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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signee Cori Jennings from Gordonsville, Tenn., is the Gatorade softball player of the year for Tennessee. The 5-foot-7 left-handed pitcher went 32-3 with a 0.62 earned run average for the 32-10 Class A state champions and pitched four consecutive shutouts in the state tournament. She struck out 245 batters and walked only 14 in 190 innings and also batted .486 with 31 extra-base hits, 39 runs scored and 51 batted in this season, according to the Gatorade release. She was the nation's No. 42 recruit for 2014, according to Student Sports, and had a 3.78 "weighted" grade point average. "I think it's a huge honor," Jennings told the Times Free Press on Thursday, "especially when you look at all the other girls who won it before me." Recent Gatorade Tennessee players from the Chattanooga area were Kelsey Nunley of Soddy-Daisy in 2012, Lacye Walker of Grace Academy in 2011 and Holly Thomas of Ooltewah in 2008.

Swimming

• Recent Arts & Sciences graduate Janelle Wigal was a three-sport state qualifier this past school year, but it is in swimming that she has committed to compete at Valparaiso University. A member of the McCallie/GPS Aquatics year-round club, she also advanced to state cross country and track and field meets. Wigal, who was in the principal French horn chair in the all-state band this past spring, will participate in music ensembles while swimming and majoring in civil engineering at Valparaiso, which awarded her the Presidential academic scholarship, the Caterpillar Corporation engineering scholarship and the Forte music scholarship. She also has received the CSAS Seth Eichenthal engineering scholarship and the Drs. Hilda & Andres Alisago scholarship from the Chattanooga Music Club.

Basketball

• Dalton State assistant basketball coach John Redman has made "tremendous strides" recently in his recovery from a car accident that took his fiancee's life, according to a DSC release late Wednesday night. "John continues to make significant and noticeable progress," his mother, Susie Kirk, said in the release, adding that he goes through five to six hours of rehab a day. He is scheduled to be released today from the inpatient facility at the Shepherd Center for Spinal Cord and Brain Injuries in Atlanta and will move to the center's family residence center and start rehabilitation Monday at Shepherd's outpatient facility. "John has made an enormous amount of progress over the past three weeks," Dalton State athletic director Derek Waugh said. "That said, he still has a lot of work and a long road ahead." Redman's mother reminded that the Huber family should continue to be remembered and supported in the loss of their daughter. "We are eternally grateful for the generosity, love and comfort the Hubers have provided," Kirk said.