Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga runner and Bryan College cross country and track coach Rodney Stoker has been hired as director of McCallie Sports Camp and to help with the preparatory school's running teams and boarding admissions. He will direct the McCallie Cross Country Invitational and the McCallie Mid-South Track Classic. After seven years at Bryan in which he was the Appalachian Athletic Conference men's cross country coach of the year four times, Stoker has spent the past four years as an assistant coach at Tennessee, working with men and women distance runners as well as recruiting. McCallie Sports Camp is a two-week boarding camp that hosts 375 boys from throughout the nation in three sessions each year, according to the school's announcement release. In that role Stoker replaces Hank Bramblet, who recently was named director of boarding admissions. "I'm thrilled to have Rodney as our new sport camp director," summer program director Mike Wood said. "He is a man of tremendous character and talents who thoroughly understands the importance of relationships and helping boys acquire the skills to be men of Honor, Truth and Duty at McCallie." Stoker said he was "honored and excited" to be selected. "After working eight summers it's great to be back alongside two great mentors and friends in Mike Wood and Hank Bramblet." Stoker won two Southern Conference cross country titles while at UTC and helped the Mocs win the South Regional and advance to the NCAA national meet in 1998.
Tennis
- The UTC men's tennis Mocs earned the ITA team academic award for the second year in a row. It requires an aggregate grade point average of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, and the Mocs compiled a 3.23 for 2015-16. They also had four ITA Scholar Athletes, the program's most ever, for GPAs of at least 3.5: Michael Birnbaum for the second time and Pablo Llebeili, Nic Wilson and Nick Wingord for the first time each. "Our guys work just as hard in the classroom as they do on the court, and it is great for them to be recognized for their efforts," coach Carlos Garcia said in a UTC release.
Volleyball
- Bryan College announced Friday its volleyball schedule for the 2016 season, which will begin Aug. 26 in the Faulkner Invitational in Montgomery, Ala., against Cumberland and Mobile. The Lady Lions will face Faulkner and Bethel (Tenn.) the next day and begin AAC play Aug. 30 at Point University, and they will face Georgetown (Ky.), Faulkner, Warner and St. Thomas in the four-conference NAIA Southeastern Challenge Sept. 2-3 at Barbourville, Ky. After visiting Truett-McConnell on Sept. 6, the Lady Lions finally will play at home Sept. 10 and 13 against Cumberlands (Ky.) and Columbia (S.C.) before facing Montreat and Tennessee Wesleyan in an AAC tri-match Sept. 17 at Athens. The regular season runs through a home match Nov. 1 against Bluefield. Bryan finished 25-13 last year and won the AAC regular season with an 18-2 league record.
- Georgia Northwestern Technical College has released its 2016 volleyball schedule, and the season begins Aug. 27 at 3:30 p.m. at the Rossville Athletic Center against Vance Granville Community College of North Carolina. That will be GNTC's annual Pink match for breast cancer awareness, preceded by a series of middle school matches. The Lady Bobcats' next home match won't be until Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. against The Crown College, after visits to the Covenant junior varsity (Sept. 5), Crown (Sept. 10), Hiwassee (Sept. 12) and the Bryan junior varsity (Sept. 19). They'll play at Oakwood in Huntsville, Ala., on Oct. 1 and then host Hiwassee and the Bryan jayvees on Oct. 3, Covenant's jayvees on Oct. 10 and Oakwood on Oct. 17. Also in that span is an Oct. 8 tri-match against Boyce and Welch in Nashville.