File photo: Georgia Northwestern Technical College's vice president of student services Stuart Phillips, left, and basketball coach and athletic director David Stephenson, right.Georgia Northwestern Technical College will honor basketball coach and athletic director David Stephenson on Feb. 18 for his 30 years in coaching, and all of his former players in all sports are invited to attend the Bobcats' final game of the regular season at 3:30 p.m. that day at the Rossville Athletic Center and a reception afterward. The opponent is Warren Wilson College. Stephenson graduated in 1985 from Tennessee Temple Academy and began coaching there soon after, followed by stops at Unity Christian, Grace Academy, Tennessee Temple University, Berean Academy, Lee Highway Christian, North Georgia Christian, Hamilton Heights, Silverdale Baptist Academy. He was Hamilton Heights' first coach, and he has been GNTC's men's basketball coach and athletic director the past 10 years, with the women's team added the last couple. Stephenson has more than 500 wins in 800-plus basketball games and also coached soccer and track and field at times. This year's Bobcats are 8-7 after losing for the first time in five games Tuesday at Hiwassee, 95-88. GNTC career scoring leader Darrius Fugh had 26 points and 14 rebounds and Daniel Parrish had 21 points and nine rebounds and matched Fugh's four assists, while Alec Rattanaxay had 13 points and five assists and Demonte Parker scored 12 points.
* Carrie Cheeks had 15 points, eight rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots and fellow Sonoraville High School alumna Payton Smith scored 10 points as Appalachian Athletic Conference women's co-leader Reinhardt beat visiting Tennessee Wesleyan 62-52 on Wednesday. Hunter Simpson had 16 points and four steals for TWU but also made 13 turnovers; the team had 32. The Reinhardt men won 120-106 with 23 points from Nehemiah Jones and 18 from Dwight Sanders. Tre Tiller scored 18 on 7-of-7 shooting for Wesleyan, and Jordan Hall and Kenny Dean scored 17 apiece, Dean with 10 rebounds and four assists.
* Bryan College couldn't quite pull off an AAC sweep Wednesday against Bluefield, as the Bryan men lost 63-57. The Bryan women won 69-61 with a 23-7 fourth quarter. They got 21 points from Amber Levi, 11 plus 10 rebounds from Elisha Talley, 10 points and four blocks from Kaylee Smith, 10 points and four steals from Tristan McClellan and nine rebounds and three steals from Tonesha Allison. For the Lions, Oteriah Lee scored 19 points, Brice Cusick tallied 12 and Tyler Yoder had 15 rebounds with 11 points.
Football
* Chattanooga resident Jim Jackson has announced his retirement as coordinator of football officials for the Ohio Valley Conference after 10 years in the position. "My weekends in the fall have been dictated by football since 1975, and I'm ready to spend more time trying to be a better husband, father, grandfather and golfer," Jackson said in an OVC release. The coordinator's job includes recruiting, training, developing, assigning and evaluating officials, and Jackson developed the much-modeled OVC Football Officials Website, according to the release. He previously spent six years as a Sun Belt Conference referee, was president of the SBC Football Officials Association from 2001 to 2003 and was honored as that league's highest-rated official in 2002. Working as an industrial engineer, he got his officiating start with area high school football and basketball games and area college contests and later moved up to the Old Dominion and Southern conferences.
Baseball
* The Covenant College baseball team was picked seventh in the USA South preseason poll but got one first-place vote in the balloting released Wednesday. The other 10 firsts went to No. 1 choice LaGrange (7) and second-place Ferrum. Huntingdon, Maryville, Methodist and North Carolina Wesleyan were third through sixth in the 11-team poll.
Softball
* The Lady Moc RBI Club is sponsoring a pancake breakfast for the UTC softball team Saturday from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Applebee's in Northgate Mall. The cost is $6, payable at the door.