Blaze basketball wraps up season
Blaze Christmas Parade
Both teams made great strides in 2018 after winning just one game in 2017. Clinton’s girls team went 13-4 this season and snapped Caryville’s long winning streak. The boys went 11-6 this season.
Both Blaze teams played in front of capacity crowds at the newly-christened Arowood Arena (formerly the Clinton City Gymnasium). The arena was dedicated on Nov. 20.
The Blaze basketball teams will play a pair of exhibition games next month and Clinton City Schools athletic director E.T. Stamey said that he expects the gym to be packed when the elementary school team takes on Clinton City Schools faculty and staff Saturday, Jan. 12, and it will be followed by the Clinton City Police and Fire Department Jan. 19.
“Our kids played in packed gyms and our fans travel,” Stamey said. “I’m friends with a lot of the athletic directors and they’re impressed with our fans and the way they travel.
“The community has really gotten behind the Blaze. They know the program is legit because our kids have nice uniforms and you have TSSAA officials doing the games.”
The community has donated enough to the basketball programs that the paid for the uniforms and basketballs.
The Fire and Police game will serve as a fundraiser for the Blaze as the first responders will donate the proceeds from the contest to the Blaze.
The Blaze athletic programs received regional exposure on WBIR-TV and on cable community access channels. WYSH radio also carried a basketball double header this season.
The basketball season has to be considered a smashing success but the hoopsters were only part of the story.
In the first year of cross country the Blaze had fourth grader Laci Percival competed in both the State and National Elementary and Middle School Championships at Knoxville’s Victor Ashe Park.
The Blaze also fielded a co-ed swim team for the first time in 2018. Clinton won its first-ever meet against the Clinton Sharks, a longtime and well-established swim club, 101-90.
The Blaze lost its most recent meet 40-30 to Norris Middle School earlier this month.
In that meet, Clinton City Elementary student-athletes competed against sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
The Blaze also hosted a pair of co-ed soccer camps in the fall. Stamey said that he’s looking to field soccer teams soon. Professional soccer player Chris Carroll ran the camps.
The Blaze will also compete in boys and girls bowling in March. Clinton City Schools will begin recruiting potential fifth and sixth-grade bowlers after the upcoming holiday break.
A track and field clinic will be held on April 19. It was originally scheduled for April 2. Clinton High School athletes and track coaches will serve as instructors.
The Blaze also did a little bit of community service when they held a coat drive this fall.
Blaze athletes must be in good academic standing and exhibit exemplary citizenship throughout the school year.
The Clinton Blaze program goes far beyond athletics. The Blaze program features the H2O Club, which aims to spark an early interest in water science. That club is home to 60 first graders.
The Blaze also has a reading society open to students in all grades. It currently has 65 students.
years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter—for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter—for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter—for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.