Sports

Coach Keith helps keep Blaze ‘running’

CHS football coach assists with track

by Ken Lay Special to The Courier News

The Clinton Blaze elementary school athletics program gives the student-athletes in the city the unique opportunity to compete in a school-sanctioned program.

The Blaze program offers elementary school students the chance to compete in cross country, boys and girls basketball, archery, bowling, tennis, swimming and track and field.

The program also has a dance team and will add a cheerleading squad and a color guard when school resumes in the fall.

The program, the brainchild of Clinton City Schools Director of Schools Kelly Johnson and CCS Athletics Director E.T. Stamey, has garnered support from the community.

The Blaze doesn’t have football, but that hasn’t stopped Clinton High School football Coach Darell Keith from getting involved and lending a hand to the program as he’s assisted with running track. meets this spring.

And for Keith, the Blaze is about more than sports.

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Kids’ triathlon held in Oak Ridge


Oak Ridge native Lydia Ditmer, cheered on by her family, sprints to the finish line during the Atomic City Kids’ Triathlon. - Ken Leinart
The Atomic Kids’ Summer Triathlon took place on June 12 at National Fitness Center in Oak Ridge.

Muna Rodriguez, owner and race director for Personal Best Racing, said that this is the sixth year doing the race.

“We usually do it twice a year and have quite a few families travel in from other states,” she said. “This year, we only had about 30 kids, which is a bit less than we usually have. Our average is between 50 and70, but there was a lot of COVID spillover going on, so a lot of families contacted us saying they wouldn’t be able to come because of baseball tournaments and so forth.”

Noah Rile and Emma Cook won the longest race of the day for the boys and girls, respectively, while James Clary and Ada Miller won the race for the middle age bracket. The shortest race of the day, called the Tadpole race, isn’t scored.

“We let them use water wings for the swim and training wheels for the bike,” Rodriguez said. “It’s for really young kids, and mostly we just want them to feel comfortable so they can move up to the other divisions as they get more experienced.”

The race was sponsored by National Fitness Center, and Personal Best Racing will be hosting another race this Saturday, called the Secret City Sprint Triathlon. That race will take place at the Oak Ridge pool, starting at 7:30 a.m.

New coach for Mavs


Josh Boynton is introduced as the new Anderson County High School baseball coach by Principal Ben Downs and Athletics Director Gary Terry.
Anderson County High School named Josh Boynton as its new head baseball coach, effective June 14.

Boynton has acted as an assistant coach at the school for the past 14 years, also working as a head coach at BC Athletics (the private baseball program based in Knoxville) for the past four years, specializing in the 15-18 age group/ There, according to a press release, Boynton has “worked to develop players and help them reach their goals of playing at the next level.”

Boynton played college baseball at Motlow State Community College before transferring to Tennessee Tech, where he earned three separate degrees. He will join the faculty and staff of Anderson County High School, where he will serve in the physical education department.

The school’s release stated that Boynton’s “Knowledge of the game, high character, and passion for developing and mentoring young men are among the many reasons that we are so excited for this new chapter of Maverick baseball.”

Lowery commits


Luke Lowery committed to ETSU to play baseball.

Tackett, Goins named All District


Connor Tackett and (center) and Tanner Goins are pictured with their 3-AAA All District plaques. Both players and Luke Lowery were all three named to the 3-AAA First-Team All District.

Copyright © 2018 Clinton Courier News, LLC.

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