Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School wrestler and football star Derrick Laney was named the Scrappy Moore Male Athlete of the Year at Thursday’s annual Best of Preps awards banquet.
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Staff photo by Matt Fields-Johnson/Chattanooga Times Free Press The male athlete of the year Derrick Laney of Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe stands with Serena and Venus Williams at the at the Times Free Press Best of Preps sports banquet Thursday night at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
More than 1,100 people were in attendance at the Chattanooga Convention Center to honor the area’s top high school athletes.
LaQuisha Jackson of Howard School of Academics and Technology was named Female Athlete of the Year, and Soddy-Daisy’s Clifford Kirk was Coach of the Year.
Tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams were the featured speakers, advising all the young athletes to set goals for not only their athletic careers but beyond.
“It’s important for young people to have a goal, give themselves something to strive for,” Venus Williams said.
“Even beyond their high school or college careers, it’s always good to have something you’re working for and to try to better yourself,” she said.
Nineteen awards were presented to area athletes and coaches, including the three prestigious Scrappy Moore awards.
Stephen has covered high school sports in the tri-state area since the early 1990s, starting at the News-Free Press as a 19-year-old reporter. He has been with the Times Free Press since its inception and has been an assistant sports editor for more than seven years. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP’s newsroom, winning numerous state and regional awards for his writing on high school athletics. He has two children, Riley ...
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