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HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: Lady Raiders cruise to 42-19 win over Goodpasture
Bella Vinson dominated in the paint for Coffee County Saturday afternoon and the Lady Raiders picked up a decisive 42-19 win over Goodpasture in Madison.
In a game you heard broadcast live on Thunder Radio, Vinson, Chloe Gannon and Elli Chumley combined for 35 of Coffee County’s 42 points – all coming from 2-point range as the Lady Raiders worked on their post game.
Gannon finished with 9 and Chumley with 8. The Lady Raiders led 23-9 at the halftime break and 34-17 after the third quarter. CHS substituted liberally through the final period.
MISS THE THUNDER RADIO BROADCAST OF THIS GAME? CLICK HERE FOR THE REPLAY.
The win improves Coffee County to 6-1 on the season and was the final tune-up before District 8-AAA play begins next week. The Lady Raiders will travel to Columbia Tuesday night, Dec. 8, for a 6 p.m. tip. This will be a girls only game. You can hear it live on Thunder Radio. (Pregame begins at 5:45 p.m. Listen on 107.9 FM, 1320 AM, Manchester Go smartphone app, thunder1320.com or on Amazon Alexa: “Alexa, play Thunder Radio”).
THIS WEEK’S PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE (DEC. 7-12)
This week’s Prep Sports Schedule:
Monday: CMS basketball AT Harris – 6 p.m.
Monday: WMS basketball AT Cannon County – 6 p.m.
Tuesday – CMS basketball HOSTS Warren County – 5 p.m. (girls only)
Tuesday – CHS basketball AT Columbia – 6 p.m. (girls only, game broadcast live on Thunder Radio)
Tuesday: CHS Wrestling HOSTS Blackman & Whitwell – 6 p.m.
Wednesday: CHS Basketball Coaches Show LIVE at Praters BBQ . 6-7 p.m. broadcast on Thunder Radio.
Thursday: CHS Wrestling vs. Smyrna & La Vergne AT Smyrna – 6 p.m.
Thursday – CMS basketball AT White County – 6 p.m.
Friday – CHS basketball HOSTS Franklin County – 6 p.m.
Saturday – WMS Basketball AT West Tullahoma – 2:30 p.m.
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING: Lady Raiders with strong performance at Cougar Classic
Coffee County Central High School wrestlers placed first, first, third, fourth and seventh Saturday in the Cougar Classic.
MaryAnne Walker went 3-0 in the 125-pound division to take first place, Mary Wolfrum also went 3-0 to take first place in the 132-pound weight class.
Sara Crosslin went 1-2 to take third place in the 165-pound class and Lyra Leftich was seventh in the 145-pound division.
Paryss DeShane went 2-2 to take fourth place in the 119-pound class.
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING: Lady Raiders open with win over Tullahoma
The Coffee County Lady Raider wrestlers opened with a 24-0 win over Tullahoma Thursday night in Tullahoma. Meanwhile, the Raiders picked up some points but fell to Eagleville.
Results are below:
Coffee County High School (Girls) (COFF) 24.0 Tullahoma (Girls) (TULG) 0.0
119: Paryss DeShane (COFF) over Emma Brown (TULG) (Fall 1:18) 119: Paryss DeShane (COFF) over Natalie Turpin (TULG) (Fall 2:40) 132: MaryAnne Walker (COFF) over Zoe Holly (TULG) (Fall 2:15) 132: MaryAnne Walker (COFF) over Olivia Hogan (TULG) (Fall 1:17) 140: Mary Wolfrum (COFF) over Olivia Hogan (TULG) (Fall 3:18) 160: Lyra Leftwich (COFF) over Erin Douglas (TULG) (Fall 0:37) 170: Erin Douglas (TULG) over Sara Crosslin (COFF) (Fall 0:18)
Eagleville (EAGL) 65.0 Coffee County (COFF) 9.0
160: Jacob Barlow (COFF) over Donevin Darnell (EAGL) (Dec 6-2) 170: wyatt mclemore (EAGL) over Nazario Flores (COFF) (Fall 1:15) 182: Jason Dennis (EAGL) over Jonathan Akers (COFF) (Fall 3:38) 195: matthew garber (EAGL) over Zachary Galy (COFF) (Fall 4:54) 220: Oscar Guerra (EAGL) over (COFF) (For.) 285: Joseph Williamson (EAGL) over Kolby McCormick (COFF) (Fall 1:58) 106: Tanner Hatchell (EAGL) over (COFF) (For.) 113: jacob pennington (EAGL) over Ethan Rivera (COFF) (Fall 0:48) 120: zachary lewis (EAGL) over Thomas Clark (COFF) (TF 15-0 5:12) 126: Double Forfeit 132: Kaleb Snitzer (EAGL) over Jamie Norris (COFF) (Fall 2:34) 138: gabriel pennington (EAGL) over (COFF) (For.) 145: Erik Johnson (EAGL) over Caleb Boothe (COFF) (Fall 3:36) 152: Gavin Prater (COFF) over (EAGL) (M. For.)
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: Lady Raiders bounce back big, destroy Warren County
Losing basketball games doesn’t set well with the Central High School Lady Raiders.
Warren County learned that the hard way Thursday night at Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gymnasium in Manchester.
Bella Vinson stroked 27 points through the net and two other Lady Raiders reached double figures in a 66-22 blowout of the visiting Lady Pioneers. The win comes after the Lady Raiders’ first loss of the season Tuesday night against Blackman.
“We had our first loss of the season [and we talked about] how do you respond,” said CHS head coach Joe Pat Cope during his postgame press conference with Thunder Radio. “We talked at halftime because we were upset giving up 12 points [tonight]. We only gave up 10 in the second half and that’s playing everybody. The girls played hard.”
Vinson ripped off 27 points to lead the way for Coffee County, including three 3-pointers.
MISS THE GAME? THUNDER RADIO WAS THERE FOR THE BROADCAST. LISTEN TO THE REPLAY HERE.
Early on it was Chloe Gannon dominating in the paint. The sophomore post finished with 16 points on the night and helped Coffee County build an 18-6 first quarter lead as CHS focused on the post.
“We just put something in where we were using all three – Bella, Chloe and Elli (Chumley) in the post at the same time tonight,” explained Cope.
Sophomore point guard Jalie Ruehling got hot in the second half and hit three 3-pointers to finish with 14 points.
Alivia Reel had her midrange jumpshot going to finish with 6. Emma Fulks added 3 points for Coffee County.
Erica Cantrell had six points for Warren County.
“We still got a long way to go in our zone rotation,” added Cope. “We should hold that team under 10 points if we are going to play at Blackman’s level. And we can.”
Warren County falls to 3-2 with the loss.
The Lady Raiders are now 5-1 on the season and will play at Goodpasture Saturday at 4:30 p.m. You can hear that game live on Thunder Radio (107.9 FM, 106.7 FM, 1320 AM, Manchester Go smartphone app, thunder1320.com, and on Amazon Alexa: “Alexa, play Thunder Radio.”)
RAIDER RETURN: CMS gets sweep at North after long break
Exactly four weeks.
That’s how long it has been since the Coffee Middle School Red Raider boys basketball team hit the floor due to COVID-19 quarantines and other various cancellations.
You couldn’t tell Thursday night in Decherd – the Red Raiders piled up 62 points to cruise to a 62-15 CTC win over North Franklin’s Gators.
Colter Neel dominated, piling up 18 points in the win for CMS. Cole Pippenger added 16 and guard Brady Wright finished with 10.
Courtland Farrar had 6 points, Evan Kirby 6 and Jase Cashion 3.
The win improves the Raiders to 3-1 on the season and gives them 3 straight wins. They are 2-1 in conference play.
Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders of CMS got on the floor for the first time since a Nov. 19 loss to Lipscomb Academy.
CMS pulled away in the second half to take a 41-23 road win over the Gatorettes of North Franklin.
Eighth grader Olivia Vinson piled up 17 points in the win for CMS, including a 9-for-12 performance at the free-throw line.
Channah Gannon put together a solid night in the post after missing the Lady Raiders’ last game with a back injury, finishing with 14. She was also solid at the charity stripe, knocking down 6-of-7.
Also scoring for the Lady Raiders: Natalie Barnes with 5 points, Sophie McInturff with 4, and Peyton Graham with 1 point.
The win improves the Lady Raiders to 5-1 on the season, 3-1 in conference play.
Both teams are set to play Harris Middle Monday night in Shelbyville.
MIDDLE SCHOOL BASKETBALL: Westwood splits with Webb
Westwood’s Lady Rocket basketball team got an impressive 16 points from Jules Ferrell to go along with 6 from Audri Patton on its way to a 35-25 win over Webb Thursday night at Joel Vinson Gymnasium in Manchester.
Also scoring for Westwood: Kadience Medley with 5, Emily Holmes, Maddie Meacham, Keena Seivers and Rylee Clark all added 2 points.
Meanwhile, the Rockets took one on the chin, falling to Webb 59-24.
Blake Cummings led the way for WMS with 6 points.
Both teams are set to be back in action Monday, Dec. 7 when they travel to Cannon County. Tip for the girls game is set for 6 p.m. with the boys to follow.
Tennessee pandemic-related unemployment claims fall last week
New and continued unemployment claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic were down in Tennessee for the week ending Nov. 28.
There were 5,789 new claims for the week ending the 28th, with 46,665 continued claims, which is a drop of almost 5,000 from the previous week.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 932,425 claims for unemployment in Tennessee.
In Coffee County there were 38 initial claims filed for the week ending Nov. 28 and 315 continued claims of unemployment related to the pandemic.
Coffee Co Imagination Library partnering with The Library that Dolly Built for movie unveiling
Imagination Library of Coffee County and The Dollywood Foundation are presenting a free one-night-only live streaming world premiere event for The Library That Dolly Built, a behind-the-scenes look at Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Originally scheduled as a nationwide live event on more than 300 screens this spring, the world premiere for The Library That Dolly Built has been reimagined as a free live stream screening of the film, exclusively on Facebook, available nationally on Wednesday, December 9th at 6 p.m.. The screening will be followed by a conversation with, and live acoustic performance, by Dolly Parton. Viewers can tune into the live screening and conversation on FB.ME/dollysimaginationlibrary and ImaginationLibrary.com.
More information can be found on our Facebook Page: Imagination Library of Coffee County
Please like and share the Imagination Library Facebook page. When they reach 1000 likes they will give out some door prizes to followers. The movie premiere will coincide with a fundraising effort for Imagination Library of Coffee County.
Camping soars in Tennessee during COVID-19 pandemic
Camping in the last two months reached historic highs in Tennessee State Parks.
The parks saw 62,124 nights camping in October, a one-month record for camping stays in the system, topping the mark of 57,472 nights set in June 2020. November saw over 36,000 camping nights sold, the highest number for November ever and exceeding November 2019 by 15,000 nights.
Four of the top 10 camping months ever in the state parks have occurred in 2020, driven by visitors seeking the outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The impact of COVID-19 simply underscores a growing awareness that the outdoors are a sanctuary for mental and physical health,” Jim Bryson, deputy commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said. “The appeal of louder, busier, and crowded entertainment venues has given way to the space, freedom and connection the outdoors provide.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated outdoor recreation trends that have steadily grown over the last several years. Statistics from the Bureau of Economic Analysis released recently show the outdoor recreation economy accounted for 2.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States for 2019. In Tennessee, outdoor recreation value added as a share of GDP was 2.4 percent.
July 2020 saw 56,033 camping nights sold in Tennessee State Parks, which makes June, July and October of this year the top three months ever recorded. September saw 48,350 camping nights sold, making it the sixth best month ever, following July 2019 (49,217) and October 2016 (49,003). The November total for 2020 was the overall 32nd best month ever.
Tennessee State Parks operate over 3,000 campsites ranging from RV sites with full hookups to backcountry spots deep in the woods.