Sale Creek's Debbie Hill and Copper Basin's Ronnie Davis were honored by the TSSAA as 2016-17 coaches of the year in Athletic District 3, and Rhea County's Micah Reuhling was named athletic director of the year. Other District 3 awards went to Baylor head of schools Scott Wilson as school system administrator of the year, Bledsoe County's Linda Pickett as principal of the year, Carolyn Jackson as official of the year and Times Free Press sports editor Stephen Hargis as contributor of the year. The state association also announced its 27 A.F. Bridges Divisional Awards for sportsmanship and citizenship for 2016-17, and McMinn Central and Sweetwater were two of the three East Tennessee Class AA honorees and Sequoyah of Soddy-Daisy was included in Class A. One of the schools in each classification will receive the A.F. Bridges State Award of Excellence.
Tennis
* Girls Preparatory School director of tennis Sue Bartlett clinched a bronze medal for her native Great Britain with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win Thursday over Italy's No. 1 player in the women's 55s division of the World ITF Team Competition in Miami. Another Chattanoogan, Manker Patten teaching pro Wesley Cash, is on the United States men's 60s team that plays for third place today against Spain after falling 3-0 on Thursday to top-seeded Australia. Cash is 3-0 in doubles in the tournament but did not play Thursday with the team outcome already determined by singles and Sal Castillo of San Antonio getting a chance to play for the first time all week. He's slowed by a knee injury.
Volleyball
* Senior sisters Ginny Moore and Schuyler Moore represent West Division winner Covenant College on the All-USA South volleyball first team for the third year in a row. They also repeated on the All-West first team, and Lady Scots junior Hannah Harris was an All-West second-team selection. Junior Olivia Becker is Covenant's all-sportsmanship choice. Schuyler is the program's all-time leader in assists and has 17 double-doubles for assists and digs this season; Ginny has 15 double-doubles for kills and digs. Covenant (22-7) takes a 14-match win streak into the USAS tournament semifinals today at Danville, Va.
* Sonoraville High School junior Bree Steely was picked for the Georgia AAA all-state team by the Georgia Volleyball Coaches Association and is set to play Saturday in the annual GVCA Senior All-Star event at The Lovett School in Atlanta. The 5-foot-10 Steely had 125 kills, 63 aces and 117 assists this season for the Phoenix, who reached the state round of 16. "Bree's all-around play is what earned her the recognition," coach Trace Vaughn said. "Bree is the most well-rounded player I've coached. She understands the game, is very coachable, extremely smart, a vocal leader, works hard and has a passion for the game."
* Despite 19 kills by Olivia Fisher, 17 by Marjorie Smith and 26 assists and 10 assists by Tia Madden, the Tennessee Wesleyan volleyball team ended its regular season Thursday with a 3-2 AAC home loss (25-17, 20-25, 24-26, 25-20, 15-12) to North Division runner-up Bluefield (24-11, 14-3). Also for TWU (6-24, 2-15), Gabi Catt had 17 assists, Mandi Flores and Avery Hilliard combined for seven block solos and six block assists and Maggee Hobson, Kailyn Lillie and Elizabeth Houk contributed 14, 12 and 10 digs.
Basketball
* Chattanooga State opened its women's basketball season Thursday with an 89-49 home win over the Southwestern University junior varsity. McKenzie Trouten and Ashlyan Baker scored 17 points each for the Lady Tigers, and Narjai Beshear had 14. Shanice Nelson added 10.
Golf
* The Bryan College women's golf team set a program record with a 313 Thursday in the Maryville Fall Invitational at Egwani Farms, and the third-place Lady Lions' Krista Reinhardt set records with her closing 72 and her 36-hole 149. She finished second individually, two shots behind the medalist from Point. Bryan's Taylor Williams and Sarah Falcon shot 77 and 79 on Tuesday, finishing 11th and tied for 12th. Tennessee Wesleyan's Danielle Bates and Megan Schauer were eighth and ninth at 153 and 156.