Baylor 6-foot outside hitter Gabby Gray was recently chosen sophomore of the year on the MaxPreps 2014 Underclass All-American Girls Volleyball Team and heads a group of three with Chattanooga ties honored by the national high school sports source. Signal Mountain 6-2 senior middle hitter Taelor Kellum, who already has enrolled at Florida, was selected to the second team on the website's Medium Schools All-American Girls Volleyball Team. Former East Hamilton player Kylie Scruggs, a 5-11 outside hitter who finished her prep career at Goodpasture Christian, was a third-team selection on the Small Schools All-American Girls Volleyball team. Each of the three was the only player from Tennessee on her respective MaxPreps team. Gray led Baylor (43-9) to the Division II-AA state title this past season and was chosen most valuable player of the championship match. She ended the season with a team-high 705 kills to go with 434 digs, 95 aces and 31 blocks. Among her other accolades in her brief high school career, she was Tennessee's Gatorade Player of the Year for the 2014 season. She was a MaxPreps freshman All-American and a two-time all-state selection. Kellum sparked Signal Mountain to a Class AA state-runner-up finish last season. She registered 802 kills, 505 digs, 124 blocks and 79 acces. Scruggs totaled 87 aces and averaged 4.2 kills and 5.2 digs per match in helping Class A Goodpasture to its third consecutive state championship. Like Gray, she was also selected MVP in her team's title match.
General
Former City High School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball and volleyball standout and UTC and Southeastern Conference basketball coach Sharon Fanning was Mississippi State's selection for the Southeastern Conference 2015 Women's Legends Class. The group will be honored in this year's SEC women's basketball tournament March 4-8 in Little Rock, Ark., where the 14 selections will take part in an autograph session, but they will be honored individually on Sundays and Thursdays from this Sunday until Feb. 26. Fanning was picked for her work coaching the Lady Bulldogs to a 281-229 record from 1995 to 2012; she was the SEC coach of the year in 2000. She coached at UTC from 1976 to 1987 and from Kentucky then until 1995, and her career record is 608-457. As Sharon Cable before marrying, she also was a local fastpitch softball star.
* The TSSAA Board of Control voted Thursday to extend the contract of executive director Bernard Childress for another three years. His present term expires at the end of the current school year. Also, the board asked Childress and his staff to gather information on the possibility of establishing middle school championship events on the state level and the impact it would have. The TSSAA office will begin gathering information from middle school principals statewide. If such a move is deemed to be plausible, the first such events would be in cross country and track and field.
Golf
Dalton State signed Haejin Choe of Suwanee County High School in Florida on Thursday to join the Lady Roadrunners golf team this fall. She has been playing golf only a little over a year, according to a DSC release, but has made great progress in the sport. "Being a pitcher in softball helped," said Choe, who helped Suwanee County reach the state final four in softball. "That helped build the mental toughness you also need in golf." Golf coach Matt Campbell said she could hit long from the start and has worked hard on the other aspects of the sport. She also has a 3.7 grade point average, a 30 ACT score and a 1760 SAT score. "Haejin is an outstanding student, person and golfer with unlimited potential and a tremendous work ethic," DSC coach John McGrew said. "For someone just learning the game, she has shown a tremendous rise in performance."