Hixson High School will be hosting the first Southeast Tennessee Basketball Coaches Clinic on Sept. 20. Among the events headliners will be University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coaches Jim Foster and Will Wade. Foster, a 2013 women's basketball Hall of Fame inductee who has guided 27 teams to NCAA national tournaments, will conduct a session on attacking zone defenses. Wade, the Southern Conference men's coach of the year last year in his first season at UTC, will teach the principles of his CHAOS defense. Other instructors include Rick Torbett, president of Better Basketball, and Tim Rice, a former NCAA coach and president of BasketballMentoring.com. Lee University coaches Marty Rowe and Tommy Brown will also be on hand. "Usually you have to go to Nashville, Knoxville or Atlanta for a clinic like this, and it can take up your whole weekend," said Hixson girls' coach Matthew Smith, the clinic's organizer. "I think we've got enough good coaches here to host something like this. And you're in by 8 and out by 6." Coaches ranging from high school, to middle school to AAU are invited. Cost is $55 and lunch is provided. There will also be some door prizes given away. Coaches can register online at southeasttnclinic.wufoo.com/forms/southeast-tennessee-basketball-coaches-clinic, or show up the day of the clinic and register between 7:30 and 8:15 a.m. For more information contact Coach Smith at smith_matth@hcde.org.
Tennis
Local tennis players Zan Guerry, Ned Caswell and Phillip Johnson will each be competing in semifinals today in the men's 50 age division in the USTA Men's 45 & 50 national grass court championships in Philadelphia. Chattanoogans Guerry and Caswell won their quarterfinal match in men's 50 doubles, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 over Franklin Chaney of Lothian, Md., and Ray Stewart of Arnold, Md. Ooltewah's Johnson, from Ooltewah, defeated Vallis Wilder of Ft. Worth, Texas, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in his quarterfinal match.
Softball
• The Lighthouse Lookouts/Athletic Shop softball team from Chattanooga finished second in the 50-plus major division of the Senior Softball-USA Southern Championships last weekend at Liberty Park in Birmingham. The team managed by Rex Elmore beat Langston Paint from Birmingham 15-4 and edged the Atlanta Monarchs 13-12 in pool play Friday and defeated Langston again Saturday in bracket play, 22-19, before falling 22-21 to Monster Softball from Memphis in the winners-bracket final. Pitcher Butch Womack and shortstop Van Shumaker each went 4-for-4 in that loss, with five and four RBIs. The Lookouts downed Herrington Services of Laurel, Miss., 16-8 to earn another shot at Monster Softball, which won the title game 27-22. Mike Wood was 4-for-4 with three homers and six RBIs and Steve Moffett was 4-for-4 and hit for the cycle in the final for the Lookouts, who put five players on the all-tournament team: Blake Parham (.850, 9 RBIs); Shumaker (.737, 3 homers, 13 RBIs); Moffett (.706, 3 homers, 12 RBIs); Wood (.700, 4 homers, 9 RBIs) and Womack (.700, 11 RBIs). Additionally, Frank Markley had 16 RBIs and homers, Tony Bartley batted .643 and Kevin Highsmith hit .632 with nine RBIs for the runners-up. The Lookouts will play Oct. 10-12 at the SPA Winternationals in Pensacola, Fla.
Soccer
• The Tennessee Wesleyan men's soccer team opened its season with an 8-0 victory Thursday against visiting Brescia, and the Lady Bulldogs went to 0-1-1 with a 3-1 loss at Cumberland in Lebanon, Tenn.
• The Covenant College men's soccer team has a tough season opener Friday at the Sonny Carter Invitational tournament in Atlanta, against Rutgers-Newark, but Scots coach Nathan Pifer is high on his team. In his sixth season coaching at the school where he was a star player, Pifer has six returning starters, including seniors Snoopy Davidson, Hudson Brock and Joel Friesen who led the team with six goals apiece in 2013. Davidson was hurt for much of last season but made the All-USA South first team. Other key returners include seniors Hunter Harrison, Roy Anderson, Ian Meredith, David Huertas and Danny Knight; juniors Mike Arango, Noah Wiersema, Andrew Lowe, Russell Harrison and Daniel Kubin; and sophomore Caleb Allen. Pifer also likes his group of newcomers, including another senior in Hudson Brock's brother Builder Brock.