Middle school spring sports are in full swing after a few games got underway Tuesday night, March 1. BASEBALL Westwood Rockets 6, Grundy County 4 Westwood got two RBIs from Keller Hatfield and one apiece from Ayden Van Winkle, Kaysen Lowery and Elijah Vernon in a 6-4 win over Grundy County Tuesday afternoon in Manchester to start the season 1-0. Matt Moore and Kaysen Lowery combined to go 5 innings on the mound in the win. Moore allowed 3 earned runs on a pair of hits while striking out 5. Lowery struck out 4 batters and allowed 1 run...

Raider Junior Dayne Crosslin is rushed by the CHS student section after a 25-point performance Tuesday night, March 1, 2022. — Thunder Radio photo by Holly Peterson There are 16 high school basketball teams remaining in the state of Tennessee. Coffee County’s Red Raider boys are among them. Dayne Crosslin played arguably the best game of his career Tuesday night (March 1, 2022), dropping a game-high 25 points to lead the Red Raiders to a 64-47 win over Franklin County in the Region 3-4A semi-finals. (a game you heard live on Thunder Radio). With the win, Coffee County moves...

After Monday night, only 16 girls basketball teams remain in the state of Tennessee. Unfortunately, Coffee County isn’t one of them. Second half turnovers hurt Coffee County Monday night (Feb. 28, 2022) in Manchester and the Lady Raiders fell to visiting McMinn County 53-51 in overtime of the Region 3-4A semi-finals. McMinn County advances to play Bradley Central in the in the region championship and earns a berth in the state sectional. The Lady Raider season comes to a close. Coffee County led 30-23 at the half behind hot shooting from Olivia Vinson and solid post play from Chloe...

With both Coffee County Central boys and girls basketball teams winning in the Region 3-4A quarter-finals Friday and Saturday night, respectively, that sets up a fun week of basketball at Joe Frank Patch Memorial Gymnasium this week. The first round of the region tournament was played at the highest-seeded team. Now the remainder of the tournament – semi-finals and finals – moves to Coffee County Central. MONDAY Monday night, Feb. 28, will be the girls semi-final games. Bradley Central will take on Warren County at 6 p.m. That will be followed up by Coffee County Central and McMinn County...

Coffee County football head coach Doug Greene has announced he is postponing the team’s banquet due to the high school basketball team’s playing in the region tournament this week. The team was originally scheduled to have its banquet celebrating the 2021 season on Tuesday, March 1. But the Red Raider basketball team will be playing in the Region 3-4A semi-finals against Franklin County that night in Manchester, leading Greene to push it back to an undecided date. “This is a great problem for us to have,” said Greene. “We want our guys out there supporting the basketball team and...

Coffee County Central High School sophomore Jacob Barlow placed third in the state 152-pound division with a 6-2 win over Nolensville’s Charles McTorry Saturday morning at the Williamson County Expo Center. Wrestling in the 152-pound class, Barlow won his first two matches of the tournament and was one win shy of reaching the state title match, but lost 4-3 in a tightly contested bout. He bounced back and won an 8-3 decision over Adam Tibitoski of Oakland to move into the third place match. Barlow, a sophomore, won the sectional round and went on to have the best finish...

Whatever Coffee County coach Andrew Taylor said to his team in the locker room may need to be bottled up and sold. It worked like magic. Trailing 25-21 at the break, the CHS Red Raiders outscored visiting Howard School 13-1 in the third quarter and dominated every aspect of the game in the second half on their way to a 52-40 win in the Region 3-4A quarter-finals Saturday night (Feb. 26, 2022) in Manchester. Coffee County took control in the third quarter and never looked back. Howard’s only point in the entire period came on a questionable technical foul...

The assignment is simple now. Survive and advance. That’s the goal for basketball teams across the state now as region play began Friday night – and Coffee County’s Lady Raiders understood the assignment. Coffee County got double-digit points from Elli Chumley, Kiya Ferrell and Jalie Ruehling, pulling away from visiting Ooltewah late for a 65-42 win over the Lady Owls. “You know, this time of the year it is survive and advance and we were able to take care of business tonight,” said CHS head coach Joe Pat Cope. “Early on we had some shots that weren’t falling but...