2 area jucos have 27 academic stars combined
Between them, Ctleveland State and Chattanooga State had 27 NJCAA all-academic athletes with 3.6 or better grade point averages for the 2018-19 school year, including Chattanooga State baseball player Branson Bowling and softball players Madison Morris and Shelby Penning and Cleveland State cross country runner Sadie Lane as first-team honorees with perfect 4.0s. National all-academic second-teamers for 3.80-3.99 GPAs included volleyball’s Aly Lemmons, baseball’s Pete Williams, softball’s Emily Yell and runners Alexis Kyle and David Tullock from Cleveland State and basketball’s Allison Huffaker and Kevion Stewart and baseball’s Sean Cheely from Chattanooga State. Thirdteam designates for 3.60-3.79 GPAs were basketball’s Mackenzie Trouten, softball’s Mabry Carpenter and Bailey Farrow and the baseball quartet of Nick Blubaugh, Christopher Griggs, Jet Kern and Brandon Parrott from Chattanooga State and baseball’s Bradley Hayes and Alex Ray, basketball’s Jordan Smith, golfer Colbe Cagle, runner KiAna Queener, volleyballer Kate Essenburg and softball’s Kallie Hawkins and Kaitlyn Pickens from Cleveland State.
› Effective at the beginning of this week, director of soccer Saif Alsafeer also is the acting athletic director at Dalton State College as Jon Jaudon continues as the school’s interim chief of staff. Alsafeer was an assistant AD while coaching at his alma mater, Florida College. “Dalton State has an excellent athletics department which has seen great success in recent years,” Alsafeer said in a release. “Our coaches and staff members have a commitment to excellence that is evident in their daily work as they represent the college on our campus and in our Dalton community.” Also at DSC, Veronica Summers has added managerial duties and fiscal-affairs responsibilities for Jaudon, running coach Dean Thompson is the department’s primary point of contact for human resources and sports medicine and sports information chief Erik Simpson has been assigned facilities oversight in his assistant AD role. Men’s golf coach Ben Rickett continues helping increase private donations for athletic scholarships and projects. “Athletics is fortunate to have talented and dedicated staff and coaches,” Jaudon said in the release. “They value the opportunity to impact young women and men through sport. It is an honor to work beside them.”
VOLLEYBALL
› University of Tennessee at Chattanooga volleyball coach Travis Filar has filled out his staff with the hiring of Scott Carter as assistant coach and the addition of Juliana Yensho as a volunteer assistant. Former Mocs standout Lauren (Gainer) Barr continues to help, now in the dual role of coaching staff consultant and volunteer director of student-athlete development. Carter just completed four seasons as head coach at NCAA Division III member Baldwin Wallace, which climbed from eight losing seasons in the decade before he arrived to three of its five winningest years, capped by a program-best 27-5 in 2018. He previously had recruiting and offensive or defensive coordinator jobs at Division I schools Kent State and Kentucky, and in his second stint at Kent State he wound up as interim head coach and helped the Golden Flashes improve from 9-22 to 22-10 in three seasons. “I have known Scott for over 15 years, first as a colleague and mentor at the University of Kentucky where we were assistant coaches together, then as someone I could always call and connect with to talk volleyball, training and recruiting,” Filar said in a UTC release. “We became great friends after our time in Lexington, and he is one I can bounce ideas off of about life, family and professional growth. Scott is one of the best volleyball trainers and recruiters in the country, hands down, so the fact that he wanted to join our program here at Chattanooga to continue to help grow and build it into the premier volleyball program in the Southern Conference means the world to me.”