Gaffney presents CBA RailRunners and other sports news

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Former Tennessee Wesleyan College and Harlem Globetrotters standout Paul "Showtime" Gaffney is the owner and CEO of a new member of the Central Basketball Association, the Chattanooga RailRunners, and the team is set to play this spring with a schedule beginning March 2 against the Bowling Green Hornets. Also in the league are the River City Panthers from Peoria, Ill.; the Saint Louis Hawks; the Memphis Soul Kings; the Middle Tennessee Storm from Nashville; and the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Elite. Teams from South Bend, Ind.; Columbus, Ohio; and Lexington, Ky., are lined up to begin CBA play in 2015. Gaffney announced in a release for today that he will announce the RailRunners' head coach and partial team roster after the team's third scheduled tryout on Feb. 1. Tryout information and other news will be availabe at facebook@Chattanooga Rail Runnners and on twitter@ChattRailRunner. The CBA website is www.playcba.com. Gaffney retired at age 40 from the Globetrotters in 2008 after 15 years, visits to 82 countries and more than 2,250 games.

• Ish Sanders from Cleveland High School scored 25 points with four 3-pointers and added four assists and three steals in Carson-Newman's 98-89 men's basketball win Saturday over visiting Newberry. The Eagles are 11-5 overall, 8-4 in the South Atlantic Conference; Newberry is 12-4, 8-4.

Tennis

• The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team leveled its 2014 record at 1-1 with a 4-2 win Saturday against Tennessee Tech at the Racquet Club in Hixson. UTC lost the doubles point despite a win at No. 1 by John Peacey and Jorge Varon but overcame that with singles wins at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6 by Pavels Grigorjevs, Luke Saunders, Gino Delavalle and Peacey. Derrick Brown was in the third set at No. 5 when the team outcome was decided. The Mocs play next weekend at Memphis and Austin Peay; their next home match is Feb. 7 against Belmont.

Softball

• University of Tennessee softball coaches Ralph and Karen Weekly, who previously headed the program at UTC, were inducted Saturday into the Tennessee Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Nashville. Their Lady Vols finished second in the Women's College World Series for the second time last spring, and the team is No. 1 in the preseason poll for the first time this year. The Weeklys were inducted in the category of meritorious service "for their contributions to the sport of softball, especially in the state of Tennessee," according to a university release. Ralph has a 1,119-369-2 coaching record and is fifth among active coaches and ninth all-time in Division I in victories, while Karen is 841-285-2 overall and 17th among active Division I coaches in wins. They are 618-188-2 in their 12 seasons as Tennessee's co-head coaches, and in the last nine years the Lady Vols have produced the most All-Americans (27 honors) in the nation. The 2014 season begins Feb. 7 against Northern Colorado in Statesboro, Ga.

Wrestling

• UTC wrestling coach Heath Eslinger will be the guest speaker for the Chattanooga Quarterback Club's noon luncheon meeting Monday at Finley Stadium, and the public is invited. Attendance costs $10 with a meal, $4 without. Eslinger's Mocs are nationally ranked and leading the Southern Conference.

• Freshman 184-pounder Blaike Henry from Soddy-Daisy won by a pin against Findlay and by forfeit against Tiffin as King University's wrestling team went 3-0 in the NCAA Division II Super Region II Duals on Saturday at Newberry, S.C. King beat Findlay 24-21 and defeated Shippensburg 24-17 before topping Tiffin 31-15. Henry lost by technical fall to Shippensburg's Evan Ramos.

Swimming/Diving

• Sewanee's Caty Hueske and Margaret Petersen were the Southern Athletic Association's women's swimmer and diver of the week, respectively, for Jan. 13-19, and the Tigers' Frazier Devany was the men's diver of the week. They all were honored for their performances against league rival Birmingham-Southern. Hueske led the women's winning 200 medley relay with a season-best backstroke split and later won the 200, 100 and 500 freestyle events. Petersen was second on the 1-meter board and first at the 3-meter height, and Devany had season-best performances in both.

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