Staff Photo by Lesley Onstott
Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., on Tuesday.Two former area high school standouts have been hired as full-time assistant coaches at Covenant College: Christine Engbers from Dade County for softball and Kristy Newman from Sale Creek for volleyball.
Engbers, who’s married to a former Covenant basketball player, played softball and basketball as Christine Core at the Lookout Mountain college, and Newman played for Covenant’s USA South rival Maryville College. Engbers replaces Brie Carmack, now an assistant at Bucknell, in helping Sara Russell after having been a successful head coach at Dade County.
The softball Lady Wolverines won a state championship in 2012 and made deep playoff runs in 2013 and 2014, and Engbers also coached junior varsity and middle school basketball.
“She strengthens our program with her spectacular coaching skills and her strong desire to make players better both on and off the field,” Russell said in a Covenant release.
Engbers graduated from Covenant in 2012 with a .335 career batting average, fourth best in program history, No. 2 totals of 162 hits and 45 multihit games and school records of 26 single-season and 59 career stolen bases. Newman spent the past year as an assistant coach at St. Andrews University, which went 21-10. She had 308 career kills as an outside hitter at Maryville, where she graduated in 2014, and has head coaching experience with the K2 club in Louisville, Tenn.
“She understands the hard work it takes to be able to compete with excellence,” Covenant head coach Joanna Ehman said. “I’m confident she will be able to use that to inspire our players to build on the success we had this year. Her playing experience at Maryville combined with the recruiting and coaching experience she had at St. Andrews will serve her well.”
Basketball
‘ The Dalton State men’s basketball team, ranked eighth in NAIA Division I, defeated visiting Martin Methodist 73-66 on Thursday as Jalen Robinson and Rudy Winters scored 23 and 18 points and Jordan Bowling added 11 points and seven rebounds. DSC is 12-3, 4-1 in the SSAC.
‘ Matt Brown led six double-digit scorers with 22 points as the Tennessee Wesleyan men’s basketball team won a nonconference game Thursday night at Trevecca Nazarene, 92-88. Trey Suttles had 14 points, seven rebounds and four steals for the Bulldogs (12-1), while Justin Simmons scored 13 points and Charles White had seven assists and four steals.
‘ First-place Milligan College edged second-place Bryan 67-66 in the women’s game of the Appalachian Athletic Conference doubleheader Thursday at Milligan, which won the men’s game 82-56 after being tied at halftime. The Lady Buffs (14-3, 8-0), ranked 25th in NAIA Division II, beat the No. 17 Lady Lions (14-3, 6-2) with a 24-15 fourth quarter. Bryan’s Amber Levi led everyone with 21 points and four steals, while Keila Formont had 10 rebounds and seven assists. For the Lions (10-7, 5-3), Brandon Cole had 20 points and 14 rebounds while Tyler Yoder scored 13 points. Julian Bailey had 24 points, 16 rebounds and five assists for the Buffaloes (10-4, 6-2).
‘ Wallace State-Hanceville improved to 15-3 for the season with a 70-51 victory over visiting Cleveland State in men’s basketball Thursday afternoon. The Cougars are 5-8.
Wrestling
‘ Senior heavyweight Tyler Smith from Calhoun, Ga., and Sonoraville High School is one of five Cumberland University wrestlers ranked in the NAIA coaches’ Top 20 poll this week. All five actually are in the top 12 in their weight classes. Cumberland, which recently changed its nickname to Phoenix, is No. 18 as a team with a 6-4 record and three wins over NCAA Division II schools going into the NWCA National Duals this weekend. Smith is 15-3 and ranked 11th nationally.