Top 10 sports stories of 2016

The year 2016 had plenty of thrills and spills as we watched local athletes from preps to pros continue to compete and do well.

Here’s a list of the 10 most memorable sports stories from the year in rural West Tennessee. There were plenty of stories that didn’t make the cut that probably would have any other year.

But these are the 10 most memorable. Not all are happy and positive, and a lot of memorable stories aren’t unfortunately. But, this is the list we will probably remember most when we look back on 2016.

1. Trey Smith’s recruitment: This story actually started in the summer of 2014 when Smith received his first Division I offer from Ole Miss before his sophomore season of playing football at University School of Jackson. He wound up with nearly 30 offers from across the country. The portion of the story in 2016 includes being named the top recruit in the 2017 class by ESPN, Tennessee hosting a lineman camp at USJ, his sister Ashley being hired on staff at Tennessee a couple weeks after the camp, his naming of his top six schools late in the summer, his final season as a USJ Bruin, winning Mr. Football for the second time and his commitment announcement that happened in USJ’s theater but was broadcast on national television. Smith handled the recruitment without saying much publicly on the matter unless asked. Smith committed to the Vols on Dec. 6 and will enroll in school in Knoxville in January after playing in the All-American Bowl in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 1.

2. Official end of Jackson Central-Merry athletics: It was in December of 2015 when Jackson-Madison County Schools voted to close JCM in May of this year. Along with the school closing went the athletic history of the school that included a girls basketball state title, multiple track championships, local football and basketball dominance in certain years and competitive baseball teams. The alma mater of local legends like Al Wilson, Daniel Brooks and Artis Hicks can now only be seen in historical articles as the building has been transformed into a new school. But the three letters will be synonymous with athletic excellence in West Tennessee.

3. Gibson Co./Middleton girls basketball meet undefeated in state semifinal: Middleton hadn’t lost a game in two years as the Lady Tigers had won the Class A state championship in 2015 with an unbeaten record. Gibson County hadn’t lost many times in the last two years, but the two local powers were on a collision course throughout the season. Gibson County turned away all comers in the northern side of West Tennessee, while Middleton was doing the same on the southern end and in Memphis. Their matchup was a classic battle between two powers the Lady Pioneers took over in the final minutes to pull away to the win.

4. Coaches arrested: South Side head football coach Brian Moore was suspended the week of Labor Day after an accusation and arrest for improper involvement with a student. The same thing happened later in the month when Lexington offensive coordinator Adam Yates admitted to an improper relationship with a student at his school. Both teams went through their respective ordeals as the season progressed. Both coaches await final verdicts in their cases, while Moore has yet to be officially charged with anything nearly four months after his suspension.

5. TSSAA’s realignment: It happens every two or four years across the state, and this year’s process of realigning classes, regions and districts in high school athletics had a different feel this year. That’s because the TSSAA added classes to Division I in soccer an Division II football, and it changed how schools are divided in in each sport. There will be schools competing against each other in certain sports that haven’t done so very often because they’re placed against each other since sports are divided evenly and not based on established numbers of division.

6. Westview football coach Don Coady retires: It was in early April when a local sports legend called it a career in West Tennessee. Coady is a native of Chester County who had been an assistant coach at Westview and Henry County before taking over the Chargers’ program in 1991. He led the program to 199 victories including a run to the 2001 state championship game before deciding 2016 was the time to go in April. He’s now an assistant coach in Kentucky. Longtime assistant coach Trey Cantrell was his successor at Westview.

7. Rayford Collins passes away: After more than 50 years of coaching and managing the local boxing gym in south Jackson, Collins’ health had slowly been deteriorating for the last few years. He passed away on June 13 at the age of 77, leaving behind a legacy of having helped bring up a generation of local leaders in the city ranging from lawyers to politicians to physicians and emergency personnel and business leaders. Collins’ funeral was attended by many of those whose lives he’d touched in his career.

8. Scotts Hill baseball wins state: The Lions lost a number of games early in the season and was under a lot of alleged experts’ radars when the postseason began. They didn’t win the District 15-A tournament or the Region 7-A tournament. But they kept performing well enough to move on to the next round. They held on to a lead on the road in Class A sectionals at Gibson County and won when it counted most in the state tournament at Murfreesboro to claim the school’s first state championship.

9. Liberty football makes it to BlueCross Bowl: For all the Crusaders had accomplished in their time as a program, there were still a couple things they hadn’t accomplished going into the 2016 season. One was winning a state championship, and the other was winning a state semifinal to make it to Cookeville. The Crusaders dominated in the first round, overcame a slow start in the second and posted a major comeback in the quarterfinals to get back to the semis and a rematch with Christ Presbyterian Academy at home a year after the Lions had eliminated them in Jackson. Liberty posted another comeback victory to get over the hump. They lost to Alcoa in the championship the following week, but the team will be remembered for making history and getting there.

10. Dresden football dominates to the state championship: The Lions had high expectations going into this season because of a large and talented senior class. The team met and surpassed those expectations with an undefeated season with the closest victory coming with a 19-point margin in the semifinals and a seemingly-easy win in the state championship in Cookeville.

Honorable mention: Milan graduate Avery Williams’ stand for patriotic shoes in the NFL on 9-11; national signing day with three local athletes signing with Southeastern Conference football teams; the Jackson Generals’ Southern League championship; new football coaches at USJ and North Side; Hardin County bowling’s continued dominance at the state level.

Compiled by Brandon Shields and Michael Odom