Blaze track athletes continue to impress
Cross Country and Track and Field: Coach Terri Kerley will coach cross country and track for the Blaze and Lady Blaze.
Both sports have made great strides in a short time and Blaze athletes Kenzlee Hutchison, Charlotte Hutchison and Adeline Queener will head to the Junior Olympics in Florida Aug. 5-8.
On Saturday, Kenzlee Hutchison and Charlotte Hutchison swept both the shotput and discus competitions at Knoxville Youth Athletics Meet at Knoxville’s West High School. The event was the final tune-up for this weekend’s Junior Olympics.
Cross Country Schedule: The Blaze cross country is tentatively set to begin on Sept. 5 with the Victor Ashe Park Fall Classic. The season will go until late October. The Blaze will be at Cove Lake on Sept. 9 (Elementary School Meet) and Sept. 10 (middle schools meet). Clinton will be at Walters State-Sevierville Sept. 14-15. The Blaze will be at Leisure Polls Meet Sept. 21-22. The Blaze teams travel to Knoxville and Johnson University Sept. 28-29.
The Area Championships are on Oct.10 and the State Championships are scheduled for Oct. 24.
Boys and Girls Basketball: The Blaze and Lady Blaze hoopsters will return for their fourth seasons later this fall. Both teams are coming off historic seasons and both have several returning players.
Coaches Jeff Lyttle and Donnie Woods return for Clinton’s boys, who won 15 games last season. Coaches Christin Webb and Lauren Murphy are back to coach the Lady Blaze, who notched 17 victories last season.
The teams have sold out several games in a row and Stamey said that they’ll see some new opponents this season and he thinks that will amp up excitement even more for the teams and fans in 2020.
Basketball Record Book: Stamey has assembled a record book for the Blaze and Lady Blaze basketball team.
The combined record for the Blaze and Lady Blaze for made 3-point shots is 55. The mark was set in 2019.
The record for most 3-pointers by a Lady Blaze player in a game is four by Bethany Lowe.
Swimming: Coach Zeke Rich returns to coach in the Blaze’s co-ed swimming program, which begins its third year during the fall semester. The program returns several athletes and those youngsters are talented, enabling Rich to build a solid and competitive program during the team’s charter stages.
The swim season is in limbo as the Clinton Community Center has yet to reopen since closing in March due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Bowling: Coach Tammy Thatcher will coach bowling again in the spring. The intramural league has become a hit in Clinton as it is a top spectator sport. The league has also helped the sport grow in the community as many parents of CCS bowlers have now taken up the game.
The league was cut short this spring. COVID-19 also forced the Clinton Community Center to close and it has yet to reopen.