Category: Sports

After a change of heart late in his recruitment, Coffee County CHS baseball player Hayden Skipper publicly celebrated his signing with Lipscomb University on Friday.  The senior pitcher/center fielder celebrated his commitment to the Bisons’ baseball team in a ceremony at the CHS library on Friday.   Skipper signed his National Letter of Intent and returned the paperwork on Wednesday, which was the first day of NCAA’s Early Signing Period. 

Hayden was named to the 2019 District 8AAA All-District team and was selected as the Red Raiders’ Most Valuable Player.  Skipper is being recruited as a dual player meaning they expect him to pitch and play in the outfield.  “I love the coaching staff and the campus vibe” said Skipper.  He went on to say that “the facilities are as nice as you can find and the city of Nashville is a fun place.” 

Coffee County CHS head coach David Martin was effusive in his praise for Skipper.  “(Hayden) has the ability to go in right away and win his teammates over because he has the ability to develop relationships with his teammates after they see how genuine he is. First thing is first, you have to have the ability to play at that level which he clearly does. But his parents have done an amazing job instilling work ethic and character that he is able to bring to their program. He is everything you want your program to represent and you want him to be the face of your program. His will to compete brings an energy to his teammates that elevates everyone’s game. He is truly a coach on the field but holds himself accountable as he does his teammates. He is one of those players that has set a standard in our program and his legacy will be remembered for many years because of the way he carried himself every day. No matter what this kid does, success will follow him and the people around him.”

Lipscomb University is a private, Christian liberal arts university in Nashville.  The Bisons are a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA) Division 1 and competes in the Atlantic Sun Conference.  Lipscomb is coached by Jeff Forehand who is in his 14^th year as head coach for the Bisons. 

The Coffee County CHS, Coffee County Middle School and Westwood Middle School swim teams traveled to Tullahoma on Thursday for a meet with Tullahoma, Warren County and Grace Academy.  In team competition, the CHS team was 1 and 2 on the night. The CCMS team was 0 and 2 on the night and Westwood was 2 and 0. 

For Westwood, the girls’ 200 medley relay team and the 200 freestyle relay teams each grabbed best middle school finishes on the night.  Each team was made up of Elsie Lazalier, Ansley Beachboard, Abby Gilday and Cale Hays.  Individual Top 3 finishes were captured by: Elsie Lazalier in the 200 IM(with a time of 2:59.57) and 100 breaststroke(1:32.91); and  Jack Stowe in the 200 IM(2:54.98) and 100 backstroke(1:21.84);

For Coffee County Middle School, they captured 2^nd best relay finishes in the girls’ 200 medley and the girls’ 200 freestyle.   The medley team was made up of Natalie Wanner, Katelynn Hale, Emily Snider and Patience Driggers.   The freestyle team was made up of Natalie Wanner, Katelynn Hale, Emily Snider and Eva Rigney.   An individual Top 3 finish was captured by Brayden Kesling in the 100 butterfly(1:23.36). 

For the Coffee County CHS team, the girls’ 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay teams captured victories.  Manning both teams were Taylor Wall, Kaylee Williams, Emily Williams and Kennedy Young-Norman.   Getting individual race wins were: Kaylee Williams in the 200 freestyle(2:12.90) and 100 breaststroke(1:10.64);  Kennedy Norman-Young in the 50 freestyle(27.69); Nick Bogle in the 50 freestyle(24.97) and Emily Williams in the 500 freestyle(5:52.75);

The swim teams returns to the pool on Friday, December 13^th when they host a 5 team meet at the Manchester Recreation Center.  The night will also be Senior Night as the Coffee County CHS seniors will be recognized. 

The Coffee County Lady Raider basketball team closed out their preseason scrimmage work on Saturday with a play day in Spring Hill.  Coffee County competed in a tripleheader at Summit High School.  The Lady Raiders were 2 and 1 on the day as they captured wins over East Hickman and Eagleville.  Coffee County dropped a 2 point decision to Beech. 

The Lady Raiders will open the regular season on Friday and Saturday as they co-host 2 days of Hall of Champions games at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.  The Lady Raiders will play games at 4:00 and 6:30 PM on Friday taking on Valor Academy and Siegel respectively.  On Saturday, the Lady Raiders will tangle with Baylor at 11:30 AM and Huntland at 5:45 PM.  The Red Raiders will play Valor Academy at 7:45 PM on Friday followed by Saturday games against Cannon County on 2:00 PM and Huntland at 7:00 PM. 

Thunder Radio continues to be the exclusive radio home of Coffee County athletics.  We begin our 2019-2020 coverage on Friday night as we will cover the Lady Raiders’ game with Siegel.  We will follow that up with the Red Raiders’ game with Valor.  Our live coverage on Friday begins with the pregame show at 6:20. 

The Coffee County Elementary Basketball League was in action on Saturday with 8 games.  Saturday’s games were the next to the last games of the regular season.  The league will hold the final games of the regular season on Saturday, November 30^th. 

In girls’ games on Saturday, North Coffee topped East Coffee, College Street rolled over Hillsboro, Westwood shot down Deerfield and New Union dropped Hickerson.  In boys’ game, North Coffee charged past East Coffee, College Street doubled up Hillsboro, Westwood shut out Deerfield and New Union grounded Hickerson. 

Updated Season Standings

The Temple Baptist Christian School varsity basketball team completed play in the Shenandoah Baptist Academy Tournament in Cleveland, Tennessee on Saturday.  The Eagles lost both games on Friday to qualify for the 5^th place game on Saturday morning.  Temple grabbed a win on Saturday morning to finish the tournament with a 3 and 2 record a 5^th place finish. 

On Friday, Temple opened the day with a battle against their rival from Shelbyville the Patriots of Victory Baptist.  The Eagles struggled to get their offense going as they fell 52 to 12.  Alex Gloden led Temple with 6 points.  Isaiah Bakker finished with 5 points.  In the nightcap, Temple fell to Philadelphia Christian out of Georgia by a final score of 35 to 29.  Alex Gloden was the leading scorer as he had 10 points.  Sam Floyd led the Eagles in rebounds with 9 and added 9 points.  David Tran chipped in 6 points.

On Saturday, the Eagles jumped out to a fast start to grab a first half lead that carried them to a 29 to 22 win.  Alex Gloden led the Eagles in points, steals and rebounds.  Alex finished with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals.  Mich Gloden added 10 points. 

Temple travels to Shelbyville on Tuesday night to take on Victory Baptist Academy.  That JV/varsity doubleheader will get underway at 5 PM.  Temple will host its first home game on December 12^th. 

The Coffee County Youth Bass Club closed out the 2019 portion of their schedule with a state trail event on Chickamauga Lake.  One Raider boat joined the field of 262 boats.  The boat of Tristan Boyd and Reagan Hershman ended up in 80^th place as they caught a 2.16 fish. 

The Raider anglers will return to the water in February with a region meet on Normandy Lake.  That meet will take place on February 15^th and be held at Barton Springs. 

The Westwood 6^th grade girls’ basketball team welcomed Community to the Joel Vinson Gym on Sunday.  The Lady Rockets welcomed the Viqueens to Westwood for a rare Sunday afternoon contest.  The Lady Rockets held off a late Community rally to grab a 22 to 20 win. 

Audri Patton led Westwood in scoring with 9 points.  Maddie Meacham scored 8 points and Anna Reed added 5 points. 

The 6^th grade teams will be back in action on Tuesday, December 3^rd when they host the 6^th grade team from Morrison.  The boys and girls will both be in action.  The girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM. 

Roman Josi scored twice, but the Predators gave up seven as they fell to the Chicago Blackhawks by a 7-2 final on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena. The result pushes Nashville’s winless streak to four games and gives them a 1-1-0 record against Chicago this season.

The Preds outshot the Hawks by a 41-24 margin on the evening, but Chicago capitalized on what seemed to be every prime opportunity they had, and Nashville couldn’t get much of anything to drop at the other end, a mix that led to a disappointing loss after returning home from a long trip.

“It was a bad game,” Josi said. “We just lost 7-2 at home on Saturday night, and it’s really frustrating.”

“Ugly,” Preds forward Colton Sissons said of the game. “Just embarrassing in front of our home crowd.”

The Predators outshot Chicago by a 26-17 count through the game’s first 40 minutes, but only the Blackhawks found the back of the net. Erik Gustafsson and Dominik Kubalik tallied for Chicago in the first period, before Brent Seabrook and David Kampf beat Pekka Rinne in the second stanza.

“Defense is always a five-man job out there, like offense,” Josi said. “We’ve got to make sure we all defend together, we come back together and we battle it out together. We didn’t do any of that tonight.”

The fourth Chicago goal spelled the end of Rinne’s night as he exited in favor of Juuse Saros, and while Josi tallied twice in the third, the Hawks got three more in the final frame to spoil Saturday night and leave the Preds searching for answers.

“I have to go back and watch the game, because it is confusing, to be honest with you,” Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t think we gave up a whole bunch, and yet we found ourselves chasing the game the whole night. I have to go back and look and see what we can do better defensively… I don’t feel like it was wide-open hockey, I felt like we were pressing for most of the night and couldn’t buy a goal at the other end.”

Now owners of a 1-6-1 record in their past eight outings, the Predators are not at all pleased with the way they’ve played as of late. Saturday’s result only emphasizes that fact, and they’d certainly prefer to reverse course on Tuesday when the Winnipeg Jets come to town.

“We have to do a little bit of soul searching,” Sissons said. “It’s not been going well for a little while here and it’s been a struggle but teams go through this, as we know. We have the personnel here to turn this around in a hurry, and we have a huge game against Winnipeg on Tuesday, so we can’t dwell on this one for too long.”

Notes:

With two goals on the night, Roman Josi now has 100 goals in his NHL career.

Defenseman Matt Irwin returned to the Predators lineup on Saturday night in place of Yannick Weber. Miikka Salomaki was also scratched for the Preds.

Nashville’s three-game homestand continues on Tuesday when the Winnipeg Jets come to town before the Vancouver Canucks visit on Thursday.

A pair of Coffee County CHS softball players inked their National Letters of Intent with the University of the Cumberlands on Thursday.  Seniors Sarah West and Gracie Pippenger each signed to continue play at the Williamsburg, Kentucky University in separate ceremonies at the CHS library.  The Lady Raider duo join a Patriots softball class described as “a very highly touted recruiting class” according to University of the Cumberlands head coach Bailey Dillender.  “We want to build a winning culture so it is important to bring in winners (like Sarah and Gracie)” said Dillender. 

West verbally committed to Coach Dillender in the summer of 2018 after her campus visit.  “It felt right(on my visit) and I fell in love with the campus” said West.  West is expecting to play as a utility player but “will play where they need me” said Sarah.  Coach Dillender expects Sarah to “fill a void in the middle of our lineup immediately.”  Coffee County CHS head coach Brandon McWhorter described West as “the heart of our team.  She is a Division 1 hitter and makes plays on defense.”  McWhorter also described her as a great leader with good instincts and “great hands.”

Pippenger, who committed earlier this year, liked the coaching staff and campus as well.  “It is the right size and I look forward to doing my best(at the University of the Cumberlands).  Coach Dillender has known Gracie for a while and “followed her for several years.”  Dillender expects Pippenger to compete for a starting position immediately.   “Gracie gives us some great firepower offensively and can play multiple positions defensively.”  Coach McWhorter called Pippenger a player with  “high softball intelligence with a will to succeed.  After her ACL surgery, Gracie showed a lot of toughness and determination” added McWhorter.

The University of the Cumberlands is a private liberal arts college located in Williamsburg, Kentucky.  The Patriots are a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), competing in the Mid-South Conference. 

The Coffee County Middle School basketball teams traveled to Sparta on Thursday night for a conference doubleheader with White County.  The Lady Raiders fell behind early as they fell 37 to 30.  The Red Raiders shut down the Warriors in the 4^th quarter to grab a 31 to 25 win.

In the girls’ game, the Lady Raiders missed 11 of 16 free throws in the game, including 5 in the first half as they fell behind 23 to 15.  The Lady Raiders were led in scoring by Olivia Vinson who had 15 points.  Taylor Anthony added 12 points.

In the boys game, the Red Raiders trailed by 1 at the half before pulling ahead in the 3^rd quarter before holding White County to a single free throw in the final 6 minutes.  The Red Raiders showed off their balanced scoring attack as Jackson Shemwell, Ethan Hargrove and Brendan Sheppard each netted 8 points.  Evan Kirby tacked on 4 points for Coffee Middle. 

The Raiders and Lady Raiders return home on Monday night as they welcome West Tullahoma to the CCMS gym.  Thunder Radio will be on hand to bring you all the action as part of the 1^st National Bank Hometown Sports Series.  The pregame show begins at 5:50, tip-off is set for 6:00.