By JESSE SMITHEY The BlueCross Bowl state football championships are on the move again. Cookeville is out. Chattanooga is in. … [Read more...]
5STAR PREPS Baseball Season Preview (2021)
5STAR PREPS Baseball Preview - 2021 If there's one thing this preseason has taught us is: there are unknowns abound with this high school baseball season. So we've talked to coaches around the area to try and get as much of a grasp as we could on … [Read more...]
Grainger Lady Grizzlies fall to Macon County, 51-40, in Class AA championship
By JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- The Grainger girls’ basketball team had everything it wanted going into the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Class AA state championship. The 3-pointers had started falling. No foul trouble. And, most … [Read more...]
Maryville can’t withstand 17-0 Blackman run; Lady Rebels exit in Class AAA semifinals, 54-44
BY JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- Scott West could do nothing but embrace seniors Gracie Midkiff and Aaliyah Vanada as they walked off the Murphy Center floor with 1 minute, 14 seconds to go in Maryville's Class AAA semifinal Friday. They and … [Read more...]
Northview Academy falls in state semifinals; five senior starters set new program standard
BY JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- Northview Academy girls' basketball coach Brooke Shelley has spent countless hours with her players through the current season and those in the past. So when she noticed something amiss prior to the Cougars' … [Read more...]
5STAR PHOTOS: Grainger Lady Grizzlies vs. Westview (Class AA state quarterfinals)
MURFREESBORO -- The Grainger Lady Grizzlies basketball team made history Friday at MTSU, earning the program's first-ever appearance in a state championship game. The gallery below comes from photographer Danny Parker and is presented FREE to all … [Read more...]
Grainger outworks favored Westview, 45-33, to reach first Class AA state title game
BY JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- As the Grainger girls' basketball program began its ascent to being one of the state's premier basketball programs in the early 2010s, Tori Rutherford watched every step of the evolution. Now a senior guard for … [Read more...]
Maryville Lady Rebels cruise to first state tournament win since 1923
BY JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- You'd have thought there'd have been confetti falling from the rafters or at least a Gatorade shower for a coach or two. But when the final seconds slid off the clock of the Maryville girls' basketball program's … [Read more...]
Hardin County blocks Bearden’s way to the Class AAA state semifinals, 48-39
BY JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- A box score might be an antiquated piece of sports information to some. But Thursday, it told the entire story of Bearden's Class AAA state quarterfinal loss. Bearden shot 22.4 percent from the floor, 5-for-23 … [Read more...]
Senior Campbell Penland and freshman Reagan Brown rally Northview Academy past Creek Wood
By JESSE SMITHEY MURFREESBORO -- The naivete of a freshman on the court in crunch time of a state tournament game typically can go one of two ways: help or harm. The former applied for the Northview Academy girls' basketball program on Thursday … [Read more...]