MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — When the idea first came about to group all five spring sports’ state championships together at one site for an Olympic-style event, I never dreamed it would expand into what its become.

But here we are, 15 years and three host cities later and the event — the only one of its kind in the nation for prep sports — continues to thrive. Mark Burgess, a talented friend who works for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and I are the only two ink-stained media members who have covered the Spring Fling each year of its existence, and I’m proud to say I’ve witnessed Chattanooga athletes play a key role in making the event so memorable.

Even before there was a Spring Fling, the state softball tournament was wildly popular in the Scenic City, and our teams set an early standard that is still being carried on this week as tournament favorites Ooltewah (Class AAA and GPS (Division II) remain unbeaten so far.

In fact, only four times in the last 29 years has a Chattanooga-area softball team not won a state title in at least one classification.

In the Fling’s inaugural spring, when Chattanooga hosted, Baylor pitcher Amy Robertson’s performance was the first of many amazing feats by local kids. In a semifinal win, Robertson outdueled Brentwood High’s Amanda Fine in a game that lasted four hours and 33 minutes and ended in 16 innings at 2 a.m. Those two pitchers combined for what was a tournament record 35 strikeouts.

“What in the world were we doing playing softball at 2 a.m.?” joked TSSAA Executive Director Ronnie Carter on Wednesday. “There is such a uniqueness about softball that instead of the crowd getting smaller as it got later, more people would show up from other events as word spread and it was still packed at the end of that game.”

Robertson led Baylor to the title by pitching 48 innings in 36 hours, allowing just three total hits and striking out 63.

Four years later, GPS became the first and still only softball team to sweep to a championship without allowing a run.

Although its only been in recent years, local track athletes have begun to rewrite state records as well.

It began in 1998 with Brainerd’s Chantel Yates, who remains the state’s only four-time pentathlon state champion. Going into the final event her junior year, Yates was tied with Anderson County’s Josie Hahn when Lady Panthers coach Eddie Lambert told told her she would need a personal best time to win. Yates set a state record with a time of 2:14, breaking her personal best by 14 seconds.

Two years later Baylor’s Willie Idlette turned in one of the greatest individual performances ever by winning Division II individual titles in the long jump, triple jump and 400-meters, while finishing second in the decathlon and fourth in the 100. He scored 42 points by himself, helping the Red Raiders to their first boys’ track title.

That amazing performance was topped in 2004 by McCallie’s Michael Bingham, who became the first boys competitor in the state to score more than 7,000 points in the decathlon. Three days after that title, he also won D-II crowns in the triple jump, 100, 200 and 400. His times in the three sprint events were the fastest in any classification, and he also finished second in the long jump and third in the high jump.

All of this came one year after having won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. The TSSAA has since invoked what some track coaches call the “Bingham rule,” which doesn’t allow any athlete to compete in more than four events.

Earlier this week Baylor’s Malena Kellerman won the D-II pentathlon, Brainerd’s Orlandus Harris claimed the Class A/AA decathlon and Wednesday evening local runners claimed the first three spots in the girls’ A/AA 3200. Included in that group was Notre Dame’s Alex Mullin, who claimed first place as a freshman, meaning she has three more years to make sure local athletes continue influencing the Fling.

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