After being the winning quarterback in Super Bowl 50, Peyton Manning was honored in the 50th anniversary of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame as the 2016 Tennessean of the year. The presentation to the newly retired NFL star and sometime Chattanooga-area resident was made Saturday at the hall's annual Champion Within Luncheon in Nashville. "We have honored many outstanding individuals in the past 50 years, but none greater than Peyton," executive director Bill Emendorfer said in the announcement release. Emendorfer, a former Cleveland High School football and wrestling star, is like Manning a former Tennessee Volunteers football standout. The release said Tennessean of the year is the hall's top award, going to an "individual or organization that has made significant contributions to our state through sports or other methods, demonstrating outstanding character and leadership." The state hall's 2016 inductees Saturday previously were announced and included the late King Oehmig from Chattanooga.
Golf
* Cleveland Country Club member Danielle Bates of Benton won the Tennessee Women's Amateur first flight Saturday with a 1-up victory over Erica Chappell of Nashville at Hillwood Country Club in Nashville. Cleveland's Kelsey Cassada lost 2 and 1 to Ally Nicole Smith of Clarksville in the third-flight final match. Riley Rennell of Columbia won the championship flight by edging Nashville's Alexandra Farnsworth 2 and 1.
* Jake Allstun of Cohutta and Davis Smith, Davis Kirk, Carter Pendley and Jackson Quarles of Dalton are among the 144 young golfers teeing off Monday at Athens Country Club for the 50th anniversary of the Georgia Junior Championship. The stroke-play event will continue through Wednesday with the low 70 players and ties through 36 holes competing in the final round.
* Golfers Miranda Rich of Ringgold, Carson Roberts of Dalton, Tori Owens of Chatsworth, Kate and Molly Mashburn of Calhoun and Ally Horinek of Blairsville are entered in the Georgia Girls' Championship running Monday through Wednesday at The Plantation at Reynolds Lake Oconee. Lauren Lightfritz of Suwanee is returning to defend her 2015 title.
Baseball
* Seven players from the 2016 Chattanooga State baseball team are headed to four-year schools to continue their careers, including catcher Danny Sirven to Tennessee. Hunter Parker, who prepped at East Hamilton, is bound for East Tennessee State after batting .358 with team highs of 55 runs scored and 20 stolen bases for the 34-15 Tigers. Pitcher Austin Jackson is going to Alabama-Huntsville, outfielder Nate Schmal to Georgia College, outfielder Taylor Maxey to Erskine, third baseman Grant Sane to Reinhardt and infielder Brandon Melendez to North Carolina A&T. Melendez, honored this past week with All-America honorable mention and as an NJCAA Marucci Elite Hitter for the best batting average (.451) in Tennessee and Georgia, is from Miami like Sirven, who hit .412 with team highs of seven home runs and 52 RBIs and also had 17 doubles and 47 runs. Melendez had 20 doubles, three triples and 46 RBIs. Schmal hit .349 with 51 runs and 45 RBIs, Sane hit .329 and Maxey hit .273 with nine steals.
Fishing
* The fifth annual Kids Bass Tournament at Marion County Park is set for Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon EDT at the site on Nickajack Lake. It costs $20 for a team of one child and one adult plus $5 for each additional person in a boat, and each child entered will get a prize. There will be a limit of one fish per team, but more than one team may fish from the same boat - or from designated bank areas. For more information call Darren Nunley at 423-834-6944, Hensley Powell at 423-508-4033, David DuVall at 931-808-0845 or Ray Koon at 931-607-2530.