Blaze Bowling celebrates inaugural season

The Clinton Blaze bowling program celebrated its inaugural season on Wednesday, May 1 with its banquet.

The banquet was preceded by an exhibition tournament which included student bowlers and faculty.

Athletes were recognized for their accomplishments in 2019.

Kennedy Cook was named most improved female bowler. Grant Hannah was named most improved male bowler.

Jack Wilson and Matthew Denton received awards for bowling games over 150 while Sean Furhrman and Aiden Yarbrough receive Blaze Chip Awards from Attendance.

Track Play Day: The Blaze will have a Play Day track and field meet on May, 16 at Clinton High School.

Actin begins at 4 p.m. and coach Terri Kerley is seeking parent volunteers to work the meet.

The track program received its shot put, discus and stopwatches. Those items were recently donated by Clinton High School.

Also, Clinton City Schools athletics director E.T. Stamey said that he is looking at plans to repave and re-mark the track at Clinton Elementary School. He also announced that a broad jump pit would likely be installed in time for next season.

The track team is hosting a pancake breakfast Saturday at the Apple Blossom from 8-10 a.m.

Proceeds will benefit the track program.

Summer Track and Field Program: Clinton student-athletes can participate in the Knoxville Youth Athletics summer program upon completion of the school year. Register directly with Knoxville Youth Athletics. Fee is $45.

Basketball Camps: Stamey recently announced that the Blaze and Lady Blaze will host basketball camps in May at the Clinton Elementary School Gym.

The boys camp will be held May 14-16 and the girls camp will be May 20-22.



Camp is open to rising third, fourth and fifth graders. Cost is $60 and the camps will stress fundamentals.

The boys camp will be run by coaches Jeff Little and Garrett Little. New coaches Christin Webb and Lauren Murphy will run the girls camp.

Camp sessions will be from 3-5 p.m.

The Lady Blaze went 13-4 last year while the boys went 11-6.

The girls camp will be directed by new head coach Christin Webb and her assistant Lauren Murphy.

During her high school playing days, Webb was a standout at Powell High School and made multiple trips to the Class AAA State Tournament. She was also a head coach for the Lady Panthers. There, she also served as an assistant to Caitlin Hollifield, one of her high school teammates.

She was promoted to head coach after Hollifield (now head coach at Knoxville’s West High School) departed to take the head coaching job at Christian Academy of Knoxville.

Webb has also been an assistant coach at Powell Middle School.

Murphy, currently an assistant softball coach at Knoxville Catholic High School, played basketball through middle school. She is the daughter of Mike Murphy, the longtime coach at Jefferson Middle School in Oak Ridge.

Cross Country: The Blaze will field cross country teams for the second year. The cross country season begins in August.

Anyone for tennis: Stamey said that the Blaze may look to add tennis teams soon.