Baylor hires Strang, Clemmer to help Blair and other sports news

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Baylor School has named boys' soccer coach Curtis Blair the director of soccer and head coach for both varsity teams, with Baylor alumni Leland Strang and Jennifer Clemmer joining the program. Strang, a 2002 Baylor graduate who has coached at rival Girls Preparatory School since 2010, will be the girls' associate head coach and work also with the boys' team. She was a four-year starter at Sewanee after playing on two Lady Red Raiders state-championship teams. Clemmer, a 2007 grad hired as a Lady Raiders assistant coach, also played on two Baylor state-title teams and was a two-year captain who went on to an All-America career at Denison. Lara Sibold will continue as goalkeeper coach, which she has been since 2005. Blair began helping with the Baylor girls' soccer team in 2006 and has been the boys' head coach since 2009, with a state championship in 2012. He is the Tennessee Olympic Development Program state coach. "I am very excited about this coaching staff, and I give much of the credit to our current players who helped steer the direction of our search," athletic director Thad Lepcio said in the release. "The girls expressed a strong desire for technical skill development with a talented coaching staff who also had an appreciation for Baylor School and its rich soccer history."

Baseball/Softball

• After winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament as the fifth seed, the Bryan College baseball team has been assigned to the same site (Hunter Wright Stadium) in Kingsport, Tenn., for an opening-round series of the NAIA tournament, and the Lions (33-26) are seeded fourth out of five teams. They open play Monday at 11 a.m. against fifth seed Culver-Stockton (29-26) and with a win would play top-seeded Missouri Baptist (45-12) at 6 p.m. Second seed Brewton-Parker (32-11) plays third seed Cumberland (40-18) at 2:30. Like the baseball Lions, the Bryan softball team is making its first NAIA national appearance and is set to play host Auburn-Montgomery in an opening-round series at 5:30 p.m. EDT Monday. AUM is 38-6 and 16-0 on its home field; the Lady Senators went 25-1 in the Southern States Athletic Conference. The Lady Lions are 29-22 and got in as the AAC tournament runners-up. Second-seeded Houston Victoria (33-13) faces third seed Indiana-Southeast (41-10) at 3.

• Gordon Lee High School senior Megan Wolinsky signed scholarship papers Friday morning to continue her softball career at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. Wolinsky pitches for coach John Fitchjarrell and the East Cobb Bullets 18A travel team, and so far this spring she has a 0.96 earned run average and 29 strikeouts in 26 innings. "The most impressive thing about Megan is the work ethic. For this age it's amazing," said Fitchjarrell, who has four pitchers. "She runs almost every day and she jump-ropes for 20 minutes at a time when she doesn't run, and in every lesson she throws at least 200 pitches. She does everything she can to be ready when we play on weekends, and she wants to be in high-profile games and she deserves it." Lacey Paris has been Wolinsky's pitching coach since she was 9 years old. Wolinsky said she had an offer also from Chattanooga State and interest from Liberty. She liked Union, she said, "because it's small enough I don't get lost in the crowd and I can have more one-on-one time with my professors, plus it's a Christian college that will provide support for my faith and the coach really watches out for her players."

Running

• Matt Jenkins won the King of the Mountain 4-mile road race Saturday morning on Lookout Mountain in 22 minutes, 46 seconds, and Jessica Marlier was fifth overall and the first female in 23:55. Peyton Miller was second in 23:02 with Cory Avlich third in 23:29 and masters winner Hugh Enicks fourth in 23:50.

Football

• Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright are the players scheduled to be part of the Tennessee Titans Caravan stop Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the Academy Sports & Outdoors store near Hamilton Place mall. They will go from there to Knoxville and then to Cookeville.