Dukie

The team was in Thursday's Bristol Herald Courier.

BIG DAWG, Sorry it's taken me so long to answer. T.R. did tear his ACL last year and it's going to be interesting to see if he will be as dominant as he was last year. We have a brand new line, but Ryan Humphrey should be pretty solid. I'm really looking forward to the game with Hampton. I think it could be a great one. I wish you all the best down there. You all are our neighbors and I pull for you guys when you're not playing us.

Congratulations to the "Shady Ladies", Johnson County's Laura Peters and Cayla Lewis, for making the Bristol Herald Courier's All-NET Squad. Peters was a first-team outfielder while Lewis was the second-team DH. Congratulations to them and all the players in Northeast Tennessee who made it.

T.R. Smith, Johnson County.

From Johnson County, all conference selections include Laura Peters, Katie Nelson, Cayla Lewis and Amanda Dowell.

James Cox and John Lawler from Johnson County both won titles at the Friendship Ford Classic in Bristol last week. Cox won the 3.5's and finished second in the 4.0's. Lawler defeated teammate Jared Angel in the 3.0 final. Congratulations to these guys.

Thank you for the kind words and I'm sure Laura will appreciate that. She is such a good kid. Anyway, I called Wes Holtsclaw earlier to see how Unicoi did but they hadn't started yet, so I was wondering who won tonight.

Good luck from Johnson County. Wish we were there with you but we still had a great season. Go represent our conference well.

Laura Peters, a pitcher and outfielder from Johnson County High School, has signed with King College

Good luck to the Cyclones. Represent our conference well and congratulations for being the only public school left.

I agree High Country 40. Supposedly we're getting new tennis courts up here and we need them. James has had help from Adam Cornett, Jim Flannagan and a couple of others, but more needs to be done. James, Amy Shutt and John Lawler should all be commended for their hard work. They spent hours in the worst of weather this year playing. Guess where they were Friday night after the Districts? They were on the tennis courts. As for Chris Brumit, you and your brother are fine young men and I know that must have been a difficult thing playing each other. Represent our District well in the Regionals and I hope one of you makes it to Memphis.

Just wanted to say that even though James Cox lost in the semifinals of the District, he is still an awesome young man. He called one of his own shots out in the match with Chris Brumit. James has won the respect of tennis fans throughout the region and I'm so glad Johnson County has a fine person like him on their tennis team.

The paper is in Mountain City and the web address is www.thetomahawk.com.

You're right Megahoops. Tennis is a year round sport and you have to play as much as you can. My good friend Adam Cornett, who now plays at Virginia Intermont, gave up basketball his junior year to concentrate on tennis and I think it really paid off. Cox and Brumit both only play one sport and work their tails off. The one kid from Northeast Tennessee I remember playing both and it didn't hurt was Brandon Pike. He played basketball at Elizabethton but the kid was so extremely talented that it didn't matter. I think you have to be dedicated to one sport unless you're just a tremendous athlete.

The JCHS Girls should be better this year. Mandy Howard and Katie Sluder are back, but the girl to watch out for is a new senior named Amy Shutt. She's been playing for four months and should be the No. 1 seed. I can't wait to see her play. Amy is a good kid and I hope she can have some success after having her volleyball season cut short due to an injury. Understand that there will be a preview on the tennis team in this week's Tomahawk.

Good post Cowgirl. Actually, both pitchers threw no-hitters last year, the first JCHS pitchers to do that since the legendary Chris Gambill. I think JCHS is going to surprise some people.

I would say that Class AA will come down to Elizabethton and Unicoi. Third place is wide-open, but watch out for Johnson County. They've got three of the best players in the conference in Cayla Lewis, Laura Peters and Amanda Dowell. Team needs to keep everybody healthy. Happy Valley is always tough even though they lost a lot from last year. In Class A, it should be a three-team race between Unaka, Cloudland and UH.

Nathan Paisley, Johnson County. Hit .484 and led Watauga Conference in homeruns as a sophomore.

It's hard to say that a player who made All-State as a sophomore is underrated, but Johnson County's Nathan Paisley hit .484 and led the Watauga Conference in home runs last year and was still left off the Kingsport Times-News, Johnson City Press and the Bristol Hearld Courier's All-Northeast Tennessee teams. Has the potential to play big time college baseball or maybe in the minor leagues.

Laura Peters, a three-sport star from Johnson County High School, is constantly giving back to Johnson County. She has been involved in numerous charitable activities and recently raised money for a student at a rival school who has cycstic fibroisis. She is a true servant of Jesus Christ and is always willing to help anybody who needs it.

James Cox, Johnson County. Will be a good challenge to Curtis Brumit from Elizabethton in District 1-A/AA. By the way, this is the first I've heard of the Central kid. How good is he?

Chris McCloud: Johnson County. The most unselfish player I've seen in the last 10 years. Has just emerged this year after being mainly a three-point specialist throughout his career. Has really worked on ball handling and passing. Great kid as well and doesn't care about his stats.

John English, Unicoi County

John English, Unicoi County

I wish Wise had won. Looking forward to App. State's upset of the Bucs in a few weeks.