McCallie's Alex Whitworth, left, wrestles Scottsboro's John McAlphin in their championshp bout in the McCallie wrestling invitational at McCallie School on Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Chattanooga area will look to continue its dominance at the state wrestling tournament this weekend at the Williamson County Agricultural Expo in Franklin.
An area team - Bradley Central, Cleveland or Soddy-Daisy - has won the Class AAA state traditional title the past 17 seasons, with Bradley having won the past two. The Bears own 26 combined state titles - traditional and duals - in program history.
There will be a full schedule of matches beginning today, with champions decided Saturday evening.
Cleveland won the state duals in the largest classification two weeks ago, while Baylor (Division II) and Signal Mountain (A/AA) were runners-up in their classes.
Last season, McCallie finished second and Baylor fourth in D-II and Hixson rallied to finish runner-up in A/AA, while 17 area wrestlers won individual state titles. McCallie's Alex Whitworth won the 108-pound individual title last year and is back now to compete in the 126-pound division. He has a chance to become a rare five-time state champion after winning last year's crown as an eighth-grader.
While the perennial area powers again are among the favorites, Whitwell is a relatively unknown program that has had a breakout season, sending a school-record 10 qualifiers into the A/AA bracket under first-year coach Jackie Blosser. The Tigers' Warner Ashworth (170) and Jacob Roberts (152) were runners-up at last weekend's Region 3 meet at Sequatchie County. Signal Mountain has eight qualifiers.
Red Bank sets up selection committee
Red Bank High School has put together a selection committee for the purpose of hiring its next head football coach.
The committee includes Red Bank alumna Susan Thurman, who taught and coached at the school from 1970 to 2010, former football star Gerald Ware, athletic director and coach Mandi Munn, assistant principal and former coach Wendell Weathers, faculty member Dani Morris, principal Elaine Harper and Tenika Jackson, the parent of two current Lions players. Thurman, Ware, Munn and Weathers are in the school's hall of fame.
The Lions job came open last week with the firing of four-year veteran Chad Grabowski, who had guided the program to back-to-back Region 3-3A titles and led them to the state semifinals last season. The committee began the process of selecting finalists for the job this week.
Twins Tanner and Travis WoodallNorth Jackson has two state qualifiers
When twins Tanner and Travis Woodall transferred to North Jackson (Ala.) two years ago, they thought their wrestling careers were over because the school never had offered the sport. But after sitting out last season, the two juniors convinced Chiefs football coach Mark Rose to offer wrestling, and now they have qualified for the Class 4A Alabama state tournament this weekend in Huntsville.
The brothers brought a 10-by-10-foot mat from home, taped it to a larger piece of mat used by the cheerleaders and placed it in the football locker room, which served as their practice area each day. They were the only two students who opted to wrestle at North Jackson this school year.
"They're ultra competitive, so about every day they get ticked off at each other and wind up really going at it," said Rose, whose son Coleman is a former top-ranked wrestler in Alabama's 7A. "They had been coached their whole life and already knew what they were doing, so I just kind of oversee their workouts and try to break them up if they get too rowdy."
The pair had wrestled since they were 5 and even after taking a year off realized they were still pretty good when Tanner (197 pounds) placed second and Travis (222 pounds) third at the annual McCallie Invitational. Going into the state meet, Tanner is 25-2 overall, with only one loss to an in-state opponent, and Travis is 27-4 with two losses to the top-ranked 7A wrestler.
Both brothers also were two-way starters for the Chiefs in football: Tanner played quarterback and linebacker, and Travis played tight end and linebacker.
"We both like the mental toughness involved with wrestling, and we missed not doing it last year," Tanner said.
Added Travis: "It helps that we're twins, so we're basically the same size and can go against each other every day. When it's just you on the mat there's nobody else who's responsible for what happens. We both like that."