Going into the fifth season of Georgia Northwestern Technical College volleyball, Maggie Stultz has been hired as the program's second head coach. All the seasons under Tricia Goodwin ended with winning records. Stultz, 40, played for Tennessee Temple Academy (as Maggie Eldridge) and has coached at Rossville and LaFayette middle schools as well as the old City High and East Ridge. She is a former "teacher of the year" in Walker County, where she also served as wrestling coach at Rossville Middle, and in recent years the LaFayette resident has been working as a volleyball referee. She is near a doctorate from Alabama. "This is a program that's about exposure," she said of the GNTC team. "We are in the process of communicating with last year's squad, arranging walk-on tryouts and filling up the schedule with some final dates." The schedule begins Sept. 3 at Johnson Bible College in Knoxville with a tri-match also including West Georgia Tech. The Lady Cats will host Freewill Baptist Bible College on Sept. 5 at the Rossville Athletic Complex.
* Baylor School senior Nicole Sumida is the only player from Tennessee on the USA Volleyball Youth Continental Team playing in the High Performance Championship international tournament this week in Tucson, Ariz. It ends Saturday. Sumida is on the USA Red team, the highest level of three United States squads. She served two aces to end a 3-0 win over the Dominican Republic on Tuesday night. Her defeated New Zealand 3-2 on Wednesday in pool play.
GOLF
* NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - Harris English, a former Baylor School star who won last week's Nationwide Tour gof tournament as an amateur, shot even-par 70 in the first round of the prestigious Porter Cup at Niagara Falls Country Club. Another former Baylor standout, Stephan Jaeger, who plays for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, shot a 74. Paul Haley of Dallas leads at 64.
FOOTBALL
* ROCK HILL, S.C. - Defending champion Wingate (N.C.) University was picked to win the 2011 South Atlantic Conference football championship in the coaches' poll released Wednesday, with usual favorite Carson-Newman second and Tennessee neighbor Tusculum fourth. "This is a new position for us," longtime Carson-Newman coach Ken Sparks said in an SAC release. "It has been a long time since we were picked second, but we didn't play well enough to earn [the first-place] honor. We've got to get back to work." His Eagles open their season Sept. 1 at Glenville (W.Va.) State.