Clinton’s Ethan Tinker took the mound for the West All Stars in the Tennessee High School All-Star game Friday. - Tony Cox
The East Tennessee High School Baseball League had its Senior Night on Friday, July 3, along with the All-Star game between East and West teams.
The senior game was for all of the seniors who weren’t picked for the All-Star team, said Riverdog Coach Rob Lowe.
“We had four of our seniors show up,” he said. “They were all supposed to be on the West team, but a lot of people committed and didn’t show up, so we had to work out a trade with the other team because they didn’t have a catcher, so Adam Sharp played on the East team.”
Chase Lockard went three-for-three on the day. The West ended up winning 3-2, but Adam Sharp ended up with two runners batted in for the East team.
The Norris Senators are gearing up for another season of middle school football, doing their best to run things despite COVID-19 restrictions and an uncertain season going forward.
Richie Noe, head coach for the Senators, sat down during an Anderson County High School morning practice to talk about how the season is going for the Senators – and he admitted, things are changed.
“It’s greatly limited us,” Noe said. “We can’t do one-on-ones. Everyone looks good when you’re going against air, but it heavily restricts our ability to do more. We’ve only practiced five or six times in the past couple of weeks, because we don’t want to be the school that causes everyone else to shut down because we let our kids get too close. We’re 100-percent following the rules.”
Every coach is different, just like every team is different, and that means every coach and every team is operating around the restrictions differently, trying to figure out what one can do to get the kids ready for the season. Still, according to Noe, even with the limiting aspect, they’ve still had a lot to do at practice.
The community is still in the clutches of the COVID-19, but it appears that school will start at some point and that scholastic athletics won’t be far behind.
The Clinton Blaze athletic program will be heading into its fourth year of existence, and Clinton City Schools Athletic Director E.T. Stamey is excited about the coming academic year, which is slated to begin next month.
Things will begin with fall sports, including cross country, swimming, and boys and girls basketball.
In the spring, the Blaze will field a track and field team for the third consecutive season. The Blaze will also have an intramural bowling league. Bowling was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 track and field campaign never really got started, according to Stamey, who recently finished his duties in the CCS meal distribution program. That ended June 30, and provided students with 59,857 meals since schools shut down in March.
Also this fall, Chris Carroll, a soccer pro from Knoxville, looks to have another clinic for aspiring male and female soccer players. Carroll hosts multiple camps for the city’s elementary school students every year.
