Football season for area high schools will kick off again with the annual Best of Preps jamboree, presented by Truck 'n Trailers USA, at Finley Stadium. The 20-team event will be held Aug. 10-11, a Friday and a Saturday, with each team playing two games lasting one quarter each. This year's lineup features Chattanooga-area schools exclusively, with Friday's nine-game schedule beginning at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday's 11-game schedule beginning at 4:30 p.m. On Friday, Chattanooga Christian and Sale Creek kick things off, followed by Hixson vs. CCS (6), Sale Creek vs. East Ridge (6:30), Tyner vs. Hixson (7), East Ridge vs. Tyner (7:30), Walker Valley vs. Notre Dame (8), Notre Dame vs. Bradley Central (8:30), McCallie vs. Walker Valley (9) and Bradley Central vs. McCallie (9:30). On Saturday, Howard and Boyd-Buchanan will play first, followed by Grace Academy vs. Howard (5), Boyd-Buchanan vs. Central (5:30), Central vs. Grace Academy (6), Signal Mountain vs. Soddy-Daisy (6:30), Soddy-Daisy vs. East Hamilton (7), Signal Mountain vs. Ooltewah (7:30), East Hamilton vs. Red Bank (8), Ooltewah vs. Brainerd (8:30), Baylor vs. Brainerd (9) and Baylor vs. Red Bank (9:30).
* Jacksonville State junior Josh Brady from Silverdale Baptist Academy was among the Football Championship Subdivision preseason All-America players listed by Hero Sports. Brady made the second team as a long snapper, where he has started since he was a JSU freshman. The three teams included eight Southern Conference players, with Samford quarterback Devlin Hodges and defensive lineman Ahmad Gooden and Western Carolina defensive back Marvin Tillman on the first team.
Baseball
* Bryan College starting pitcher Stephen Chamblee and right fielder Fernando Garcia followed their selections as pitcher and player of the year in the Appalachian Athletic Conference by being included among the 17 NAIA first-team baseball All-Americans for 2018, and teammate Wade Weinburger earned All-America honorable mention. Weinburger and Garcia led the AAC with 74 and 72 RBIs this past season, beating the Lions' old record of 68, and they also were one-two with 75 and 70 runs scored. Garcia led the league with 100 hits and a .439 batting average, shattering and tying Bryan records, and had 12 home runs, 27 doubles and 19 stolen bases, while Weinburger set school and AAC records with 22 homers and batted .316 and stole 13 bases. Chamblee had an 11-1 record with a 3.43 earned run average and 131 strikeouts in 102 1/3 innings, 11.52 per game. The previous Bryan record for strikeouts in a season was 102.
* The 17th annual Stump on Sports Tennessee-Georgia All-Star Baseball Classic featuring 2018 graduates from southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia high schools is set for tonight at 6:30 at Lookout Valley. It is scheduled for nine innings, and tickets cost $5. The game will be played in the memory of series founder Stump Martin, who died last month. Among the Georgia players are Dylan Minghini, Caleb Hopkins and Austin Thompson from Gordon Lee; Blake Bryan, Bryce Bird, Justin Morris, Lance Dockery and Cole Wilcox from Heritage; and Nathan Camp and Ty Jones from Ringgold. Southeast Whitfield assistant coach Allen Coley will guide the team. Lookout Valley coach Lance Rorex will direct the Tennessee squad, which will include Soddy-Daisy's Dylan Perry, Ooltewah's Andrew Manning and Baylor's Teddy Lepcio, according to the event release.
Golf
* Longtime Chattanooga-area golfers Mike Poe and Bob Rice lost 3 and 2 to Legacy Golf Club's Mike Gallagher and Butch O'Kelley in the Tennessee Senior Four-Ball quarterfinals Thursday at Montgomery Bell State Park, but defending Super Senior champions Neil Spitalny and John Williams of Chattanooga will play this morning for a repeat title. Spitalny and Williams topped Mike Nixson and Mike Patton 3 and 2 in the semifinals and now take on Frank Dial of Fairview and Ed Link of Memphis.
Cycling
* Chattanooga's seemingly ageless cycling wonder, Durward Higgins, won the 75-older time trial in the first event of the USA Cycling Masters Road Nationals on Thursday at Fort Gordon at Augusta, Georgia, by three and a half minutes. That was despite his report that his bike setup "was not optimum" on the hilly course with 442 feet of climb in 11.5 miles and rough pavement.
General
* Anne Wehunt of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sports information staff received a second-place award from the Tennessee Sports Writers Association this week in competition for all member colleges and universities throughout the state. Wehunt, who grew up in Chattanooga and is beginning her 18th year working for UTC, won in the category of "event writers" and will be among those honored at the TSWA Hall of Fame dinner and banquet July 12 at Cumberland University in Lebanon. She is the athletic department's assistant director of communications and media relations.