Covenant hires Conrady as new golf coach and other sports news

Friday, September 27, 2013

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant basketball coach David Conrady has taken over the Covenant College men's and women's golf teams but will continue to serve as national basketball director for the Chattanooga-based SCORE International athletic ministry. Covenant released the news of his hiring Thursday morning. "We are so excited to welcome David Conrady and his family to the Covenant athletic community," athletic director Kyle Taylor said in the school release. "This has been a very long and hard search for us, and I'm grateful that it is over. I'm also pleased that we found the right coach for the job. I told the team that we were not going to compromise and settle on a coach but that we sould wait until we found someone who could disciple, coach, recruit and lead this golf program at the quality level that all our athletic programs are run. David Conrady is the right coach for this position, and I'm grateful that God orchestrated it in His timing, not mine." Conrady, who helped the 2004-10 Mocs win three Southern Conference North Division titles and two SoCon tournament championships, started the golf program at Mars Hill College in the 1990s and previously was a counselor at the Yamaha Golf School while in graduate school at Furman and a caddie for Denise Killeen on the Futures tour. "I hope to build on the foundation of success laid by Coach [Tom] Schreiner and Coach [Trevor] Potts," Conrady said of Covenant's only two previous golf coaches. "It is my goal to help these student athletes grow athletically, academically and in their spiritual walk with Christ."

• Chattanooga native Josh Nelms is tied for third place at 3-under-par 69 after the first round of the 26th annual Tennessee Mid-Amateur Championship being played at GreyStone Golf Club in Dickson. Longtime state amateur star Danny Green of Jackson shot a 68 along with Nashville's Kris Devlin, and the six golfers at 69 also include another nationally known Tennessee amateur, Tim Jackson of Germantown, a member of The Honors Course in Ooltewah. Another player who grew up in Chattanooga, Nick Blakely, is tied for ninth at 70 in the state championship for golfers ages 25 and older.

• Newly reaccepted National Christian College Athletic Association member Lee University will be among the nine women's teams and 18 men's teams taking part in the 2013 NCCAA Golf Invitational tournament Oct. 21-24 at Panama City, Fla. Covenant's men also will be in the tournament, according to the association's announcement Thursday.

Soccer

• Former Notre Dame High School star Danielle Ciabattone scored with barely three minutes left to give the Lee University women's soccer team a 2-1 win Thursday night against one of its old NAIA power rivals, Lindsey Wilson, in Columbia, Ky. Lee took the lead with a Lindsey Wilson own goal at 29:35, and Renee Hurd equalized 85 seconds later for the Blue Raiders (7-2), currently ranked No. 1 in the NAIA. Lee (4-2), in its first year as a provisional NCAA Division II member, had a 10-8 edge in shots and got four saves from Haley Gribler. "I think the world of Coach Drew Burwash and the program at Lindsey Wilson," Lee coach Matt Yelton said in a school release. "They play the game the way it should be played and do it with class, so to get a win up here is a big accomplishment for our team."