Hoops title games may move to high school locations
The TSSAA is looking at alternative high school basketball state tournament sites if it cannot hold its championships at Middle Tennessee State and Lipscomb University.
TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress told the high school association's Board of Control on Thursday that it is looking at moving the tournaments to high school venues, but keeping the same tournament dates.
"We can't sit around and wait to get a commitment," Childress said. "We've looked at other venues and began to talk if we can't go to MTSU (for Division I) or Lipscomb (for Division II). What are our options? Do we have any options?"
Childress said he asked both schools to let them know as of last week if they could hold TSSAA basketball state tournaments.
"(MTSU) can't give us a definite right now if they will allow us to hold an event. If you had to ask now, I think answer would be no. They are trying to hold their own events, which we understand. Lipscomb — they totally understand if you need to move. They said, 'We don't want to lose the event.' But this year would be iffy to hold it at Lipscomb. We just can't go on that.
"What we've looked at is where we are today. In order for us to pull DII and DI, we feel like we are going to do that in high school facilities. We've already started talking to some high school facilities and Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce."
Childress said the dates would be the same as originally scheduled for both the Division I and Division II tournaments.
Childress gave an example of holding events in Rutherford County gyms, citing Rockvale, Siegel and Stewarts Creek as locations. He later clarified that no decisions have been made and those discussions would need to be made with Rutherford County Schools.
If the tournaments are held in high schools, it will mean TSSAA staff members will need to divide responsibilities.
"It is going to spread (our staff ) thin," Childress said. "We're just going to have to do it. We'll have to assign someone at every site and cover it no different than Spring Fling."
The discussion to potentially move comes at a time when Tennessee has strict rules on who can attend a high school sports event and while area colleges have tight restrictions on allowing outside agencies to hold events on their campuses.
"We've been looking at how can we hold our basketball championships," Childress said. "We can't wait until a week before the tournament on what we're going to do."
A Gov. Bill Lee executive order is
limiting crowds to just immediate family members living in the same household. That is set to expire Tuesday but could be extended. Childress said his staff hasn't met with Lee's team about extending or letting the order expire. Childress said he expects to meet with them before it expires.
Golf tournament venue moves
The Board of Control voted 8-4 to move its golf championships from Manchester to Sevierville. The event will be held at the Sevierville Golf Club. The golf club offers 36 holes allowing the boys and girls tournaments to be played on different courses.
Also, the TSSAA will hold all tournaments during the same week. The schedule is not yet known.
"I'm the toughest person to convince
to make this recommendation," said Childress, because of the distance from West Tennessee schools. "Finally I looked at it and said, 'Wow.' We are creating a championship atmosphere for golf pretty much like we do for Spring Fling.
"They are basically just giving us the course for our state championships."
The TSSAA would pay $3,500 to hold the golf championships annually and it would be a two-year commitment.
Girls soccer moves to Chattanooga
The Board of Control voted unanimously to move the girls soccer championships from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga. Games will be held at Baylor, Chattanooga Christian, GPS and Chattanooga Sportsplex with championships at CHI Memorial Stadium.
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.