Josh Robinson became Northwest Whitfield High School's winningest football coach with Friday night's 35-31 triumph over Coahulla Creek, surpassing Don Murray with his 78th victory.
Robinson has been head coach of the Bruins since 2011 after working as a defensive assistant for eight years, with five of those as the coordinator. His teams have reached the GHSA playoffs in eight of his seasons leading the program, including the past seven.
"There aren't many coaches who get in this for personal glory, and if you do you're in the wrong business," Robinson said. "However, it is something I'm proud of, but it's more a testament to my family, my coaches and the kids than it is to me. There is so much that goes into running a program and my kids have bought into what we teach, which make it so much easier. We have a great booster club and great community, and we take pride in giving them a winning team to watch."
Raiders rolling
Southeast Whitfield improved to 2-0 with Friday's 34-21 win over Gordon Central, equaling the number of victories the Raiders had last season and giving the program its first 2-0 start since 2017. That team, coached by Sean Gray, went 7-4 and reached the playoffs, but Southeast won just six games combined the next three seasons.
Todd Murray took over in 2020 and led the program to its first of two nonregion schedules as he and his staff worked to improve participation numbers. The Raiders are back to playing a region slate this year in 7-AAAA, but they still have nonregion games remaining against Gordon Lee, Armuchee and Druid Hills before opening league play on Sept. 30, when Heritage visits.
Aerial assault
Tyner quarterback Josh Jackson has put on a show to begin the season, completing 27 of 36 passes for 557 yards and eight touchdowns in wins over Howard and Grundy County. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior honed his passing skills over the offseason and has been extremely sharp for TSSAA Class 2A's third-ranked Rams. He has thrown touchdown passes to five different receivers, and Jersey Chubb, Marcus Lewis Jr. and Trae Ruffin all have two receiving scores.
Block party
East Hamilton's volleyball program, the Class AA state runner-up last season, was powerful at the net earlier this week while recording 25 blocks combined in sweeps of Signal Mountain and Soddy-Daisy. Julia Culpepper led the Lady Hurricanes (11-4) with five blocks in the two wins. In addition, Tristin Sutton and Hana Suzuki each had four aces against Signal Mountain.
Star performers
Cross country: Dalton's boys placed first out of 25 teams in Saturday's meet hosted by Heritage, with senior Jorge Mares finishing the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) race fifth in 17 minutes and 59 seconds, and all five of the scoring Catamounts among the top 13 individuals.
Soccer: Baylor's Elizabeth Stophel had two goals and two assists in Tuesday's 6-0 shutout of visiting Signal Mountain.
Volleyball: Boyd Buchanan's Cali Sandhoff had 19 kills, 19 digs, 17 assists and six blocks, and Calla Brady had 39 digs in a 3-1 win over Notre Dame. ... Sale Creek's Ava Higgins and Enslee Norwood combined for 29 kills in a five-set victory over Signal Mountain. ... Soddy-Daisy's Izabelle LaMonica had 18 kills in a five-set win over Bradley Central. ... Heritage's Lauren Mock had seven aces in a two-set sweep of Northwest Whitfield.
Compiled by Marty Kirkland, Patrick MacCoon and Lindsey Young. Contact them at sports@timesfreepress.com.