The Southeast Whitfield Raiders won’t have to look at a lot of video to come up with a game plan for tonight’s GHSA Class AAA soccer semifinal against Gainesville. The Red Elephants, according to Southeast coach Jamison Griffin, are very much like his own team.
“Like us, they play a very possessive-type game,” Griffin said. “They rely on speed and quickness, and they may be technically more talented than we are, but I believe we’ve got more speed and depth.”
Griffin used his team’s deep bench to substitute regularly in the team’s first three postseason wins and plans to do the same tonight. If the Raiders prevail, they will either travel to St. Pius X or host Woodward Academy in Friday’s final.
Grundy coach resigns
Shawn DiGianfelice has resigned as softball coach at Grundy County High School, which ended its season Saturday in the District 7-AA tournament at Coalmont.
The Lady Yellow Jackets finished 21-12, giving them six consecutive non-losing seasons, a streak DiGianfelice helped forge from a 3-23 mark in his first season.
He said he plans to stay on the school’s faculty but wants to devote more time to his family. His wife, Valerie, is recovering from surgery and they have a daughter, Sydney, who will be 3 in August.
“Anybody that gets into coaching, they don’t get into it for the money,” DiGianfelice said. “They get into it because they enjoy the sport they coach and being around kids. It’s hard to leave something you’ve been doing for nine years. I feel like there’s a lot to be proud of, but at the same time I think the program can get better, and I hope it does. Grundy County’s softball program is something I’ll always have a passion for.”
FAMU signs Gordon
Arts & Sciences’ Chariah Gordon signed scholarship papers recently and will continue her softball career at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. The Lady Rattlers compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, making her the Lady Patriots’ first Division I signee.
Gordon had a .379 batting average through her first 58 at-bats for the Lady Patriots, who are competing this week in the District 5-A tournament. Gordon also played basketball at CSAS, a state semifinalist this past season.
McCallie, CJR shine
McCallie and Chattanooga Junior Rowing both did well this past weekend at the USRowing Southeastern Championships in Sarasota, Fla.
McCallie won three divisions and was second in another. It earned its first Varsity 8 championship for the six-state region in six years with a finish time of 5 minutes, 29.5 seconds — 2.13 seconds faster than second-place Sarasota Crew — and won by 10-plus seconds over runners-up in the Second Varsity 4 and Novice 8 finals. St. Andrew Rowing Club edged McCallie’s Lightweight 4, which qualified along with the Spooner Cup-winning Varsity 8 champions for the USRowing nationals in June.
The Varsity 8 will compete this weekend in Philadelphia against 44 teams in the Stotesbury Cup regatta.
CJR had 13 entries in 12 races, and six of them raced in the finals. Zach Boyette, Conor Delaney, Eric Del Valle, Christopher DeBarge and coxswain Danielle Anderson won the Varsity 4 by more than five seconds, and Payton Smith, Alexis Chavarria-Aguilar, Lindsey McGirl and Rachel White won the women’s quadruple scull.
CJR’s David Hall also qualified for the nationals as runner-up in single scull, less than a boat length behind the winner and more than 16 seconds ahead of the third-place finisher. The CJR men’s quad was fourth, the men’s lightweight doublesculls were fifth and the Junior Varsity 4 were sixth.
Tornado All-Americans
McCallie, the Tennessee Scholastic Lacrosse Association Division 1 champion for the second year in a row and 10th time overall, was awarded three of the six All-American designations available to the state from US Lacrosse.
Midfielder T.J. Kemp and goalie Patton Watkins were named All-Americans for the second year in a row, and attackman Zack Ward joined them. Those three and Blue Tornado teammate Trevel Talley were first-team all-state and first-team all-region along with Charlie Graff.
McCallie’s Eoin Collins was second-team all-state, and he, Parker Mincy, Bennett Krishock and George Schlaeppi were second-team all-region.