Andrew HoutsFormer Dade County High School and Chattanooga State basketball standout Andrew Houts has been accepted as a walk-on at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Mocs coach John Shulman has announced. The 5-foot-10 shooting guard began his collegiate career at Columbus State in NCAA Division II after scoring nearly 2,500 points with a Georgia record of 402 3-point baskets in his Dade career. He averaged 24 points a game as a Wolverines junior and 27 as a senior. He averaged 13.5 points a game and hit 38.5 percent of his 3-point tries and 81.3 percent of free throws last season at Chattanooga State, where he scored 31 points in one game and 22 in two others.
• UTC football coach Russ Huesman will be speaking at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's Downtown Council meeting Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. Practice for the 2012 season begins Friday. Attendance at the meeting costs $10 for members, $12 for others, and breakfast is included.
Auto Racing
• Brad Freeman from Rock Spring won the $1,500 top prize in the Super Pro class last Saturday at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip in a 1923 Ford "T" Roadster powered by a modified 454 Chevrolet engine. Freeman's winning run was 5.47 seconds on a 5.47 dial. Tony Helms of Fort Oglethorpe was second and had the low elapsed time of the night (4.87 seconds on a 4.85 dial) in a Chevy dragster owned by Mark Miles. Tracy Cochran and Melvin Croft were third and fourth. Michael Garner won the Foot Brake class with a 6.66 run on a 6.66 dial in a 1969 Chevy Nova, with L.C. Bigham second, Marty Goldsmith third and Charles McRae fourth. Chloe Keener of Whitwell won the Junior Dragster class with Mattie Keener of Dunlap second.
Softball
• Synergy '97, a 14-under select softball team from the Chattanooga and northwestern Georgia area, won the United States Fastpitch Association A Division World Series last weekend in Panama City, Fla. The competition included 82 teams from 14 states. After going 1-2 in pool play, Synergy rebounded and went 5-0 in bracket play with Emily Armour being the winning pitcher in each game, three of them shutouts. In its third bracket game Synergy was down to its last strike but rallied and tied it and won in three extra innings when catcher Christina Hannah caught a popup on a squeeze bunt and turned it into a double play. Amy Lewis drove in the only run in a semifinal victory over the Edmond, Okla., Cardinals. After giving up a run in the top of the first in the final against Tennessee Xplosion from the Mount Juliet area, Allie Jones hit a two-run single in a three-run bottom half and Synergy went on to win 5-1. "We played very solid ball," Synergy coach Dale Jones said. "I don't think we had an error in the tournament. Every game we had a different hero offensively. This is a good group of girls that play the game the right way. They're fun to coach. It was exciting to end our season that way."