Polk County’s softball team was informed by the TSSAA that it played an ineligble player all season. However, after having to forfeit all 29 games this year, the District 5-AA regular-season champion will remain as the top-seeded team for the district tournament.
Junior Kallie Hawkins, primarily Polk’s starting catcher this season, is a transfer from Bradley Central. The TSSAA was recently alerted that she had no change of residence or custody. Then after an investigation, Hawkins was ruled to be ineligible.
The district tournament is set to start today with Loudon playing at McMinn Central at 5:30 p.m. The winner is scheduled to play at Polk County at 5:30 Monday.
“I’ll shoulder the blame for that,” Polk County coach Bill Triplett said of the ruling. “I should’ve checked it closer, but I don’t deal a lot with transfers. I don’t want to be involved with being accused of recruiting. But it’s my team, my program. It’s under my watch and I’ll take all the blame. We’ll just go from here and get ready for Monday.”
Triplett said the state organization told him it would be up to the district coaches to decide whether to reseed the teams for the district tournament or keep things the same. Triplett said he contacted the other league coaches and a majority voted to keep things the same.
Triplett said Hawkins, who is among the team’s top home run hitters and run-producers, will become eligible to play sports at Polk County on Oct. 3.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Triplett said. “She’s found a home.”
Potter set for MTSU
Briar Potter has become the first East Hamilton wrestler to move onto the next level.
Potter signed recently with Middle Tennessee State University.
“It’s a club program that’s endowed so they can give supplements to kids,” Hurricanes coach Ryan Cooper said. “It’s how a lot of schools that lost their programs are getting back into the sport. They wrestle in the National College Wrestling Association. It’s a nice little league for kids to keep wrestling.”
Potter was a four-year starter, two-time team captain and four-time state qualifier for East Hamilton.
“He’s going to be a hard kid to replace. He was a good find for us, for sure,” Cooper said.
Potter finished his career, which included a torn hip flexor and a broken hand that trimmed his match total, with a 98-21 record.
Legg to coach Colts
The Whitfield County Board of Education approved this week the hiring of Matthew Legg as the boys’ basketball coach at Coahulla Creek.
Legg, formerly an assistant coach at Murray County, replaces Matthew Queener, who resigned for family reasons after leading the program to a school-record 21 wins and the Colts’ first appearance in the state playoffs this past season.
Greene Berry-bound
GPS All-American cheerleader Hannah Faith Greene also has excelled in track and field, among other things, and will play that sport at Berry College at Rome, Ga. Greene was honored Thursday in a celebration of her commitment to the NCAA Division III school.
She has qualified for the state meet as a high jumper the past two years and hopes to go again this month, and a few weeks ago she added the hurdles to her repertoire and may make the state in the 300 hurdles as well. She’s done the distance in 48.24 seconds, and coach Stacey Hill said she may be able to get that into the 47s as a rookie in the event. The 6-foot Greene has reached five feet in the high jump.
“She’s a very good athlete,” Hill said. “As she focuses more on track in college, I could even seeing her adding the long jump and triple jump. Berry might use her in heptathlon.”
An honor student, Greene was Miss Teen Tennessee USA and third in the national pageant last year, and in a host of community activities she has been a piano teacher for the Boys and Girls Club and a weekly volunteer at the Ronald McDonald House. She said she ultimately picked Berry over Rhodes, finalizing that decision in a return trip to the Rome campus last Friday.
“I could tell how much they wanted me, not just another person,” Greene said.
Irish athletes signing
Five Notre Dame athletes will sign national letters of intent or commitment celebratory papers at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school’s Varallo Gym. The commitments for some of them already have been reported.
The five signees and their sports are Alex Darras, Furman football; Michael Quatrano, Maryville soccer; Tyler Byrd, Gulf Coast College basketball; David Wheeler, Bryan College basketball; and Luke Mullin, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling.
Pendley to Petrels
The area’s leading scorer, Southeast Whitfield’s Ty Pendley, confirmed his commitment Wednesday to attend and play basketball at NCAA Division III member Oglethorpe University. Pendley, a 5-foot-11 guard, averaged 27.7 points per game and led the Raiders in assists and steals. He finished his prep career with better than 1,500 points.
A three-year starter, Pendley hit 66 3-pointers and was 230 of 256 from the free throw line (90 percent), one of the top figures in the country according to statistics kept by MaxPreps.
Oglethorpe’s Stormy Petrels are in the Southern Athletic Association. They were 11-15 this past season and graduate three guards.
Bradley up one spot
Bradley Central has moved up from eighth to seventh in the latest Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association Class AAA poll, while McCallie remains in the No. 1 spot in Division II-AA.
Hixson, which had been ranked No. 8 in Class AA, dropped out of the top 10 despite winning District 6-AA’s regular season. There are no area teams ranked in Class A.