TENNESSEE TANDEM SCHEDULEFRIDAY POOL PLAY AT GPSAt GPS: 4--Sale Creek vs. East Ridge, Ooltewah vs. Chattanooga Christian, East Hamilton vs. Boyd-Buchanan; 5--GPS vs. Sonoraville, CCS vs. Oak Ridge, Briarcrest vs. Blackman; 6--Sale Creek vs. Sonoraville, Harpeth Hall vs. Ooltewah, East Hamilton vs. Blackman; 7--GPS vs. East Ridge, Harpeth Hall vs. CCS, Briarcrest vs. Boyd-Buchanan; 8--East Ridge vs. Sonoraville, Ooltewah vs. Oak Ridge, Boyd-Buchanan vs. Blackman; 9--GPS vs. Sale Creek, Harpeth Hall vs. Oak Ridge, Briarcrest vs. East Hamilton.At Baylor: 4--Walker Valley vs. Red Bank, Signal Mountain vs. Silveradale Baptist Academy, Cleveland vs. St. Cecilia; 5--Baylor vs. Stewarts Creek, Bradley Central vs. Silverdale, Hardin Valley vs. Cleveland; 6--Walker Valley vs. Stewarts Creek, Signal Mountain vs. Bradley Central, Cleveland vs. CCA; 7--Baylor vs. Red Bank, Hardin Valley vs. St. Cecilia; 8--Red Bank vs. Stewarts Creek, St. Cecilia vs. CCA; 9--Baylor vs. Walker Valley, Hardin Valley vs. CCA.
Jensen Morgan is 25 years old, seven years removed from high school graduation and taking over the girls' basketball program at Ooltewah, his alma mater. He replaces Donnie Mullins, who stepped down.
Morgan played basketball and football at Ooltewah before going to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
He's been an assistant for the basketball, football, baseball and track programs at Hunter Middle School, along with both basketball programs at Ooltewah prior to his recent promotion.
"It definitely happened sooner than I thought," Morgan said Tuesday, "but being with Jesse [Nayadley, former boys' coach] and Donnie have taught me a lot. They've been good mentors to me, and I can still go ask them stuff."
He said that, at least for a while, the Lady Owls will play a more slow-down style offensively and pack it in on defense.
"We're going to try to score off set plays and quick hitters," he said.
Courtney McDuffie, who starred at Notre Dame before playing at Chattanooga State and Voorhees College, and Chris Brown, who also assists on the football team, will be Lady Owls assistants. McDuffie played for the South Carolina Storm, a semi-professional team, earlier this year, while Brown played football at Vanderbilt and coached the girls' team at Unicoi County, his alma mater, before coming to Ooltewah.
Eight at Cleveland
Cleveland, Chattanooga Christian and Soddy-Daisy are area high school girls' teams participating in the Cleveland Soccer Tournament this week.
The three-day event with a round-robin format starts Thursday at the Cleveland Soccer Complex. Class AAA programs Blackman, Dobyns-Bennett, Maryville and Oakland and A/AA Grace Christian from Knoxville also will be taking part.
Maryville is ranked sixth in the EurosportScoreboard.com poll, while Dobyns-Bennett is 10th. A champion will be determined by a point system. Teams get six points for a win, three for a tie and one for a loss.
Brock gets win 800
The Tennessee Tandem volleyball tournament will be held this weekend at GPS and Baylor. Twenty-three teams will be participating.
Pool play is set to begin Friday at 4 p.m.. The day's final matches are scheduled to start at 9.
Seeded-pool play will take place Saturday morning starting at 9. Single-elimination is slated to start at 3 p.m., with the Gold division playing at GPS and the Silver division competing at Baylor. Both finals are scheduled for 7.
"This is a good field of teams from three states," GPS coach and tournament director Paul Brock said. "We have teams that played in all three state playoffs last year."
When the Bruisers defeated Pope John Paul II in a Division II-AA East/Middle Region match last Saturday, it marked the 800th coaching victory in Brock's career.
"You have a lot of wins that you remember like your first state championship and the others that follow," Brock said. "I like to remember the ones where the girls meet the goals we talked about before the game, or did things in the game that they had really been working on. Every win is good, and some losses are good as well."