-biter over Fayetteville City in the conference semi’s, the Rockets throttled Cascade 4 to 1 in the finals on April 25th. Also in the spring, Westwood began play in tennis as the Rockets and Lady Rockets fielded brand new teams. The young teams showed improvement throughout their season as they look ahead to 2016 with new coach Melissa Askins. The baseball and softball teams saw youth, inexperience and injuries combine to leave them out of the hunt for conference titles. The Westwood golf team saw a drop in numbers keep them out of the hunt for a conference title as well, but Coach Doug Roorda will welcome back several golfers who gained experience last season.
In the fall, the Lady Rocket soccer team claimed the regular season title of the Central Tennessee Soccer Conference before getting stunned in the tournament semifinals by Community 3 to 2. The Lady Rockets finished the year with a record of 6-1-1 as they outscored their competition 34 to 8 on the season. The cross county Rockets and Lady Rockets had another great season as they won a pair of meets each. Coach Jim Dobson has had amazing success with his 2nd year program and looks forward to more great finishes in 2016. After opening the season with an impressive 14 to 0 defeat of Moore County, the Westwood Rocket football team struggled at times this season as heavy graduation loses hurt the Rockets in the trenches. Look for Westwood’s football fortunes to improve in 2016 as Coach Chad Dyer always finds a way to handle the yearly task of rebuilding at the middle school level.
2016 promises to be another great year for Westwood Middle School sports and Thunder Radio will keep you updated with all the great performances daily. We will continue our look back the highlights of 2015 on Friday as we check out the year in sports at Coffee County Central High School.
