Starr retiring as Lee’s SID
Longtime area journalist and Lee University sports information director George Starr
is retiring from his full-time job of the last 20 years but will continue to help the Division II school in Cleveland as its director of radio broadcasting and in writing feature articles on current and past Lee athletes. Starr’s retirement as SID is effective Saturday. He has done radio play-by-play of Lee basketball for 31 years and added baseball broadcasting in 1998, and athletic director Larry Carpenter
said in a school release that more sports may be added to Starr’s play-by-play schedule. “I am excited about the next chapter in George’s life. … I look forward to working with George for several more years in this new capacity,” Carpenter said. “George is a huge part of the fabric of Lee athletics,” said Dr. Paul Conn,
the school president. “I have often called him the hardest-working person at Lee, and I think that’s true. It’s hard to imagine a more productive sports information officer than George has been. In addition to all that, he is a personal friend. … He has certainly earned a happy retirement, but Lee is suffering a big loss as he goes.” Starr made his mark at newspapers in his native Athens (Tenn.), Cleveland and Chattanooga and was the Cleveland Daily Banner’s managing and executive editor before heading Lee’s repeatedly award-winning sports information office. He is in the Lee and Greater Chattanooga Sports halls of fame. “I must thank God for these special blessings. He and my wife Joyce have been by my side as I traveled across the country covering Lee athletics,” Starr said. “Dr. Conn and Coach Carpenter have helped motivate me with their encouraging words.”
SWIMMING
› Baylor Swim Club representatives Trey Freeman and Alex Nelson are competing this week in the Phillips 66 National Championships and World Championship Trials at Indianapolis. It is a selection meet for the FINA World Championships July 23-30 in Budapest, Hungary, and the World Juniors Aug. 23-28 in Indianapolis. Freeman made the USA Swimming national junior team last year and won a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the Junior Pan Pacific meet. Nelson, a rising sophomore at Kentucky, qualified in May for the World Trials in the 200 backstroke.
AUTO RACING
› Jake Clayton from Ooltewah won the $2,500 Super Pro top prize Saturday night at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. The 16-year-old two-time Junior Dragster strip champion won with a 5.19-second run on a 5.17 dial in a Chevrolet dragster owned by Hugh Harris. Ringgold’s Steve Dowdy was second in a new Chevy dragster, and
Mike Clayton, Jake’s father, was third in a 1978 Pinto. Michael Garner was the Foot Brake victor with a 7.22 on a 7.19 in a 1967 Camaro Z-28, and Josh Ayers was second.
Kaleb Winters was the Junior Dragster winner with a 7.98 on a 7.96; Scott Loyd was second. Burl Calhoo was the motorcycle winner with a 6.02 on a 5.99 in a 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa, and Bobby Johnson was second on a 2008 Suzuki. Two jet dragsters made crowd-pleasing runs after dark.
SAILING
› Greg Griffin and Mark Reddaway from Jacksonville, Fla., won the Brown Jug Regatta hosted by Privateer Yacht Club this past weekend on Chickamauga Lake with four first-place finishes in the four-race seres for 17-foot Thistle Class sailboats. Scott and
Nerissa Griffin of Greenville, S.C., were second, and two Atlanta Yacht Club boats were third and fourth: Gavin and Cammie McCormack and Bob McCormack with Buddy and Renee Wainwright as crew.
Drew Daugherty of Little Rock, Ark., was fifth with help from Nicole Moore and
Kristen Holder. The competition included two former national champions.
GOLF
› Beck Burnette of Blairsville, Ga., shot an even-par 71 in U.S. Junior Amateur qualifying Monday at the University of Georgia Golf Course and earned alternate status for the national tournament July 17-22 at Flint Hills in Andover, Kan. He won a three-man playoff for the second alternate spot.