File Photo – Holli Smithson

In a pair of physical games, Coffee County dropped 2 district contests to Franklin County on Friday night in Winchester.  In a girls’ game that featured 59 foul calls, the Lady Raiders saw a 4th quarter comeback fall short as they lost 49 to 38.  The Red Raiders had a 4th quarter rally of their own come up short as they dropped a 59 to 50 decision.

A loosely officiated girls’ game saw Coffee County take a physical beating in the first half as they fell behind 24 to 11 at intermission.  In the second half, the Lady Raiders matched the physical play of the Rebelletes as they cut the Franklin County lead to 2 points with 7 minutes remaining.  However, the rally resulted in the Lady Raiders getting into deep foul trouble before 3 Lady Raiders fouled out as Franklin County held on for the win.  Holli Smithson led Coffee County in scoring with 10 points as she was named the Gateway Tire and Service Center player of the game.  Abby Morgan finished with 9 points while Aerial Williams and Jacey Vaughn each added 6.

File photo – Grant Sadler

The Red Raiders had trouble getting shots to fall as they fell behind by 16 points at the end of the 3rd quarter.  Grant Sadler and Garrett Eldridge keyed a 4th quarter rally that saw Coffee County cut the lead to 7 points with a little more than 2 minutes left.  Franklin County hit 6 of their 9 free throws in the 4th quarter to hang on for the win.   Sadler led the Raiders in scoring with 22 points as he was named the Gateway Tire and Service Center player of the game.  Eldridge added 11 points  while Wyatt Day and Stephen Sullivan each netted 7 points.

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

Viktor Arvidsson of the Nashville Predators

Viktor Arvidsson scored twice and Filip Forsberg’s three points helped lead the Nashville Predators to a 6-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. The triumph was Nashville’s 25th of the season and snapped a three-game home winless streak for the club.

“Everybody chipped in and did their thing,” Arvidsson said. “We won as a team, and that’s great. Pekka [Rinne] made huge saves and everybody played great.”

James Neal gave the Preds a 1-0 lead, when he finished off a beautiful pass from Ryan Johansen and beat Martin Jones through the five hole for a goal. Johansen corralled the puck behind the San Jose net and dished a backhand feed to Neal in the left face-off circle after a silky spin off a defender to create space. The goal was Neal’s 19th of the season and Johansen’s helper gave him 13 points in 13 games in a Preds uniform.

“San Jose is a good team, and at times they were outplaying us, but when we were on our game and when we executed, we finished off plays,” Johansen said. “You could see the smiles on guys and the confidence growing from that. So it was fun out there tonight.”

Johansen picked up another helper in the second period, when he found Calle Jarnkrok all alone in the slot. Jones got a piece of Jarnkrok’s wrist shot, but not enough, as the puck went up into the air and came back down behind the goal line. Jarnkrok’s ninth of the season gave Nashville a 2-0 lead before Joe Thornton got San Jose on the board with a power-play goal.

However, before the frame was out, Arvidsson converted on a play that could’ve gone wrong, but turned out so right. Arvidsson received a pass from Mike Ribeiro – who played in his 1,000th career game on Saturday – while skating backward into the offensive zone and managed to rifle a shot, while falling to his knees, over the shoulder of Jones for a 3-1 advantage. Forsberg recorded the secondary assist on the play for his 100th career point.

“It was huge,” Forsberg said of the win. “It’s going to be important all the way down – every goal, every game, especially these games at home in the conference. It was a big game… We played a really solid 60-minute game.”

The final frame brought points 101 and 102 for Forsberg as he potted a shorthanded goal at 6:51 for the Frosty goal and a 4-1 Preds lead. Arvidsson then claimed his second of the evening, as he and Forsberg converted on a 2-on-1 to put the game out of reach. Captain Shea Weber added an empty-net goal for his 14th tally of the season before the game was out, giving Nashville their 57th and 58th points.

“Confidence is a contagious thing, and you can get on a little bit of a roll. We have to make sure [we keeping improving],” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s not going to be an easy game against Washington [on Tuesday]. They’re one of the best teams in the League, so we have to be ready to go.”  That Tuesday game will be broadcast on Thunder Radio immediately following Coffee County basketball.

The Nashville Sounds 2016 coaching staff was named by the Oakland Athletics today and is highlighted by the return of Manager Steve Scarsone.

Scarsone, 49, enters his eighth season in the Oakland organization and fourth consecutive campaign as manager of the club’s top affiliate. His coaching staff will consist of pitching coach Rick Rodriguez, hitting coach Eric Martins, trainer Brad LaRosa and strength and conditioning coach A.J. Seeliger. LaRosa joins Scarsone as the only returning member from the 2015 coaching staff.

Scarsone sports a career managerial mark of 634-632 (.501) after guiding the Sounds to a 66-78 record in his first year at the helm in 2015. In three seasons as manager of the A’s top affiliate, Scarsone has compiled a 224-208 (.519) record.

He began his managerial career with two years in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization as manager of the Single-A South Bend Silver Hawks (2001) and Advanced-A Lancaster JetHawks (2002). He stepped away from baseball before returning in 2009 with the Oakland organization. Scarsone managed the Single-A Kane County Cougars (2009), Advanced-A Stockton Ports (2010), Double-A Midland RockHounds (2011-12) and Triple-A Sacramento River Cats (2013-14).

Nashville Sounds manager Steve Scarsone

The Anaheim, Calif. native was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2nd round of the 1986 draft and played seven seasons as a Major League utility infielder with Philadelphia (1992), Baltimore (1992), San Francisco (1993-96), St. Louis (1997) and Kansas City (1999).

Rodriguez, 55, takes over as Nashville’s pitching coach after serving in the same role with the Single-A Stockton Ports in 2015. Rodriguez was Triple-A Sacramento’s pitching coach in 12 of the last 16 seasons, including his most recent stint in 2013-14. He also served as the A’s bullpen coach from 2011-12 and as the manager of Advanced-A Modesto in 2003.

This is his 32nd year in the A’s organization, including seven seasons as a player and 23 as a minor league coach.

The East Bay, Calif. native was selected by Oakland in the second round of the 1981 draft. In 31 career MLB appearances, Rodriguez compiled a 3-4 record with a 5.73 ERA. He pitched with Oakland (1986-87), Cleveland (1988) and San Francisco (1990).

Martins, 43, enters his first season as Nashville’s hitting coach after serving in the same role for Double-A Midland in 2015. Prior to his one season in Midland, Martins was a scout for the A’s since 2007. During his time as a scout, Martins was responsible for signing A.J. Griffin, Daniel Robertson, and 2014 first-round selection Matt Chapman.

The East Los Angeles, Calif. native was selected by Oakland in the 17th round of the 1994 draft out of Long Beach State. He played professionally for 11 seasons, including parts of four seasons with A’s Triple-A affiliates. He was a part of the 1997 Edmonton team that captured the Pacific Coast League championship and the 1999 Vancouver team that won the Triple-A World Series.

LaRosa will return to Nashville for his second season with the club and ninth as the athletic trainer for Oakland’s top minor league affiliate. Prior to joining the Athletics, he spent five seasons at Double-A with St. Louis (2005-07) and Miami (2003-04).

LaRosa has been recognized with several different accolades and awards, including the PBATS Minor League Trainer of the Year in 2007. He is a certified member of the National Athletics Trainer Association and the Illinois Athletics Trainer Association. LaRosa obtained both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in kinesiology from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

Seeliger enters his first season as Nashville’s strength and conditioning coach and his fourth season with the A’s organization. Seeliger served in the same role with Single-A Beloit (2013), Advanced-A Stockton (2015) and Double-A Midland (2015).

Seeliger obtained his bachelor’s degree from Washington State University and master’s degree from A.T. Still University.

2015 pitching coach Don Schulze was reassigned to Single-A Beloit while 2015 hitting coach Webster Garrison will serve as the A’s rookie-level Arizona League affiliate manager. He’ll be joined in Arizona by 2015 Sounds strength and conditioning coach Terence Brannic.

The 2016 season will be the Sounds’ 19th year in the Pacific Coast League and their second as the Oakland Athletics’ top affiliate. Season ticket memberships are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

The 2016 CHS senior wrestlers and their parents prior to Thursday’s match with Riverdale

CHS Wrestling Seniors and their coaches. (Left to Right) Assistant Coach Randall Jennings, Joshua Tobitt, Brody Litz, Harry Hosea, Dustin Seals and Head Coach Roger Barlow

The Coffee County Central High School wrestling team held their final home meet of the season on Thursday Night at their home dojo at the Raider Academy as they played host to Riverdale. Four seniors were recognized and honored before the match. CHS seniors Harry Hosea, Josh Tobitt, Brody Litz and Dustin Seals were recognized for their contributions to the Raider Wrestling program.
Following the ceremony, the “fight was on” as the Raiders battled the visiting Warriors. The night started off hopeful for Coffee County as Rein Bozich took his opponent the 3 full rounds before losing an 11 to 6 decision in the 132 pound class. Owen Teague, who was 0.7 pounds over his target weight was forced to “wrestle up” at 145 but got a huge pin fall win. Back to back pins by seniors Josh Tobitt at 182 and Harry Hosea at 195 cut the Riverdale lead to 27 to 18 before Coffee County dropped 4 of the last 5 matches. The lone win for the Raiders came at the 106 pound class as Brittney Spry got a forfeit win. Riverdale captured the dual meet with a final score of 51 to 24. Next up for the Raiders will be the Region Individual Tournament which will be held on Friday and Saturday, February 12th and 13th at Cookeville.