Category: Sports

The Coffee County Youth Bass Club is looking for volunteers for a trash cleanup this weekend at Normandy.   They will have a 40 yard dumpster dropped at Barton Springs ramp to collect the trash picked up.  There are 2 large high school tournaments coming up in the spring being hosted by the Raider anglers.  Per Phil Petty, Coffee County Youth Bass Club coach, “the road sides to the ramp look horrible, not to mention the trash that has made its way down the hill.”  Team members will be there 1 PM -4 PM both Saturday and Sunday.

Mikael Granlund made sure the Nashville Predators started their road trip 2-for-2.

The forward recorded his second consecutive game-winning goal, as the Predators topped the Calgary Flames, 3-2, on Thursday night at Scotiabank Saddledome and kicked off their four-game road trip with two victories in two stops.

The wins provide an ideal start to the excursion for the Preds, and at a time where every single point is paramount, Nashville is finding ways to collect them with some regularity.

“There’s a lot of teams who are in the same position as everybody, grinding for every single point, and you know these games are going to be tight games,” Granlund said. “We just have to find a way to get out of those games with points, and we’ve been doing that lately.”

“We knew coming in, it was going to be a hard-fought battle, and I thought that we were up for the task tonight,” Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. “We played well, and I particularly liked our third period. I thought coming in with the lead in the third period, that Calgary’s going to be able to make a push, but I thought our battle level [was great]. Our focus level, our attention to detail was strong in that period. We made decisions that allow you to be able to play well with a lead.”

For the second-straight game, the visitors were able to overcome giving up a goal in the opening minutes. Seventy-six seconds after Sam Bennett put the Flames ahead on their first shot on goal, Preds Captain Roman Josi led the rush and threw a pass over to Dante Fabbro, who snapped home a shot to even the score. The helper gave Josi his 400th career point – a mark that didn’t last long, as he hit No. 401 before the game ended.

The milestone saw Josi become just the second Swiss player in NHL history to reach 400 points, a feat he now shares with one of his idols.

“That’s pretty cool,” Josi said. “Mark Streit, he was always my big idol. He was the first one who really made the NHL as a player, and I think it opened up a lot of doors for us young players.”

Midway through the first frame, Kyle Turris got his seventh of the season by crashing the net, and the Preds took a 2-1 advantage into the first intermission. Mattias Ekholm charged into the crease and placed a rebound chance right back at the net, off Turris’s skate and into the cage.

“It seems like this whole road trip now, starting in Winnipeg, they’re a point ahead of us going into the game, and tonight, Calgary was three ahead of us, and then Edmonton, Vancouver, they’re all right ahead of us,” Turris said. “We’re coming together. We’re finding ways to win.”

Nashville’s lead swelled to 3-1 midway through the contest after Granlund converted on the Predators’ one and only power-play chance of the evening. Granlund poked home a loose puck sitting behind Flames goaltender Cam Talbot for his fifth goal in his last eight outings.

Rasmus Andersson got the Flames back into the contest at 11:06 with his fourth goal of the season, but the Predators never surrendered the lead they earned in the first period. Making his second-straight start, Juuse Saros notched 37 saves for his third win in a row overall.

“He was awesome, especially in the second and third,” Josi said of Saros. “They had some really good looks, and he was great. He was great tonight, and he definitely won that game for us.”

Only a point out of the Western Conference’s final playoff spot to end the night, the mantra is simple for the Predators: onto Edmonton. The showdown on Saturday night (at 6 p.m. CT) will provide Nashville the opportunity to claw back into playoff positioning and could be their third-straight win, something they haven’t done since October.

“We’re coming around and getting a little bit more consistency to our game,” Hynes said. “Mentally, our attention to detail, our push back and certain components of the game is something we really addressed. I still think there’s so much more than that… It’s nice that we’ve been able to find ways to win. I think it builds belief, it builds confidence, but we’re doing enough things to win games. The exciting thing, as a coach, is I still think there’s more here.”

Notes:

Calle Jarnkrok, who missed the previous three games due to illness, took part in Nashville’s morning skate on Thursday, but did not play against the Flames. Austin Watson and Matt Irwin were also scratched for the Preds.

Nashville will continue their four-game trip on Saturday evening in Edmonton against the Oilers (6 p.m. CT; on Thunder Radio) before wrapping up in Vancouver on Monday night.

The Coffee County CHS basketball teams will host Lawrence County on Friday night in their next to last home games of the year.  Also on Friday night, all current and former players who have 1,000 career points will be acknowledged and honored.   Any and all Red Raiders who scored at least 1,000 points will be honored at halftime of the girls’ game.   Any and all Lady Raiders who scored at least 1,000 points will be honored at halftime of the boys’ game.   A plaque commemorating all members of the 1,000 point club will be hung in the gym area and updated as new 1,000 point members are identified or as players eclipse the 1,000 point mark. 

As expected, Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you the broadcast of Friday’s doubleheader as your official station of Coffee County Central High School sports.  The girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM.  Thunder Radio’s live coverage will begin at 5:50 PM with the Powers Storage Pregame Show. 

Coming up on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show, Thunder Radio has an exciting lineup.   We will open up with an interview with new Coffee County CHS golf coach Brad Costello.  Costello will talk about his plans for the Red Raider and Lady Raider golf teams moving forward.   We will also talk to Jonathan Oliver, the head coach for the Coffee County Middle School Red Raider basketball team.    The Red Raiders won the area tournament and advanced to the TMSAA Sectional Tournament.  The Red Raiders finished the year with a record of 18 and 6.  Coach Oliver will talk about the season and his plans for the upcoming year.  Our final guest will be new Westwood soccer coach Kevin Smith.  After helping the Lady Rockets in the fall, Coach Smith will take over as the Rockets head coach this spring.  We will talk to Coach Smith about his plans for the season and review their upcoming schedule.

The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast live each Saturday morning from 10 to 11 AM.  The Coffee Coaches Show is the only source for complete coverage of Coffee County and Westwood sports.  The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast from the showroom of Al White Ford/Lincoln.  The Coffee Coaches Show is heard exclusively on Thunder Radio.   You can listen in Coffee County at 107.9 FM, 106.7 FM and  AM 1320 or you can listen anywhere on Earth at WMSRradio.com and on the Manchester Go App. 

The Coffee County Fastpitch Association will hold signups every Saturday in February at the Ada Wright Center.  The fastpitch softball league will hold signups from 9 AM to 2 PM.  Parents wishing to register their child need to bring the child’s birth certificate to signups.  Children wishing to participate need to be at least 4 years old when games begin in April. 

The league is open to children ages 4 to 14 in 5 separate age divisions.  Cost to participate is $45 per child.  You can also register online at: https://playpass.com/CoffeeCoFastpitch

If you need more information, contact Matt Asher at 931-588-9919 or Renee Asher at 931-581-3668.  You can also get more information by visiting the league’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeCountyFastPitchAssociation

If you are interested in sponsoring or coaching a team, or would like to be an umpire, you can fill out an application at: https://playpass.com/CoffeeCoFastpitch

Thunder Radio takes seriously our commitment to being your hometown radio station. With that in mind, we are pleased to announce a tentative lineup for our unparalleled coverage of Coffee County Central High School, Coffee County Middle School and Westwood Middle School spring sports.  2020 marks the 22^nd year that Thunder Radio has been your eyes and ears for spring sports.

Thunder Radio’s unrivaled coverage will bring you as many as 30 regular season and postseason games for the Raiders and Lady Raiders plus the Rockets and Lady Rockets.  Jonathan Oliver, Josh Peterson and Dennis Weaver will team up to bring you the broadcasts on 107.9 FM, 106.7 FM, AM 1320, WMSRradio.com and on the Manchester Go app.  Also, the Thunder Radio sports staff will keep you updated with daily reports on all spring sports all season long as part of our daily sports updates online and in our sports broadcasts.

Our broadcasts will begin on Thursday, February 27^th with Westwood soccer at home vs. North Franklin.  And, as always is the case with spring sports, when weather forces cancellations and postponements, Thunder Radio will keep you updated on that as well.  For more than complete prep sports coverage, remember, nobody does sports like Thunder Radio! 

Mikael Granlund buried the game-winner in overtime, and the Nashville Predators came back to top the Winnipeg Jets, 2-1, on Tuesday night at Bell MTS Place.

The forward picked a fine time to score his first game-winning goal as a member of the Predators, and his team started a crucial, four-game road trip with a significant victory against a division rival.

“It’s a big win,” Granlund said. “These are going to be tight games the rest of the season, so we have to stack up these points here. We played pretty solid, pretty good defensively and [goaltender Juuse Saros] was outstanding in the net again… Every single point is huge right now.”

The Jets owned the first 10 minutes of the game and scored the contest’s first goal only 2:46 into regulation. But from that point on, Nashville was largely the better team. They tied the game late in the first with Nick Bonino’s 16th of the campaign, and Granlund notched the winning strike in OT.

“That was a really, really well played game by both teams,” Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. “Both goaltenders played well and made big stops when they needed to. Both teams competed hard, and there wasn’t a lot of free ice out there. But it was nice that we could find a way to win and get ourselves back up after how we felt we played [in a 3-0 loss to Vegas on] Saturday and get off to a good start in the road trip.”

Mason Appleton drove to the net and beat Saros less than three minutes into the contest, but that was all the Jets were able to muster. Late in the opening frame, Bonino took a feed from Rocco Grimaldi and one-timed a shot from the left circle past Connor Hellebuyck to even the score, 1-1, after 20 minutes.

Those numbers held through the second stanza, which included Saros stopping Patrik Laine on a penalty shot and Filip Forsberg ringing one off the pipe on a Nashville power play. Saros made 33 saves on the night for his eighth victory of the season.

“He’s been great all year, and it’s good to get him these wins,” Bonino said of Saros. “A lot of these games, especially for Juice, have gone either way, and he’s kept us in it and we’ve ended up losing. He deserves more wins than he has, and tonight, a penalty shot, huge save on Laine, and he was tracking the puck so well.”

The third period featured several breath-stealing moments, with both teams trading bids to break the deadlock. The 1-1 score held until the extra session, where the Predators began OT with a 3-on-2 chance and then held their advantage all the way until Mattias Ekholm hit Granlund across the zone for a one-timer goal.

“I just tried to shoot it, and I think I miss that shot quite a bit, but it still went in,” Granlund said. “Sometimes those shots are going in, and it was a big extra point for us, and we just move on to the next one.” “For the most part, it was a good effort,” Bonino said. “Again, our second period could have been a little bit better, but we didn’t give up much on the scoreboard, so that’s always good. We came into the third and did what we had to do to get the one point, and then a great play in overtime.”

The two points on Tuesday night helped the Predators leap the Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks. Nashville sits in the final spot outside of the playoffs and the two Wild Cards.

“Really, just embracing the grind and staying with it and staying focused,” Hynes said. “Not getting too low after a loss, not getting too high after a win, and just really understanding how we need to play this time of year and and trying to be really consistent with that. I think the more consistent you are in that, you’re going to give yourself an opportunity to get better results. Fortunately, we have and we have to continue with that mindset.”

Notes:

Prior to Tuesday’s game, defenseman Ryan Ellis participated in the morning skate, the first time he’s been on the ice with his Preds teammates since he was injured on New Year’s Day. Ellis is not expected to play during the four-game trip, according to Head Coach John Hynes, but his appearance on Tuesday was another positive step.

Calle Jarnkrok (illness) missed his third-straight game. Yannick Weber and Austin Watson were also scratched for the Preds on Tuesday.

Nashville’s trip out west continues on Thursday night in Calgary (at 8 p.m. CT) when the Preds take on the Flames. Stops in Edmonton and Vancouver will also come over the next week before the group returns to Tennessee.

Nashville Soccer Club embarked yesterday in its second leg of preseason training with the team traveling to Tampa, Fla. through Feb. 21.    

After a scoreless draw in the first preseason scrimmage last week, the Boys in Gold will now face their first MLS opponent when they meet Chicago Fire FC on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. CT Tournament Sportsplex of Tampa Bay. 

Just three days later, NSC will meet familiar USL Championship foe, Louisville City FC on Sunday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. CT from IMG Academy.  

For more information on Nashville SC’s training schedule, please contact the Nashville Communications Department (Communications@nashvillesc.com)   

The Coffee County CHS freshman basketball teams closed out the season on Monday night as they traveled to McMinnville to take on Warren County.  The Lady Raiders came up short 77 to 46.  The Red Raiders fought to a 54 to 52 win.

In the girls’ game, Warren County got off to a red hot start as they built a 26 to 8 lead after 1 quarter of play.  Warren County hit 9 three point baskets in the game.  Coffee County was outscored 40 to 28 in the 2^nd half in the loss.  Maggie Crouch was the leading scorer for the Lady Raiders as she finished with 19 points.  Nia Sheffield and Kennedy Norman-Young each finished with 6 points. 

In the boys’ game, the Red Raiders used a strong 2^nd half rally to grab the win.  Trailing 25 to 17 at the half, Coffee County cut the deficit to 3 points entering the 4^th quarter.  In the 4^th quarter, the Raiders exploded for 21 points to grab the win.  Hayden Collins led the Raiders in scoring as he put up 27 points.  Isaiah Campbell chipped in 8 points and Ryan Gravely finished with 7 points.

Westwood boys’ basketball coach Will Pannell announced on Friday that he was stepping down as the Rockets head coach effective immediately.  Pannell, who has held the position for 15 years, told Thunder Radio Sports that he wanted to “devote more time to my family.”  Pannell, who teaches art at Westwood Middle, will remain a classroom teacher.  Pannell’s Rocket team won the regular season conference title this past season before falling in the semifinals of the postseason tournament.  Westwood finished the season with a record of 13 and 4.