Former basketball championship coach Micheal Burt is so well-received as a motivational speaker that he holds the record for most speaking engagements in a day, with 40. He will give the keynote address at 6 p.m. on Feb. 19 at this year's Bradley County for Basketball All-Stars elementary-age tournament Feb. 18-21 at Ocoee Middle School, and the public is invited. Burt has written 10 books and counts Dell, John Hancock Insurance Services, Ohio National, Vanderbilt University, State Farm Insurance and First Bank among his many business clients, according to a release from tournament organizer Bartlee Norton. For more information about attending or helping sponsor the event, email Bartlee.norton@gmail.com.
* The famed Gym Masters acrobatics group from Southern Adventist University will appear at halftime of the Lee University men's basketball game Thursday night against West Alabama. That's the second part of a Gulf South Conference doubleheader beginning at 6, and all elementary school students attending will receive a free book as well as a soft drink and popcorn. Lee is teaming with Bradley County Schools to promote reading programs. Some of the university's athletes will be reading to students after they receive their books. Admission to Lee's regular-season games is free to Cleveland and Bradley County residents.
* The Georgia Northwestern women's basketball home game planned for Tuesday evening against Oakwood University from Huntsville, Ala., was called off because of the inclement weather. A makeup date was not immediately set.
Auto Racing
* The Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip recently honored its 2015 track champions and set the opening of its 59th season for March 5 under new track manager Jeff Fletcher from Calhoun, Ga. The club says its strip is the oldest for drag racing in the South. Dewey Turner of Cleveland is the new tech director, and the strip president is Red Jordan from Fort Oglethorpe with Rickie Barnes from Boynton as the club's new president-elect. The track champs were Kevin Rodden in Super Pro, Marty Goldsmith in Foot Brake, Bruce Sexton in 530 and Mattie Keener in Junior Dragster, with Steven Farrow, David Bigham, Johnny David and Jake Clayton as the respective runners-up.
Football
* The Gulf South Conference, which includes Lee University, announced Monday the addition of North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C., as a football-only member. That puts the league in six states, following Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. North Greenville has been an NCAA Division II independent in football for the past 14 years, although it did have a "conference alliance" with the South Atlantic from 2011 to 2014, and has appeared in four National Christian College Athletic Association Victory Bowls, winning three (2006, 2010, 2014). Gulf South teams have won 49 Division II national titles in 13 sports, including 11 in football. "Gulf South Conference football is the standard for Division II and is an aspirational league for many programs," league commissioner Matt Wilson said in the announcement release. The Tigers may appear on some GSC teams' schedules as early as this year, and they will be fully in the schedule in 2018. NGU will give the league 10 football-playing schools.
Baseball/Softball
* The Bryan College baseball team's game Tuesday at Martin Methodist was postponed for weather reasons, and Bryan's softball doubleheader at Georgia Gwinnett has been reset for Thursday. The Dayton school's new team, men's volleyball, also had a postponement of a trip to Bluefield.
* Tennessee Wesleyan's home baseball game Tuesday against University of the Cumberlands was canceled because of the bad weather. Wesleyan, ranked No. 14 in the NAIA preseason poll, is 1-2 after winning 4-1 in the final game of its season-opening weekend series at No. 13 Auburn-Montgomery. The Bulldogs had a three-run fifth inning, and AUM didn't score until the ninth.