Lorri Johnson forced out as Soddy-Daisy coach

Lorri Johnson has been forced out as volleyball and tennis coach at Soddy-Daisy High School in a controversy about the volleyball booster club’s record-keeping, according to The Chattanoogan.com. She told the news website that “it was either resign or go through some big investigation, and, frankly, I didn’t want to do that. If (school board officials) don’t want me, I don’t want them. They said I broke a ‘board policy’ and it had to do with the booster club.” She said the issue was raised by a group of players’ parents and involved club reimbursements made to her daughter, Andrea, for expenses involved in her work as volunteer assistant coach. Johnson, who has a 317-145 record in her nine volleyball seasons at Soddy-Daisy, said Hamilton County Schools director of human resources Dr. Ava Warren told her she could “hire a lawyer and fight” the allegations, but she would be suspended without pay during the process. “If I didn’t win I could even lose my teaching license,” Johnson told The Chattanoogan.com.

Basketball

• South Carolina State junior guard Amber Howard from Chattanooga, Baylor School and Chattanooga State was chosen the College Sports Madness Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women’s basketball player of the week after averaging 13.3 points and 3.3 assists in three games. She scored a career-high 25 points with 7-of-9 3-point shooting in Saturday’s 69-62 win over Alabama A&M. Howard has a 4.0 grade point average as a computer science major. She is averaging 10.8 points, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game for the season.

• Bethel University defeated Bryan College 88-77 in men’s basketball Monday night at McKenzie, Tenn. That lifted the NAIA Division I Wildcats to 11-3 for the season and dropped the NAIA Division II Lions to 8-4 with four losses in a row. Brandon Cole had 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 on free throws for Bryan, while Robert Troino hit five 3-point baskets and totaled 19 points.

Golf

• Battlefield Golf Club head professional Mike Miller played another area course Monday and shot a 60 in Brown Acres’ low-ball event. That is thought to be a course record.

Baseball

• Former Lee University pitcher Myles Smith, a converted shortstop, was traded Friday from the Boston Red Sox organization to the Arizona Diamondbacks — for former Atlanta Braves pitcher Zeke Spruill. Both are right-handers. Spruill went to the Diamondbacks in the trade that brought Justin Upton and Chris Johnson to Atlanta in January 2013, and he has made 12 appearances in the major leagues the last two seasons. Smith, a Red Sox fourth-round draftee in June 2013, pitched 103 2/3 innings this year as a starter and reliever for the Greenville Drive in low Single-A. He was 5-10 with a 5.82 earned run average. He was SoxProspects.com pitcher of the week for Aug. 19-25, 2013.

Academics

• The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga led the Southern Conference with seven of the 19 athletes holding cumulative 4.0 grade point averages in the fall academic all-conference team announced Monday. UTC had 34 of the 289 fall-sports athletes making the list, which requires a 3.3 GPA and participation in at least half of a team’s competitions. The UTC athletes with perfect GPAs were cross country runners Patrick O’Brien, Harry Smithers, Maddison Melchionna, Katie Ray and Jessica York and soccer players Hailey Callis and Clare Latham. Other Mocs honored as fall academic all-conference were runners John Gilpin, Marquis Carter, Zachary Darby, Matthew Marshall, Trevor Janssen, Rebecca Greenwall and Keeley Stewart; football players Hunter Townson, Kevin Niethammer, Nick Pollard, Derrick Craine, Ryan Bossung, Davis Tull, Jerkerious Scott and Jacob Revis; soccer players Skylar Brewer, Sarah Ghale, Ashley Simmons, Crystal Mackezyk and Loryn Queen; and volleyball players Nicole Sumida, Sarah Batterton, Anne Bachmann, Catherine Chason, Brianna Guzinski, Lauren Gainer and Allie Davenport. Other area athletes making the list were Western Carolina soccer player Kelly Pannell from Baylor School, Mercer football player J.T. Palmer from Calhoun, Ga., and Samford runner Lucas Sieb from Scottsboro, Ala.