High school notebook: Austin Hayes named Smyrna girls soccer coach

The area's remaining soccer coaching vacancy has been filled, as former La Vergne standout Austin Hayes was named the new head coach of the Smyrna girls program.

The hire came less than a week after Jeff Marlow was named the new girls coach at Stewarts Creek.

Hayes, a 2008 La Vergne graduate, will take over for Stephanie Goldsmith, who ran the Lady Bulldogs program for one season.

Although it will be his first high school head coaching job, Hayes is no stranger to the local soccer scene. He has coached club teams around the area, most recently the U16 Lady Strikers squad out of Murfreesboro that had several area players.

"I never recovered from knee injuries (during high school), so I decided to get into coaching," said Hayes, who had a scholarship offer to play at Lipscomb but passed it up. "I got my (coaching) license at 19 or 20 and never looked back.

"It's going to be interesting coaching against girls who I coached (on the Strikers)."

Smyrna went 8-9-1 overall and 2-3-1 in District 7-AAA last season. The Lady Bulldogs were a No. 4 seed in the district tournament but fell to No. 5 seed Stewarts Creek 3-0 in the first round.

"There's a lot of talent," Hayes said. "The main thing is getting it all organized and getting more tactical knowledge. I want to develop individual skills and the tactical side of it, which I feel is my strength.

"This should be a good group. It's a young team. I think we graduated only three or four players. I'm not sure of the eighth grade talent coming up, but with all the players playing club soccer, I'm sure it will be a good group. I'm excited."

Among the team's returnees will be All-Area first-team forward Ashley Barrientos, who scored 27 goals this past season, along with midfielder Brenda Cernas, an All-Area honorable mention.

Lady Warriors move up: Riverdale's girls basketball team, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the state by the Associated Press, has moved up the national rankings as well.

The 16-0 Lady Warriors are now ranked No. 2 in the nation in the USA Today Super 25 Experts Poll. The squad moved up from No. 3, where it had been for the last several weeks.

Riverdale is coming off a 69-50 win over eighth-ranked Norcross (Ga.) last Saturday before rolling past Memphis Homeschool (MHEA) 92-43 Tuesday.

Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.) is currently ranked No. 1.

Riverdale plays at Blackman Friday night at 6 p.m.