Preps Sports

A season ago, the Cleveland High School wrestling team rode the wave of a strong region tournament to the state traditional championship.

Turbo Smith had one bowl of soup too many and yet managed to survive. The Soddy-Daisy wrestler, top-seeded at 145 pounds, advanced to this afternoon's Region 4 wrestling championship round but only after pulling out a 6-4 victory over Tyner's Antonio Walton.

The Baylor swim teams both hold narrow leads over Nashville challengers after Friday's portion of the state championships. The Baylor girls have 177 points to 165 for Harpeth Hall, while the Baylor boys have 141 points to 132 for second-place Montgomery Bell Academy.

It was while Tim Daniels was working as an assistant coach for a postseason all-star game that the thought first crossed his mind. Coaching the offensive line three years ago for a senior showcase, Daniels enjoyed working outside the spotlight that comes with being a head coach.

Baylor's recent dominance in state swimming will be put to the test this weekend in Nashville by a couple of schools competing at home.

Like mother, like son is not normally the way the saying goes. But what Arts & Sciences' JaVaughn Craig is doing these days is not normal, either.

District 7-AA includes some longtime girls' basketball powers, and again it's one of the most rugged in the TSSAA. And its newest rising star is 5-foot-3 and 98 pounds.

When a coach is also a father, what sport his child ends up playing seems a natural choice. But not so when dad coaches football and the child, in this case Boyd-Buchanan's Maddie Wright, is a girl.

There are three unbeaten wrestlers in Tennessee according to National Wrestling Coaches Association statistics -- Father Ryan's Michael Hooker (160 pounds), Brentwood Academy's Amos Mason (220) and Tyner's DeAngelo James (113) -- going into this weekend's regional tournaments.