For the 11th time since 2001, the Covenant College women's soccer program has won a team ethics award from the national coaches association, and for the ninth time it is a silver award. The United Soccer Coaches, previously called the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, awards platinum, gold, silver and bronze honors for teams with low rates of red and yellow cards. There were 162 total awards for men's and women's college teams this year - ranging from NCAA Division I to NJCAA - and 50 of those were silvers. Coach Mark Duble's Lady Scots had three yellows in the 2017 season, when they went 11-7-1 and reached the USA South tournament semifinals. Another silver award winner was Maryville's women, coached by former Tennessee Wesleyan standout and Chattanooga-area high school coach Pepe Fernandez.
Tennis
» Former Tennessee Wesleyan tennis player Francisco Gallardo has been hired to coach the men's and women's tennis teams at the Athens school. He was an assistant coach there last year. The native of Santiago, Chile, was 61-23 in singles and 59-27 in doubles in his four-year Bulldogs career and was a team captain as a junior and senior. The 2016 graduate received the school's Stan Harrison Award as the student-athlete who contributed the most to his or her team. "Francisco had a great athletic career at Tennessee Wesleyan and he learned a great deal from Eric LaRue working as his assistant coach," athletic director Donny Mayfield said in a school website post. "(When LaRue moved on) it seemed like a natural progression to hire Francisco as the head coach for men's and women's tennis. The team has always responded well to his leadership, and we look forward to seeing him grow and develop as a head coach."