Category: Sports

Friday night the Coffee County CHS basketball teams will welcome their old rival Tullahoma to the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym.   Friday night will be the final home game of the regular season for Coffee County and it will also be Senior Night.  A capacity crowd is expected for the home finale.

Advance tickets will be on sale at the CHS office before 2 PM on Friday.  Beat the rush and avoid the expected delay at the gate.  Tickets are $6 for adults and all Coffee County fans are encouraged to wear Red.  Coffee County CHS students who wear a red shirt and show their school issued ID will get in the game free.

Thunder Radio, the exclusive home of Coffee County sports, will be on hand to bring you the broadcast.  The girls’ game will tip off at 6 PM, Thunder Radio’s live coverage will begin with the Powers Storage pregame show at 5:50.

Editor’s Note: This story is a repeat of a story we brought you on Monday.  Today’s version contains additional information along with corrections from the original story.  I apologize for the errors – Dennis Weaver

On Friday, the Coffee County Central High School swim team was in action in the Middle Tennessee High School Swimming Association regional meet.  Competing with the ultimate goal of qualifying or improving times for the state meet coming up in February, the Raiders competed in the Tracy Caulkins Aquatic Center in Nashville’s Centennial SportsPlex.   In the overall team standings, the boys team finished in 17^th place overall while the girls captured a 27^th place finish.  In the combined standings, the Coffee County swimmers earned a 20^th place finish out of 72 teams.

In the team relay races, the girls’ 200 medley relay team of Haley Richardson, Kaylee Williams, Anna O’Connor and Lindsey Cauble posted a season best time of 2:11.74 to capture 23^rd place.  The same Lady Raider quartet completed the 200 freestyle relay in 2:00.29 to capture 26^th place.  The boys’ 200 medley relay team of Jack Beachboard, Jase Rice, William Tobitt and Gavin Benson finished in 28^th place with a time of 2:02.49.  This Red Raider team also swam the 200 freestyle in 1:47.30 to finish in 29^th place.   Both times were season best times for the Red Raider relay teams.

In individual races:

• Jack Beachboard grabbed a 2^nd place medal in the 200 IM with a time of 1:59.04.  Beachboard also nabbed a 2^nd place medal in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.36.
• Kaylee Williams grabbed a 10^th place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time 1:10.60.  Williams also added a 14^th place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 2:21.12.
• Anna O’Connor finished in 24^th place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:06.35.  O’Connor also posted a time of 1:07.93 in the 100 backstroke to end up in 31^st place.
• Jase Rice posted a 29^th place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:09.45 which was 3.92 seconds better than his season best.  Rice also finished in 36^th place in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54:18 which eclipsed his season best time by 2.57 seconds.  .
• Kennedy Norman-Young swam a season best time of 27.88 in the 50 freestyle.  Norman-Young also posted a time of 1:04.70 in the 100 freestyle
• Lindsey Cauble posted a new season best time of 30.56 in the 50 freestyle.
• William Tobitt completed the 50 freestyle in 26.57.  Tobitt also swam the 100 freestyle in 1:01.16.

Next up for the Raider swimmers is the Tennessee Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association state meet.  Qualifying for the state meet for Coffee County is: Jack Beachboard, Jase Rice, Kaylee Williams and Anna O’Connor.  The state meet for the high school swimmers will take place on Friday and Saturday, February 8^th and 9^th in Nashville.

The Coffee County Middle School Lady Raider basketball team will tangle with conference rival White County on Wednesday afternoon in the TMSAA Section 2 Tournament.  The Lady Raiders, who have dropped 3 games to the unbeaten Warriorettes this season, are looking to pull the upset over the CTC champions at Stewarts Creek Middle School.  Wednesday night’s game will tip off at 4:15 at Stewarts Creek which is located in Smyrna.

A win on Wednesday would earn the Lady Raiders a bid in the sectional finals for the 2^nd time in 4 years.   The sectional final will be held on Thursday, January 31^st at 6 PM at Stewarts Creek Middle School.

The winner of the sectional tournament will advance to the inaugural 4 team TMSAA middle school state tournament which will also be held at Stewarts Creek on February 8^th and 9^th.

The 2019 football schedule for the Coffee County CHS football team has been finalized and released.  This fall’s schedule features the addition of a region contest as Rockvale High School will open up this fall and field their first ever team.  The Rockets, who originally were expected to compete at the 5A level, was pushed to Region 3-6A after a higher than expected projected enrollment.  The Rockets will be coached by former Wayne County head coach Rick Rice and will join Coffee County, Blackman, Riverdale, Oakland, Siegel, Cookeville and Warren County in the 8 team region.

Coffee County will play 7 region games against each of their Region 3-6A rivals along with 3 non-region contests.  Coach Ryan Sulkowski was able to maintain local rivals Franklin County and Tullahoma as 2 of the non-region games, and those will take place on the first 2 weeks of the season as they did in 2017 and 2018.  Spring Hill will return to the Coffee County schedule as a non-region opponent for the first time in more than 20 years.  The Raiders of Spring Hill compete in Region 4 of Class 4A.

The updated schedule is as follows:

 

Perfect in January!  That is what the Coffee County Central High School basketball teams accomplished on Monday night at the Patch against Lincoln County.  In a pair of games originally scheduled for Tuesday, both Coffee County teams captured their 8^th straight win as each strengthened their hold on 1^st place in the district standings.  The Lady Raiders got a buzz-beating shot from Bella Vinson to pull off a stunning 50 to 49 win.  The Red Raiders dominated in the 2^nd half as they rolled to a 55 to 35 win over the Falcons.

In a 1 point game with 1.9 seconds to go, Lincoln County missed a free throw and the Lady Raiders immediately called timeout.  Jenna Garretson threw the inbounds pass from the Lincoln County baseline to the top of the key on the Coffee County end.  Bella Vinson grabbed the pass and hit a turnaround jumper just ahead of the final horn to improve the Lady Raiders record to 23 and 3 on the year and 9 and 0 in district play.

Vinson finished the game with 24 points, including the dramatic game winner, to earn the Crazy Daisies player of the game award.  Abby Morgan finished with 10 points while Jenna Garretson added 7 points.   The win means that the Lady Raiders can finish no worse than 2^nd place in the district and guarantees them a region tournament berth.

The Red Raiders jumped out to a 10 to 0 lead in the 1^st quarter and never trailed Lincoln County.  After taking an 8 point lead into the halftime break, Coffee County held the Falcons to 15 points in the 2^nd half to get the season sweep over Lincoln County.

Coffee County was led in scoring by Darius Rozier who had 23 points.  Harley Hinshaw added 7 points while Shawn Anderson chipped in 6.   For his strong game, Rozier was named the Crazy Daisies player of the game.  The win moves the Raiders record to 16 and 4 overall and 8 and 1 in district play.  The sweep over Lincoln County gives the Raiders a 2 game lead in the district standing with 3 games left to play and also guarantees the Raiders a region tournament berth.

The Raiders and Lady Raiders will be back at home on Friday in their final home game of the year.  Coffee County will welcome Tullahoma to the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym for Senior Night.  The Lady Raiders game will tip-off at 6 PM, Thunder Radio’s live coverage begins with the Powers Storage pregame show at 5:50.   Senior Night activities will take place between games.

The Coffee County Middle School Lady Raider basketball team opened play in the TMSAA Section 2 tournament on Monday night at Stewarts Creek.  Hoping to advance to the inaugural TMSAA State Tournament in February, the Lady Raiders squared off against Oakland Middle School.  A huge 4^th quarter rally lifted Coffee Middle to a 32 to 26 win and a berth in the Sectional semifinals.

Trailing 22 to 16 entering the 4^th quarter, the Lady Raiders got busy.  Coffee Middle went 10 of 13 at the free throw line and held Oakland to 4 points in the final frame to stun the Lady Chargers.  Alivia Reel led Coffee County in scoring with 13 points, including 8 points in the final quarter.  Chloe Gannon finished with 8 points as she was 2 for 2 at the free throw line in the final period.  Maggie Crouch and Olivia Vinson each poured in 4 points.

The win advances the Lady Raiders to Wednesday night’s semifinals where they will take on White County.  Tip-off is set for 4:30 PM at Stewarts Creek Middle School.

On Saturday, the Westwood Middle and Coffee County Middle swim teams competed in the MTHSSA Middle School Region Meet in Nashville.

For Coffee County, the girls’ 200 freestyle relay team captured an 11^th place finish with a time of 2:08.48.  The girls’ 200 medley relay team finished in 13^th place in a time of 2:23.24, bettering their seeding time by 0.78 seconds.   The 200 freestyle relay team came in 25^th place with a time of 2:25.17.  In individual races,

• Emily Williams captured 6^th place in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:11.32 which was more than 2 seconds better than her season best time she recorded in the preliminaries.  Emily also touched the wall in 1:21.66 in the finals of the 100 breaststroke to claim 13^th
• Clancy Sand finished 12^th in the 50 freestyle in a season best time of 28.41 and 26^th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:23.35.
• Elli Masters swam the 50 freestyle in a season best time of 33.25 and swam the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:25.98.
• Patrice Driggers swam the 50 freestyle in a season best time of 36.51.
• Michael Floyd swam the 50 freestyle in a season best time of 33.19.
• Riley Bellamy swam the 50 freestyle in a season best time of 33.87 and the 100 freestyle in a season best time of 1:15.08.
• Emily Snider swam the 100 freestyle in a season best time of 1:16.46.
• Taylor Wall swam the 500 freestyle in a season best time of 7:03.35 to finish in 23^rd place and finished the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:37.32

For Westwood, the girls’ 200 medley relay team finished in a time of 2:42.50.   In individual races,

• Nick Bogle grabbed a 3^rd place finish in the 100 butterfly as he posted a race time of 56.27. Bogle also finished 5^th in the 200 IM as he bettered his preliminary time by 5 seconds to cover the distance in 2:08.88.
• Abby Gilday cut more than 5 seconds off her 200 freestyle time as she finished in 2:30.20 and she swam the 50 freestyle in 32.63
• Elsie Lazalier trimmed her season best time in the 200 freestyle as she swam the distance in 2:35.20. Lazalier also posted a season best time in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:34.94 which was over a 4 second improvement from her previous best.
• Cale Hays swam the 50 freestyle in 37.81

The regional meet ends the prep season for the middle school swimmers.

Due to the threat of bad weather, the Coffee County Central High School home basketball games on Tuesday night have been moved to Monday night.  The Raiders and Lady Raiders are set to host Lincoln County at the Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gym on Monday.  The Lady Raiders game will tip-off at 5 PM, Thunder Radio’s live coverage begins with the Char-El Apartments and Home Rental pregame show at 4:50

The Coffee County Lady Raider wrestling team traveled to Nolensville on Saturday to compete in the TSSAA Girls West Region Individual meet.  With a berth in next month’s state tournament on the line, 3 Lady Raider grapplers hoped to earn Coffee County’s 2^nd straight individual berth in the TSSAA State Tournament.   The trio of Coffee County wrestlers captured a 9^th place team finish out of 53 teams.

Mary Anne Walker, wrestling in the 125 class, placed 2^nd in her class to punch her ticket to the state meet.  Walker finished the day with a record of 3 wins and a loss.  Walker got a bye in the opening round before capturing a pair of pinfall wins.  In the finals, Walker lost in a pin to unbeaten Robin Yunis of Rossview.

Mary Wolfrum, wrestling in the 119 class, placed 6^th in her class.  Wolfrum finished the tournament with a record of 3 and 2.  Wolfrum got a pair of decision wins and a pinfall win in her 3 victories.  Lyra Leftwich, wrestling in the 132 class, finished the day with a record of 1 and 2.

The TSSAA State meet will be held on February 14^th through February 16^th at the Williamson County Agricultural Center in Franklin.

This weekend, the Coffee County Central High School swim team was in action on Friday in the Middle Tennessee High School Swimming Association regional meet.  Competing with the ultimate goal of qualifying or improving times for the state meet coming up in February, the Raiders competed in the Tracy Caulkins Aquatic Center in Nashville’s Centennial SportsPlex.   In the overall team standings, the boys team finished in 17^th place overall while the girls captured a 27^th place finish.  Overall, the Coffee County swimmers earned a 20^th place finish out of 72 teams.

The top finisher for the Raider swimmers was Jack Beachboard who captured a 3^rd place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.62.  Beachboard also swam a season best time of 2:01.27 in the 200 IM to finish in 4^th place.  Jase Rice swam a season best time of 57.63 in the 100 freestyle and a time of 2:24.38 in the 200 IM.

For the Lady Raiders, Kaylee Williams was the top finisher as she grabbed a 12^th place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:11.34 and a 19^th place finish in the 200 IM with a time of 2:22.84 as both times were season best times.  Anna O’Connor also recorded a pair of season best times as she finished in 23^rd place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:06.00 which was good enough to qualify for the state meet.  O’Connor also grabbed a 24^th place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:09.59.  Lindsey Cauble swam a time of 30.73 in the 50 freestyle.

Next up for the Raider swimmers is the Tennessee Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association state meet.  Qualifying for the state meet for Coffee County is: Jack Beachboard, Jase Rice, Kaylee Williams and Anna O’Connor.  The state meet for the high school swimmers will take place on Friday and Saturday, February 8^th and 9^th in Nashville.