New coaches looking to make their marks with soccer teams
There will be a change in the air for a few of the area’s local high school soccer teams this spring.
Three new varsity head coaches are in Walker County, two at Lafayette, as Chase Horne (boys) and Caleb Perry (girls) will take over this season. Meanwhile, longtime assistant coach Nic Storr is new the manager for the Ridgeland Lady Panthers.
Horne has played and been around soccer all of his life, from watching his older brother play to taking to the pitch himself in the rec leagues and later at Lafayette Middle before playing high school ball for the Ramblers. He was Lafayette’s team MVP in 2012, a team captain in 2012 and 2013 and a member of the Catoosa-walker Dream Team in 2012 and 2013.
His coaching career began as an assistant at Saddle Ridge Middle School in 2015 and assisted at LHS the following season before going to Lafayette Middle in 2017. There, he guided the Ramblers to a runner-up finish in the NGAC.
He came back to LHS in 2019 where he has spent the past two years as head coach of the junior varsity team and as an assistant coach with the varsity.
Horne said this season will provide a unique set of challenges with one of the main ones being the team’s youth. He said this year’s squad will be the youngest one the school has ever fielded since the program began in 1996 and that a handful of key players have chosen to opt out this season due to Covid-related reasons.
However, those challenges haven’t dampened his enthusiasm.
“I’m excited that we’ll be joining a new region this year with many new teams that we have not faced before,” he added about the Ramblers’ first season in 6-AAA.
A fan of the international game, Horne said his first team will be able to play and adapt to different styles depending on what opposing teams run.
“If a team likes to park the bus, we’ll come after them with high aggression, high counters of the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool,” he began. “If we have opponents who like to play aggressively, we’ll play a slow build-up to control the tempo and hold possession like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
“I personally like an ‘in-your-face’ style of defense that helps to gain possession and open up lanes for speed on the offense.”
Franklin Cobos will be assisting Horne in his first season as head coach.
The Lady Ramblers will be under the direction of Caleb Perry this season, who is also currently serving as an assistant coach with the Lafayette boys’ basketball team and as head coach of the Ramblers’ JV team. Before coming to Walker County, he helped coach girls’ basketball at Heritage, which he believes prepared him and helped him land the job with the girls’ soccer team at LHS.
“I don’t have an overly extensive soccer background, but my girlfriend has several family members who were college and professional soccer players,” he explained. “They have been extremely helpful during this process.”
Like the boys’ roster, the girls’ team will also be youthful, but Perry said his first team is “buying in” and is ready to hit
remained down by four entering the fourth quarter.
But Holmes lit up Armuchee for 10 points in the final eight minutes, including making all three of his attempts at the free throw line. Cayden Powell added seven in the fourth as the Trojans battled back to pull out the victory.
Holmes finished with 15 points on the night with Powell adding nine. Carswell scored 10, while six from Sikes and three from Knight capped the night for the Navy-and-white.
Gordon Lee boys 59, Mt. Zion 53
The Trojans made it five consecutive wins on Thursday with a make-up game victory
on the road. Simerley had 18 points to lead the way, followed by 15 from Holmes and 12 from Carswell.
Bowdon boys 85, Gordon Lee 46
The streak, however, came to an end back in Chickamauga on Friday night against the state-ranked Red Devils, who jumped out to a 25-6 lead after the first quarter and never looked back.
Holmes had four 3-pointers and scored 17 for the Trojans (11-12, 7-8) in the loss. Simerley scored 10 points. Carswell added seven. Powell scored four points, followed by Cooper Jackson with three, Sikes with two and Knight with one.
The girls’ game was not played as Bowdon was forced to cancel the game. Gordon Lee (7-11, 2-8) was awarded a forfeit as the game will not be made up.
Chattanooga Mocs softball junior infielder Emily Coltharp was tabbed the 2021 Southern Conference Preseason Player of the Year as voted on by league coaches, the conference office announced this past Thursday afternoon. Chattanooga (28) received two first-place votes and was picked to finish third in the coaches’ poll.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players in the balloting. UNCG (31) and Mercer (29) edged UTC in the preseason poll.
Coltharp becomes the thirdstraight UTC selection for the preseason player award and the fourth overall between player and pitcher since 2019. Aly Walker received the player honor ahead of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, while Celie Hudson earned pitching laurels last year.
“We’re really excited about Emily. She worked hard when she came in as a freshman and solidified her spot in the middle infield,” said head coach Frank Reed. “She has great numbers when you look at her stats.”
In 21 games last season, Coltharp finished atop the Southern Conference in batting average (.415) and onbase percentage (.519) while ranking second in stolen bases (11) and sixth in hits (27). The 2019 Socon Freshman of the Year posted nine multi-hit games and recorded a hit in all but four games in her sophomore season.
Coltharp has played in 72 of a possible 75 games since stepping on campus and carries a .368 (82-for-223) career batting average with 48 runs scored, 23 stolen bases, and 18 RBI. Her .452 career on-base percentage currently ranks third all-time in program history while the .368 batting average ties for fifth.
“We’re counting on her heavily with a team that is very young and inexperienced. She’ll be called on many times, but I know she’ll rise to the occasion,” added Reed.
Senior Hayleigh Weissenbach earned a spot on the preseason second team as an outfielder for the secondstraight year. She returns this season as a fifth-year senior after utilizing the extended eligibility ruling due to COVID-19.
Weissenbach appeared in 20 games last season, making 19 starts, and batted .226 (12-for-53) with four doubles, nine runs scored and eight RBI. For her career, Weissenbach has played in 172 games and is batting .273 (140-for-512) with 26 doubles, 75 runs scored and 55 RBI.
Chattanooga will play its season-opening doubleheader this Friday (Feb. 12) at the Trojan Classic in Troy, Ala., against UAB (12:30 p.m.) and Troy (5:30 p.m.). Live stat links will be made available on the schedule page at Gomocs.com leading up to first pitch.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football head coach Rusty Wright announced the addition of six Mocs to the program on the Spring 2021 National Signing Day last Wednesday. UTC welcomes two transfers and four high school standouts to the 2020-21 recruiting class.
“The biggest thing is, in this time of uncertainty, we found guys that can do a couple of different things,” added Wright. “A lot of these guys played more than one position, and we balanced in out with transfers and highschool kids. I think we hit the right mix there for us.”
Four of the six signees were three-star prep prospects during their high school careers.
Keshawn Toney (6-3, 250), the first of two transfers who are already enrolled at UTC, is a tight end from South Carolina with three years of eligibility remaining. He was a 247Sports.com three-star out of Williston-elko (S.C.) High School before spending the last two years with the Gamecocks.
J.D. Harris (5-10, 180) is the other transfer, a defensive back from Northern Illinois with three years to play. He was an all-state honoree as a senior at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind.
Demetrius Coleman is a three-star prep player who led Callaway High School in Hogansville, Ga., to the Class
AA state title in the fall. He played quarterback in high school, but will be a defensive back for the Mocs. Josh Battle (6-0, 180) is another prep defensive that signed last Wednesday. He was a standout at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Ga.
Three-star running back Reggie Davis joins the Mocs from Lee High School in
Montgomery, Ala. He was a finalist for the Alabama 6A Back of the Year Award. Javin Whatley (6-0, 175) rounds out the class as an athlete from Rockmart High School in Rockmart, Ga. His talents could lend himself to either the offensive or defensive side of the ball at UTC as he was the 2020 Player of the Year in Region 6-AAA.