The Chattanooga Football Club is headed to Tulsa, Okla., for the semifinals of the National Premier Soccer League South Conference playoffs. Fourth-seeded CFC (6-1-3), which won the South East Division, will face the South Central winners, top-seeded Tulsa Athletics (9-0-2), on July 13. The victor will face the winner between No. 2 Jacksonville United FC (Sunshine Division) and No. 3 RVA Football Club (Mid Atlantic Division), on July 20.
Track & Field
• Four track athletes from Georgia signed scholarships Monday to continue their careers at Tennessee Temple University: 6-foot-5 400-meter runner Cedric Nicholson from Powder Springs and McEachern High, sprinter Jovan Jones from Stone Mountain and Shiloh High, hurdler Rick Barry from Hardaway High in Columbus and 1600 and 3200 specialist Nigel Dixon from Jordan High in Columbus. The 6-2 Dixon also will run cross country, according to TTU track coach Emmanuel Awotula. Dixon was the Region 5-AA runner-up in both his track distances and finished seventh in the state in the 3200 and ninth in the 1600. He said Temple "made me feel like home, and it will help me see better how God works and the Christian way." Barry also was a region runner-up (1-AAAAA) in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, and he said that in addition to liking Temple's cozy campus, he found Awotula "very heart-warming, and he's starting a program from scratch and I wanted to help him with it." Nicholson, who talked also with Birmingham-Southern and Hampton, was on the 4x400 relay team that had the best time in Georgia and finished fourth in the Class AAAAAA state. He plans also to run the 200 and perhaps try out for the basketball Crusaders. He and Jones echoed Barry's remarks about the attraction of helping a building program, and Nicholson also liked the chance for one-on-one faculty connections. Shiloh finished fifth in the AAAAAA boys' state, and Jones was part of a strong sprint unit there. He has run a 10.9-second 100 and a 22.0 200 and also considered Alabama State and Morgan State. "I liked the fact that Temple was a Christian college," he said. Said Awotula: "These guys have great running times without me teaching them anything, and they're good kids. It's hard for me to tell some track kids what Tennessee Temple is all about, but these kids understand the Christian aspect and they understand that I expect them to be here for four years and help us grow. They're a good group and very athletic." Temple had two women qualify for the National Christian College national meet in the program's debut this past spring, and Awotula said that these and previous recruits for 2013-14 will quickly elevate the men's team.
Wrestling
• Three-time state tournament qualifier Dakota Bromley from Bradley Central High School was announced Tuesday as a new wrestling signee for Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. He won his weight class in the Bradley Invitational twice and was a member of the Beta Club and All-Honors at Bradley, according to Cumberland's release. He is coach Todd Allen's 10th recruit for 2013-14.
Baseball
• The Lee University Baseball Prospect Camp on July 20 still has openings for 2013 through 2016 high school graduates. Lee, Vanderbilt and University of Tennessee coaches will be conducting the camp, and 20 or more other colleges are expected have representatives attending. There will be two sessions that Saturday -- from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 4 to 10 p.m. -- each limited to 60 participants. The cost is $125 to work out at one position, $150 to work out at two. Contact Lee coach Mark Brew at mbrew@leeuniversity.edu or 614-8638.
• After the Chattanooga Cyclones went 6-1 in the 192-team Perfect Game 15-under Wood Bat National Championship in late June, the team's Noah Hill and Hunter Oliver as position players and Justin Glover and Jackson Bell as pitchers made the all-tournament team. Oliver, Hill and Bell were among the hitting standouts as the Cyclones V team went 3-2 at the Southern Wood Bat Troy Invitational this past week. Others were Hunter Mercer, who also was the winning pitcher in a 3-1 defeat of the Birmingham Marlins Orange, Cade Evans and Charlie Martin. Evans had four hits, two RBIs and two runs in one game. The Cyclones BC team went 3-1 at Troy with a 7-1 win over the Marlins Orange, an 8-0 shutout of Sportstech and a 5-2 defeat of OTC.