POTENTIAL POWERS
Here are some of the area’s top teams and athletes to watch for this spring.BaseballAside from Baylor, several other area teams hope to make a run at their state tournaments, including Chattanooga Christian, led by Kentucky signee John Rhodes; Signal Mountain, led by Middle Tennessee State signee Drew Lowry; Bradley Central, led by Lee University signee Dylan Standifer; and Ringgold, led by Mississippi State signee Andre Tarver.SoccerBaylor won its first state title since 2012 last season, when Signal Mountain was the runner-up in Class A. Boyd Buchanan senior midfielder Hayes Wood, a Lipscomb University signee, returns after scoring 26 goals to help his team reach the state semifinals.SoftballThe Chattanooga area has traditionally dominated this sport, and last year was no different with at least one area team in each of the TSSAA’s five classifications’ state title games. This season isn’t expected to have much drop-off either.It took 10 innings, but Baylor won its fourth straight Division II-AA state title over GPS, marking the fifth straight season — and eighth of the past nine — those two rivals have met for the championship. Silverdale Baptist Academy won the DII-A crown, the school’s first state title in any sport, and Sale Creek made its first championship game appearance in any sport, winning 36 games before finishing as runner-up in Class A. The Lady Panthers return plenty of talent, and coach Clifford Kirk will be looking for his 11th state title with his third program.After winning two straight Class A titles, Meigs County moved up to AA and won yet another. The Lady Tigers must replace All-America pitcher Ashley Rogers, who is now at the University of Tennessee. Walker Valley brings back several starters from last year’s AAA state runner-up team.TennisFor the past decade of Spring Fling tournaments, at least one Chattanooga player has won a D-II title. The Signal Mountain boys and girls combined for three titles last year, including a girls’ overall team championship.TrackBaylor junior Makayla Packer, who set program record times while winning state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as the anchor of the 4×200, should challenge state records in the sprint events. Arts & Sciences senior Alayah Dozier will look to repeat as state champion in the 400 and improve on her second-place finishes in the 100 and 200. Gordon Lee junior Gracie O’Neal set program records in winning the 800 and 1600 meters in GHSA Class A. CSAS junior Brevin Sims not only won state titles in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles last year, she came close to setting a state record in the 110.— Stephen Hargis
Preseason hype is typically only good for adding extra pressure and setting a team up for a letdown. But there’s nothing typical about this season’s Baylor baseball team.
Not only do the Red Raiders return the nucleus from the team that won the 2018 TSSAA Division II-AA state title and turned last year’s postseason into its own extended batting practice – Baylor collected 41 hits and scored 31 runs in three state tournament games, including 16 hits and 12 runs in the title game – but they also added enough talent to make them prohibitive favorites to repeat.
Two of Baylor’s three seniors have signed college scholarships, six underclassmen have already committed to either Atlantic Coast Conference or Southeastern Conference programs and as many as four others are expected to have similar offers soon.
“In my opinion, it’s got to be the most talented team that has ever come out of Chattanooga,” said Brandon Turner, who played at Mississippi State, later in the Marlins organization and now owns the Chattanooga-based eXposure Baseball, a summer league program with 24 teams across the nation.
“They’re still young, but they were young last year and still won a state championship. By the time they’re seniors you’ve got two or three that will be really high pro draft picks, like top 2-3 round picks. They’ve got locals and kids from all around the country, but they all get along, communicate well and play real unselfish. It’s pretty impressive.”
Among the returners from last season are three of the four players who made up the heart of a batting order that accounted for a .545 average and 20 RBIs in the last two state tournament games – Cooper Kinney, Stan King and Christian Martin. King, also a left-handed senior pitcher who earned the win in the title game, is a Tennessee Tech signee.
“Last year we knew we had talent, but we weren’t sure if we could put it all together,” said Greyson Linderman, a senior and Lee University signee. “Now we know what it takes, and you can see a difference just in the confidence level around everything we do to get ready. We want to keep it going, and the younger guys want to build a dynasty.
“As a senior, I just love being a part of it.”
Junior Gehrig Ebel has committed to Virginia Tech and will be in his fourth year of varsity competition, and classmate Colin Ahearn, an outfielder/left-hand pitcher, has committed to Tennessee, along with sophomore Chris Moore. Danny Corona and Nick Kurtz have committed to Wake Forest, and fellow sophomore Kinney has committed to South Carolina.
“The best part is nobody has to be the hero,” Ebel said. “We know anybody in the lineup, one through nine, can get the job done. We would love to be nationally ranked, but that type stuff only happens if we try to be the best in every game and not start overlooking anybody. We know that it won’t be easy. No matter how talented we are, we still have to keep putting in the work.”
Besides their 21 region games, the Red Raiders will also have the chance to showcase themselves against other elite programs, including during a tournament at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and in games at the University of Tennessee (against Farragut) and Vanderbilt (against Alabama power Bob Jones High).
Another link among Ahearn (Massachusetts), Corona and Moore (New York) and Kurtz (Pennsylvania) is that all are boarding students who wanted to play for a program in the South, where weather would not be a hindrance.
“Danny, Nick and Cooper all played together on a Team USA youth squad and wanted to stay together and go to school where it’s warm enough to play pretty much year round,” Baylor coach Greg Elie said. “From there, word just sort of spread through some of the summer programs and more guys wanted to be a part of our program.
“It’s a very special group of talented kids who are all very serious about competing. I don’t care if it’s ping-pong or seeing who can hit a trash can with rocks, it’s the most competitive group of guys I’ve ever seen.We had four or five guys who played in a summer league game the day after we won the state title last year. They just love to play the game.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.