Category: Sports

Two all-star teams from the Manchester Youth Baseball League (MYBL) will be in action this weekend in the Tennessee Youth Baseball Association (TYBA) state tournament being held in Murfreesboro. The tournament will begin on Friday afternoon and continue through Sunday. The event is being held at Barfield-Crescent Park on Veterans Parkway in Murfreesboro.
The 9&10 year old Coach Pitch All-Stars will be one of 10 teams competing for a state title. The team, coached by Shawn Trail, got a scrimmage win over Cannon County on Monday as they have concluded 3 weeks of preparation. They will begin play on Friday at 6 PM as they take on the Middle Tennessee Renegades. They come back on Saturday to take on Franklin at 11 AM and Unionville at 3 PM. The single elimination championship bracket begins on Sunday at 9 AM.
The 11&12 year old All-Stars will be one of 7 teams competing for the state recreational division title. The team, coached by Eric Burch, is coming off a 3rd place finish last weekend in the TYBA Open state tournament. They will begin play on Friday at 8 PM as they take on Christiana. They come back on Saturday to take on Shelbyville at 10:30 AM and Murfreesboro at 5 PM. The single elimination championship bracket begins on Sunday at 9 AM.

The Manchester Youth Baseball League will premiere a new adult baseball league on Friday night. The new league is open to players from ages 17 to 45 and will feature 4 teams. The teams are populated with former Red Raider stars such as Bubba Vincent, Dallas Holmes, Clark Carden, Jason Crosslin and many more. The league will play doubleheaders on Friday nights at 6:00 and 8:30 PM and single games at 6:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 6:30. All games will be played on the Babe Ruth Field at Fred Deadman Park. Folks are encouraged to come out and relive some memories and enjoy some good baseball action.

Westwood Middle School Athletic Director Jeff Johnson has announced that the Rockets will have 3 new coaches for their athletic teams, with two of those coaches taking over this fall. For girls’ soccer; Donna Burdine takes over for Jonathan Graf this fall. Graf, who will remain as the boy’s head coach, he will remain with the girl’s team as he will assist Coach Burdine. Coach Burdine is in her 3rd year at Westwood and is a math teacher. As we reported last week, Westwood also added 2 new sports for the coming school year. Taking over the new cross country program will be James Dobson. Dobson, a retired Army officer is a reading teacher at Westwood. Taking over the tennis program, which will field a team in the spring, will be Jim Winton. Winton, a Manchester native played his prep tennis at Coffee County and is also a teacher in the school system.

The Manchester Recreation summer swim team, CATS (Coffee County and Tullahoma Swimming) won the 2014 Summer Swim League Championships Saturday, July 12th. This is the first time they have won overall championships since they started the summer team 7 years ago.

Matt Sligh, men’s head basketball coach for the Motlow College Bucks, has added another outstanding in-state student-athlete to his 2014-15 roster with the announcement that Murfreesboro’s Reid Pierce will bring his talents to Copperweld Arena.
Pierce will be a true freshman after a splendid prep career at Blackman High School. The Blaze, under head coach Barry Wortman, won the Class AAA state championship last season and Pierce was an integral part of the championship run. Blackman reached the state tournament all three seasons of Pierce’s prep career.
He played his AAU basketball under Head Coach Carlton Battle and his Team Nashville squad, also featured Motlow signees Jordan Darden and Jacob Saunders.
Pierce joins an impressive list of student-athletes that Sligh has signed entering his second season as Motlow’s head coach.
The Bucks finished with a 14-14 record in 2013-14, Sligh’s first season, and advanced to the TCCAA/Region VII Tournament semifinals before being eliminated by eventual champion Columbia State 122-121 in double overtime.

Four was the magic number this weekend as 4 Manchester squads took part in the TYBA state tournament in Murfreesboro. The teams competed in 3 pool games on Friday and Saturday before being seeded into the single elimination championship bracket on Sunday. All 4 teams made it to the Final Four of the championship bracket in their respective divisions before bowing out on Sunday afternoon.

For the 9 & 10 year old all-stars, after going perfect in pool play and earning a #1 seed, opened Sunday’s elimination bracket with a 9 to 0 win over the Buchanan Indians. Manchester scored 7 runs in the 3^rd inning to blow open the close game. Hayden Hullett picked up the win on the bump & went 3 for 3 at the plate. They were eliminated in a close and exciting semifinal game by a hot Unionville team8 to 5.

The 11 & 12 year old all-stars finished pool play as the number 2 seed after going 2 and 1 in the open division pool play. The red & black opened Sunday’s single elimination tournament against Ashland City in impressive fashion with a 14 to 3 win to open up championship play. Manchester scored 7 runs in the 1^st inning as they sent 10 batters to the plate. Cody Eslinger got the win on the hill for Manchester to earn them a bye into the semifinals.  There, they matched up with the Young Guns travel team which had outlasted them 10 to 8 on Friday. The Manchester All-stars had opportunities early in the game but were held to 3 hits falling by a final score of 7 to 0. Jake Hollandsworth, Gage Edwards and Cody Eslinger were each scored with hits for Manchester. Their3^rd place finish is remarkable as they competed against seasoned travel teams in this weekend’s tournament. The 11&12 year olds will compete this coming weekend in the State Recreation division tournament against other league teams from across the state.

In the 13 to 16 year old division, both Manchester teams advanced to Sunday’s semifinals. After going 3 and 0 in pool play, the Jiffy Burger A’s plated 9 runs in the first two innings Sunday winning their rematch over Dynasty 10 to 4 avenging a Saturday loss. Scottie Duke scored twice and got the win on the mound.  Carlos Medina had a pair of hits for JiffyBurger. In their semifinal appearance, the A’s hot hitting failed them and a key injury to Medina spelled doom as Jiffy Burger fell to eventual champion Putnam County.

The Al White Ford-Lincoln Yankees opened Sunday play as the #2 seed taking on DeKalb County in the other semifinal game. The Yankees had promising rallies in the 1^st and 2^nd innings end prematurely as they ended up dropping the game by a final score of 5 to 1. Al White was held to 4 hits on the game as Alex Hobbs banged out 2 singles and scored the lone run.

Four teams from the Manchester Youth Baseball League begin play on Friday in their respective divisions of the Tennessee Youth Baseball Association State Tournament in Murfreesboro. The 9 & 10 year old all-star team and the 13 to 16 year old Manchester A’s will begin play at 5 PM at Barfield Crescent Park. The 9 & 10’s will play on Field #1, while the A’s will be on Field #4. The 11 & 12 year all-stars will get under way at 6:30 on Field #2 and the 13 to 16 all-stars will also start at 6:30 on Field #4.
Each of the teams will play 3 pool games to be seeded into Sunday’s championship brackets. The 9 & 10 year olds will take on the Christiana Crushers on Friday night, then come back on Saturday to face DeKalb County at noon and Lascassas at 7 PM. The 11 & 12’s will open with the Middle Tennessee Young Gun on Friday, then face the Middle Tennessee Explosion on Saturday at 9 AM and the Murfreesboro Vandals at 2 PM. For the 13 to 16 year olds, the A’s open against DeKalb County on Friday then face Christiana on Saturday morning at 9 AM, followed by Dynasty Baseball at noon. The Manchester All-Stars open with Dynasty Baseball on Friday night before taking on Christiana at Noon Saturday and Putnam County at 4:00 PM.
The single elimination tournament begins at 9 AM Sunday for all 3 age divisions and will conclude on Sunday night. The TYBA State Tournament is held at Barfield Crescent Park on Veteran’s Parkway in Murfreesboro.

The Manchester Mustangs Youth track team will compete in the All-Star Sports track meet on Friday at Warren County Middle School. The Mustangs will compete against Warren County in the dual meet that will get started at 5:30 PM. The Mustangs are coming off an impressive performance at the Hershey’s Track and Field Games state meet on June 21st. In that meet, Conner White won state championships in the 800M and the 1600M races in the 13 to 14 year old age division. White also set a new state record for the 1600 with a time of 5:20.22. The Mustangs are coached by Greg Green. Green and White will be guests Saturday morning on the Coffee Coaches Show.

The building of the 2014-15 Motlow Bucks’ basketball roster continues with the recent announcement by Head Coach Matt Sligh that he has signed Terry Holt from East Nashville Magnet High School.
Holt contains two qualities that have become a pattern for each of Sligh’s signees for the coming season – he has very impressive high school and AAU credentials, and he is a proven winner.
“Terry is a long guard who is an incredibly gifted scorer,” said Sligh. “His range from three is special, and he is able to score off the bounce as well. He rebounds well from the guard position and his athleticism gives him an opportunity to develop into an excellent defender.
The 6-4 Holt led his East Nashville team to a runner-up finish in the Class AA state tournament last March in Murfreesboro. He averaged 21 points and 6.4 rebounds per game his senior year and was named first team all-district, all-region and all-metro; along with being named to the first team all-state tournament team and being selected as the region player of the year. His teams won 78 games in 3 years and he scored over 1,600 points.
In addition to leading his East Nashville squad the past three seasons, Holt has also been a major contributor for the Tennessee Panthers AAU team, which has been a significant asset in his development both on and off the floor. He scored 40 points or more 13 times in AAU play, including one game where he made 11 three-pointers and scored 48 points.

With the conclusion of the dead period, the Central High School, Coffee County Middle School and Westwood Middle School football teams dusted off their helmets on Monday. With the first day of workouts in full pads not until July 21st, all 3 teams were able to get on the practice field in helmets and shorts to begin conditioning and fundamental work leading into fall camp.
Westwood Middle hit the field first at 8 AM as Coach Chad Dyer has a rebuilding project in front of him following last season’s 9 and 0 championship record. The Rockets worked on their pregame and pre-practice routines as they worked on getting back into football shape. Coach Dyer is expecting about 29 players for this year’s team as Westwood will work thru their offensive and defensive playbook. The Rockets are tentatively set to take part in a 7 on 7 passing league tournament later on in the summer building toward an August 1st Jamboree at Cascade. The Rockets are hoping to add scrimmages with South Pittsburg and/or Cannon County this fall. The Rockets will also host their annual Blue/White scrimmage game on Thursday, July 31st at 7 PM at Dyer-Bouldin Field.
The Red Raiders of Coffee County Central High began the Ryan Sulkowski era at 9:00 AM on Monday as they also went out in helmets to work on reviewing the offense they installed in the spring and worked on adding to that playbook. Coffee County will not participate in any 7 on 7 play this summer as they build toward donning the pads on the 21st as well. Coffee County has one scrimmage scheduled on August 8th at home against White County and they will take on Richland at the Marshall County Jamboree on August 15th. The Raiders look to have a roster of close to 100 players entering fall camp as Coach Sulkowski is still working on adding the final pieces to his new coaching staff.
Speaking of new, the Coffee Middle Raiders opened their fall session on their new practice field at the brand new Coffee Middle School location on Woodbury Highway at 6 PM on Monday night.  The Raiders worked on tackling and blocking fundamentals in helmets and shorts. The Raiders had 30 kids on hand Monday night as they expect more coming in as family vacations wind down. The Raiders are battling logistical problems at the new school as they do not have dressing facilities available on site. Brock Freeze, the Coffee Middle coach, and his staff open their season on August 5th in Lebanon as they take on Winfred Bryant.