The Coffee County CHS Red Raider basketball team
will open practice on Monday with some high expectations. Coach Micah Williams begins his 5th
year at the helm of the Coffee County program and is coming off a 19 win season
last year and a regular season district title.
The Red Raiders have averaged 19 wins a year for the last 3 years and
are coming off hosting a first round regional game for the first time since
2006. The Red Raiders were selected to
finish in 2nd place in the district by the coaches and media in
attendance at Monday’s District 8AAA Media Day.
The Red Raiders will take part in a scrimmage playday on Saturday, November 9th at Rockvale. The Red Raiders will take on Walker Valley, Jellico and Stratford. Coffee County will host an open practice on Friday, November 15th and the public is invited to attend. The practice will get underway at 5:30 PM as Coach Williams will be mic’d for the duration of the practice as he leads his team through drills before ending with a controlled scrimmage. Admission is free and folks are invited to stay after practice to eat with the team. Coffee County opens the season on Friday, November 22nd and Saturday, November 23rd as they host a series of Hall of Champions games at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.
The Coffee County CHS Lady Raider basketball team will open practice on Monday looking to continue to return the program back to its tradition. Coach Joe Pat Cope begins his 3rd year as head coach and is looking for the program’s 4th consecutive regular season district title. The Lady Raiders are coming off a 28 win season last winter and have hosted a first round regional game for 2 straight years. Last season, the Lady Raiders advanced to the Region 4AAA semifinals before falling to Riverdale. The Lady Raiders were picked to finish in 1st place in the district by the coaches and media in attendance at Monday’s District 8AAA Media Day.
On Wednesday, the Lady Raiders got some welcome
news with the addition of a pair of Chumbley’s.
Former Coffee County Middle School coach Rece Chumbley has accepted a
position as a physical education teacher and assistant basketball coach for the
Lady Raiders. Coach Chumbley returns to
Coffee County after a coaching stint at Cascade. Also joining the Lady Raiders is his daughter,
Ellie, who is a sophomore. Ellie’s
mother is former Lady Raider legend Allison Sain Chumbley who was a member of
the 1993 state championship team.
The Lady Raiders will take part in a home
scrimmage game on November 7th at 5 PM as they play host to Marshall
County. Coffee County will travel to
Spring Hill on Saturday, November 16th to participate in a scrimmage
play day at Summit. The Lady Raiders
will play East Hickman, Beech and Eagleville.
Coffee County opens the season on Friday, November 22nd and Saturday,
November 23rd as they host a series of Hall of Champions games at the Joe Frank
Patch Memorial Gym.
At Nashville SC’s end of the season awards banquet for staff and
players, the club passed out its 2019 USL Championship season honors. Taylor
Washington, Matt Pickens, Lebo Moloto and Daniel Ríos were all honored with
awards at the event.
Community Service Award – Taylor Washington
For the second consecutive season, defender Taylor Washington went
home with the Community Service Award. Washington’s heart for service to
Nashville has been apparent throughout the last two years. In 2019, Washington
made 12 player appearances, the most of any player on the team. He also has
made numerous appearances on his own at schools, hospitals, and events. One
highlight of Washington’s 2019 season was when he was asked to be the Keynote
speaker at the Special Olympic’s Opening Ceremonies for the 2019 State Summer
Games. Washington was invited as the Keynote speaker because of the connection
he has made with the athletes over two years in Nashville, and his role in
connecting with the Nashville community. He joined a distinguished list of
former Special Olympics Keynote speakers that includes Tennessee Titans head
coach Mike Vrabel, who spoke last year at the event.
Defensive MVP – Matt Pickens
Nashville SC’s first-ever professional signing, goalkeeper Matt
Pickens was named the team’s defensive MVP. Pickens had a career season where
he recorded 14 clean sheets and posted a microscopic 0.64 goals against
average, earning the USL Championship’s Golden Glove. The GAA was the
second-lowest in league history over a season, and the 14 clean sheets tied his
total last season as the second-most in a single season in the league. Pickens
has saved two penalties in 2019 and recorded his first playoff win for
Nashville SC last weekend in the club’s 3-1 over Charleston Battery.
Offensive MVP – Lebo Moloto
For the second consecutive season, Lebo Moloto was named Nashville
SC’s Offensive MVP. Following his match-opening goal on Saturday, Moloto has
recorded six goals and 10 assists in the 2019. It’s the second consecutive
season he has scored five goals and assisted five, the only player on Nashville
to do so. He was also one of just five USL Championship players to record
double-digit assists in 2019. Coming off a season-ending knee injury suffered
late in the 2018 season, Moloto bounced back in 2019 and is currently in
excellent form leading Nashville SC to a current five-match winning streak.
Team MVP – Daniel Ríos
In his first season with the club,
Daniel Ríos was named the Team MVP for his incredible 2019 season. Nashville’s
first MLS signing, Ríos has scored 21 goals in 2019, becoming the
first-ever USL Championship player to score at least 20 in back-to-back
seasons. The 20 goals were the most in the Eastern Conference and were two
behind Solomon Asante of Phoenix Rising FC for the league’s Golden Boot. Ríos, who
will go down as Nashville SC’s all-time USL Championship scoring leader, also
contributed a pair of assists in his 2019 campaign. He scored the match-winning
goal for Nashville in its first-ever playoff victory on Saturday over
Charleston Battery, and has six match-winning goals this season.
The Westwood basketball teams traveled to Rock
Island on Tuesday for their first ever meeting with Eastside. The Lady Rockets used their smothering man to
man defense to blast the Lady Bulldogs 35 to 8.
The Rockets captured a 25 to 14 win over the league’s preseason
champions.
In the girls’ game, Westwood held Eastside to 3
points through the first 3 quarters as they built a 21 point lead going into
the 4th quarter. Nine
different Lady Rockets scored in the win led by Bryleigh Gray who netted 8
points. Princess Penaloza and Allie Sullivan
each scored 5 points for the Lady Rockets who are now 5 and 0 on the season.
Jayden Carter of Westwood basketball
In the boys’ game, the Rockets shut down the
Bulldogs and gutted out the scrappy win in a tough environment. Westwood held Eastside scoreless in the 2nd
and 3rd periods to roll to their 3rd straight win. Cayden Trail and Jayden Carter each finished
with 12 points for Westwood who is 4 and 1 on the young season.
Westwood will be back in action on Monday when
they travel to Irving College. The
girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM. The
Westwood 6th grade girls’ basketball team will travel to Unionville
on Saturday to take on Community. That
game will tip off at noon.
The Coffee County freshman football team wrapped up
their season on Tuesday as they took part in the 54th Tullahoma
Lions Bowl. The injury–ravaged Red
Raiders squared off against the freshmen from Riverdale. Riverdale scored on 4 plays of 39 yards or
more to stun the Raiders 38 to 21.
Missing all 3 starting linebackers, the starting center,
wide receiver and running back, Coffee County was forced to patch together
combinations of players on both sides of the football. The Red Raiders also had 3 big scoring plays as
Nate Luttrell hit Elijah Clemmons on a 42 yard touchdown pass; Clayton Procter returned
an interception 42 yards for a touchdown by and Tristan Galey galloped in on a
49 yard touchdown run.
Galey led the Raider defense as he rushed 21 times for 143 yards. Luttrell was 2 for 8 passing for 41 yards and an interception. Clemmons caught one pass for a 42 yard touchdown and rushed 2 times for 16 yards.
Freshman head coach Brock Freeze will be a guest on Saturday’s Coffee Coaches Show to talk about the season. The Coffee Coaches Show is broadcast LIVE each Saturday at 10 AM from the showroom of Al White Ford/Lincoln. The Coffee Coaches Show is heard exclusively here on Thunder Radio.
The Coffee County Middle School 6th
grade basketball teams made the short hop up Highway 55 on Tuesday to tangle
with Warren County. The Lady Raiders
held Warren County to 7 points in the final 3 quarters to win 38 to 19. The Red Raiders saw Warren County pull away in
the 4th quarter to grab a 35 to 27 win.
In the girls’ game, Warren County roared out to a 12 to 7 lead after 1 quarter of play. The Lady Raiders bounced back to hold the Lady Pioneers to 2 points in the 2nd quarter to take a 3 point lead into the half. In the 2nd half, Coffee County outscored Warren County 21 to 5 to coast to their 5th win in their last 6 games. Morgen Spears led Coffee Middle in scoring with 12 points. Natalie Barnes finished with 11 points and Ella Arnold netted 10.
Alex Kilgore on CCMS basketball
In the boys’ game, Warren County erupted for 13
points in the 4th quarter to stop Coffee County’s upset bid. The Red Raiders were 5 for 5 from the free
throw line on the night. Alex Kilgore
was the leading scorer for the Raiders as he finished with 11 points. Jace Cashion added 8 points for Coffee
Middle.
Coffee County will be back in action on Saturday
when they travel to Tullahoma when they travel to West Middle for a 4 team 6th
grade tournament. Coffee Middle will get
rematches with Warren County in the opening round. The girls’ game is set for 11 AM with the
boys to follow at noon. The consolation games
are scheduled to begin at 1 and the 2 championship games will tip off around 3
PM.
Nick Bonino of the Nashville Predators [Photo courtesy of Getty Images]
As country-music superstar Maren Morris sings, “If the bones are good, the rest don’t matter.” On Tuesday night, the man the Preds call “Bones” was quite good.
Nick Bonino notched a hat trick and Pekka Rinne stopped all 20 shots he faced as the Nashville Predators shut out the Chicago Blackhawks by a 3-0 final on at Bridgestone Arena. The result extends Nashville’s win streak to four games, a stretch that has seen the Preds only allow three goals in total.
The Predators outshot the Blackhawks by a 51-20 margin, a mark that was just four away from Nashville tying their franchise record for shots in a single game. Bonino accounted for nine of those – a career-high – and Chicago goaltender Robin Lehner gave his team a chance, but the Preds were all over the Hawks from start to finish.
A day that began with Predators Captain Roman Josi signing a fresh eight-year contract, ended with Rinne posting back-to-back shutouts at home for the first time since 2013 and slews of Preds fans leaving without hats.
“What a night for him,” Rinne said of Bonino. “He’s had a hot start to the season. He’s been a really awesome player for us this year, and I’m happy for him. There were three kind of similar goals in front of the net. That whole line was playing extremely well with [Craig Smith] and Rocco [Grimaldi], and they were creating all night. I’m really happy for them.”
“It was strong from start to finish,” Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of the effort. “There weren’t many shifts where I don’t think we competed at a really high level, really tried to force the issue and press the pace and play a fast game. Offensively, we made good decisions and defensively I thought we competed really hard.”
Bonino’s first of the night came late in the opening period when he finally converted after he and his teammates had Lehner under siege in their own end.
Bonino pushes puck into the net
00:54 • October 29, 2019
Nashville finished with 18 shots in the first, and they added 22 more in the second – plus a second for Bonino. The Preds centerman banged home a loose puck in front for his fifth of the season and a 2-0 advantage through 40 minutes. Defenseman Dante Fabbro assisted on Bonino’s second tally, his first helper in the NHL.
Just three minutes into the third, Bonino completed the hat trick, his first with the Preds and third of his career. The trick was of the natural variety, and Rocco Grimaldi recorded the primary assist on all three of Bonino’s tallies to post the first three-point game of his NHL career.
“Rocco’s speed backs you off and creates a lot of space for us,” Bonino said of his line. “Smitty, whenever you see him, he’s battling. He’s so hard on the puck, he had two assists; very involved, all three of us all night. We were in the offense zone a lot, that always helps.”
The defensive effort was exemplary again for the Predators as they posted their second-straight shutout at home. Nashville has only allowed two goals in their last three games, and they’ve gone five outings in a row surrendering two goals or less in regulation time.
“It’s been a lot better,” Bonino said of the defensive play. “Our last five games we’ve made a concerted effort to do that, not only in the defensive zone but also in the offensive, making smarter decisions. When every line does that it usually translates to wins. When lapses do happen, we have the best goalie in the League.”
Lehner was stellar for the Blackhawks, and his counterpart in net knows if it weren’t for the play of the Blackhawks netminder, the score could have been much higher behind Nashville’s relentless effort.
But on this night, the credit belonged to No. 13.
“I’m just happy to see a guy like that get rewarded,” Grimaldi said of Bonino. “Smitty and Bones, tonight, were just awesome. I think it was their best game by far this year… Bones putting three in, it was fun. Honestly, sometimes we’re going to the bench like, ‘This is fun, this is hockey and this is the best.’ We just have to keep going like this, keep building momentum. It’s one game and it’s done now, and we have to put it past us and look to the next game.”
The Preds may have made it seem easy, but two points are never automatic in today’s NHL. A four-game winning streak is something to be proud of, and while the season is still relatively young, there’s plenty to gain from the past week, not to mention eight more points in the standings.
“It’s been great,” Rinne said. “It’s nice to win some games in a row against good teams, too. Tonight was just total domination. You can sense the confidence in the locker room and it shows on the ice too, so it’s a good feeling.”
Notes:
Matt Duchene returned to the Nashville lineup after missing Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury. Filip Forsberg remains out with a lower-body injury, but he has resumed skating with the team.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Preds recalled forward Colin Blackwell from the Milwaukee Admirals. Blackwell did not play on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the Predators announced an eight-year, $72.472 million contract for Captain Roman Josi. Click here for more on the deal.
Nashville’s three-game homestand continues on Halloween when the Calgary Flames come to town (at 7 p.m. CT) and then finishes up on Saturday afternoon when the Preds welcome the New York Rangers to Bridgestone Arena for a 1 p.m. matinee.
The Coffee County Middle School basketball teams
opened up their season on Monday night as they welcomed East Tullahoma to the CCMS
gym. In a pair of games you heard here
on Thunder Radio, the Raider teams split the 2 decisions with the visiting
Panthers. In the girls’ game, the Lady Raiders
routed East 65 to 20 while the Red Raiders’ 4th quarter rally fell short
as they lost 35 to 28.
The Lady Raiders used a tenacious defense and an
effective transition offense to get off to a red hot start. Coffee County scored 20 points in the first
quarter and 18 more in the 2nd quarter to take a 38 to 10 lead into
intermission. Nine different Lady Raiders
scored in the contest led by Taylor Anthony who had 17 points. Olivia Vinson added 16 points while Bella
Lawson and Natalie Barnes each netted 8 points.
Ethan Hargrove of CCMS basketball[file photo]
The Red Raiders got off to an ice cold shooting performance
in the 1st half as they trailed 14 to 6 at intermission. After falling behind by 9 points going to the
4th quarter, Coffee Middle cut the deficit to 2 points with under 2
minutes to play. East hit a big 3
pointer and forced a pair of turnovers down the stretch to escape with the
win. Ethan Hargrove led the Raiders in scoring
with 16 points. Brendon Shepherd and
Cooper Reed each added 5 points.
Coffee County will be back in action on Friday
when they travel to Winchester to take on North Franklin. That matchup will take place at Franklin County
High School. The girls’ game tips off at
6 PM.
The Westwood basketball teams traveled to northern
Warren County on Monday for their first regular season games of the
season. The Rockets and Lady Rockets took
on Dibrell on the Wildcats home floor.
Westwood grabbed a pair of wins on the evening as the Lady Rockets won 48
to 17 while the boys grabbed a 41 to 29 victory.
In the girls’ game, Westwood exploded for 17
points in the 3rd quarter as they stretched a 14 point halftime lead
to 26 points heading to the 4th quarter. The Lady Rockets defense held Dibrell to 2
field goals in the 2nd half to get their 4th straight
win. Bryleigh Gray led Westwood in
scoring as she finished with 14 points.
Princess Penaloza, Allie Sullivan and Kailee Rossman each added 7
points.
Cayden Trail of Westwood basketball
The Rockets fell behind in the 1st
quarter before rolling up 18 points in the 2nd quarter to take a 23
to 16 lead into the half. In the 3rd
quarter, Westwood outscored Dibrell 13 to 2 in the 3rd quarter to
coast to their 3rd win on the season. Cayden Trail and Jayden Carter each scored 10
points to lead the Rockets in scoring.
Caiden Warren added 8 points.
Westwood will hit the road on Tuesday as they
travel to Rock Island to tangle with Eastside.
The girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM.
The media and basketball coaches of District 8AAA
met in Fayetteville to preview the upcoming season. Both boys’ and girls’ coaches for each of the
district teams spoke to members of the assembled media at the Hampton Inn in
Fayetteville before fielding questions.
Coffee County’s Joe Pat Cope and Micah Williams
spoke of their expectations for the coming year along with their performances
in summer camps and preseason conditioning workouts. Each spoke of the hard work their teams have
been putting in and the task of replacing members from last year’s regular
season district championship teams. The
Raider teams open practice on Monday with the first regular season games
scheduled November 22nd.
At the conclusion of the coaches’ interviews,
members of the assembled media and coaching staffs voted on a preseason ranking
for girls and boys. Also, a preseason
All-District team was selected. For the
girls, the Lady Raiders were picked win the district while Coffee County’s Bella
Vinson was selected for the All-District squad.
The Red Raiders were picked to finish in 2nd place behind
Columbia. Red Raiders Jaylon Wooten and
Kyle Farless were selected for the pre-season All-District team.
