For me there are certain sites that are immediately linked to a specific coach, player or even memorable game.
When I pulled into the parking lot just outside the Sale Creek softball field Wednesday evening, the first person I thought of was Clifford Kirk.
Particularly vivid was the memory of the last time I had covered the Lady Panthers hosting a region championship game, in 2013, and seeing Kirk collapse from a heart attack while standing on the third-base line coaching his team. That same field is now named in honor of Clifford and wife Ruth, and while the term “legend” often gets attached too easily, it certainly applies to Clifford Kirk, who won more than 1,100 games and 10 state championships – eight at Soddy-Daisy and two at Hixson.
Before his death last November due to heart complications, Kirk had coached Sale Creek for the past eight seasons, guiding the Lady Panthers to multiple state tournament appearances, including a Class A runner-up finish in 2018.
For the second time this week, Sale Creek (22-9) scored in dramatic, late-inning fashion as freshman Brooke Raines drilled a two-run homer – her 12th home run this season – in the sixth inning for a 2-1 win that secured the Region 3-A title and the right to host a sectional game against Greenback on Thursday.