By Thomas Sellers Jr.
What were the 10 best moments during a sports year like no other…?
Through a thousand COVID-19 related changes, schedule adjustments at the last second and multiple clouds of uncertainty, there were still several special moments throughout 2020-21. The Millington Star was privileged to make the rounds throughout the state to capture these memorable moments. The original Best Sellers’ List, started to wrap up the best TSSAA sports calendar year moments, is back to recognize the highlights from August to May.
10. Finally we meet
A quick search on CoachT.com or MaxPreps.com, two teams hail from Millington, Tenn — the Millington Central High School Trojans and Tipton-Rosemark Academy Rebels.
Until Friday night the two institutions have never played on the gridiron. By 7 p.m., that fact was no longer true when Trojan Eli Roberts booted the ball into the air toward Head Coach Shannon O’Brien’s Rebels.
Quickly both teams established a hard-hitting tempo with the public school Millington Trojans prevailing over their private-school rivals 36-0. The unpredictable 2020 season concludes for the Rebels with a 2-7 record.
Meanwhile the 3-7 Trojans will host a Class 4A playoff game next Friday at Mooney Boswell Field on the campus of MCHS.
9. Lady Rebels’ heart
left on court
When the clock struck 4 p.m. Saturday, the quartet of Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebel seniors were primed to make history.
The Lady Rebel Volleyball program has never reached Nashville for the Division II-A State Tournament. The only thing standing in the way of the four seniors and the rest of the Lady Rebels were the Goodpasture Christian School Lady Cougars out of Nashville.
The Sub-State showdown in the TRA Gymnasium went to four sets but it was the visiting Goodpasture team heading back home to schedule games for the State Tournament winning 24-26, 25-14, 25-16 and 25-22.
“Losing doesn’t hurt as much than the tears in that locker room,” TRA Head Coach Amy Weatherington said. “Oh my God, how heartbroken they are. They’ve come from a program that doesn’t have a tradition of being great. But this year they were great. Our motto all season was ‘All Heart.’”
The motto came to fruition led by seniors Brooklyn Rose, Jordan Allen, Mary Catherine Turner and Sarah Allyn Thornell. It was their leadership that guided TRA to a first set victory.
Goodpasture jumped ahead 8-3 in the early moments. The Lady Rebels were sparked by a pair of underclassmen Kayla Clement and Lydia Harvey with scoring plays.
“The Test” Thornell made a highlight-worthy spike to make the tally 9-8 in favor of the Lady Cougars. Moments later TRA took the lead at 12-10 when Sophie Roane scored on a play.
8. McKinney’s No-No
The history books will record the night of April 12, 2021 as the game Munford Cougar Garrett McKinney threw a no-hitter against rivals the Brighton Cardinals.
But McKinney will be the first person to say it was a team effort that allowed him to make history and help Munford edge the Cardinals 2-1 in the District 13-3A showdown. Munford Skipper Scotty Yount said it took a combination of McKinney’s masterful performance on the mound, good glove work and crucial hits to beat Brighton.
“Good pitching, good defense and timely hitting, it’s not a secret formula,” he said. “You’ve got to throw strikes and make plays. You’ve got to have timely hits. That’s what happened tonight. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to them.
“Baskins threw a great game and they played good defense as well,” Yount added. “They hit some balls hard. We just made the plays. We made more plays. It was a really good high school baseball game.”
McKinney’s Brighton counterpart on the mound Monday night was Kaleb Baskins. Baskins would have been the victor on any other night with 4 strikeouts and giving up three hits.
7. This is our district!
When Millington Municipal Schools were formed in 2014, a bunch of new faces arrived on the campus in administrative, faculty and staff positions the first couple of years.
For one of those new teachers, the keys to the Millington Soccer program were handed over. William Carter would be in charge of both the girls’ and boys’ teams. At his introductory press conference, Carter said he would use his educational and military experience to create a winning culture.
And before leaving that interview, Carter noted he would love to see a championship banner be placed inside the William Osteen Gymnasium while he was the leader of the program.
On Thursday night that declaration for a title came true with a 3-2 win over the heated-rival Fayette-Ware Lady Wildcats at Hornet Field for the District 15-2A Tournament championship.
“Five years I’ve been a part of this program,” Carter reflected moments after the overtime victory. “It feels phenomenal to see this come to fruition. That first year we were 0-10. Then Ms. Boswell came on in my second year here.”
Right by his side when the final seconds ticked off the clock to conclude the second half of overtime was Rosemary Boswell. The two coaches embraced before rushing the field to great their players.
“We had a .500 that second season and started to turn things around,” Carter continued. “The last two years they’ve been at the district championship game. It’s great because we finally broke through winning the district regular season and now we’re tournament champs. We’re looking forward to Regionals as well.”
6. Woo Woo Wooten
The quiet man on the Millington Trojan Wrestling team made a loud impact last Wednesday at the 2021 State Individual Wrestling Tournament.
Inside the Civic Center hosted by Williamson County and the City of Chattanooga, Wooten was one of nine Trojans to hit the mats for the grand finale of the 2020-21 Wrestling season.
The Trojan senior, fresh off a sixth place medal in 2020, came to this year’s tournament determined. Wooten earned a pair of victories to start the 2021 edition in Class A-AA 113 Division.
Wooten defeated Jacob Pennington of Eagleville 12-9 and earned a pinfall win over Cory Manuel of Greenback in 3:15.
Wooten would finished the State Tournament 3-2 overall earning the fourth place medal in his weight class.
5. Zach’s Walk Off
Trying to make something happen, Tipton-Rosemark Academy Head Coach Jacob Cole called for a stolen base at second in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Cole was trying to get runner in scoring position with two outs April 6 with his ace pitcher Zach Seward at home plate. The Fayette Academy Vikings were ready and threw out the runner at second to keep the game scoreless in the pitchers’ duel.
As the players exit the field preparing for the final inning of this Division II-A West Regional showdown Cole shouted to Seward, “It’s OK. It’s OK. You lead off. I want you leading off.”
Cole’s confidence in Seward and the TRA defense was validated with a pair of strikeouts. The table was set for Seward to come back up to the plate with bat. Facing a 3-balls, 2-strikes count, Seward’s Fayette Academy counterpart Bo Culver fired in a pitch. Seward was ready and drove the ball deep over the left field wall for the walk-off 1-0 victory.
“We couldn’t find barrels all night,” Seward acknowledged. “When we did hit ball, many didn’t drop. The guy on the mound for them was pretty good. He’s there No. 1. This was my first time ever hitting a walk off home run.”
4. TRA’s Final Statement
It was time for lockdown.
Trailing 42-37 entering the fourth quarter of Division II-A Sectional game to the Knoxville Webb Spartans, Tipton-Rosemark Academy Head Coach Cedric Anderson gave his Rebels the cue that has taken them to wins over the ECS Eagles and FACS Crusaders leading to the West Regional championship.
Saturday inside the TRA Gymnasium, the fourth-quarter defensive effort was needed to earn a spot in next week’s Division II-A Boys State Basketball Tournament in Cookeville. The Rebels held the Spartans to 6 points in the final 8 minutes to prevail 50-48. The Rebels are returning to State for the first time since 2019.
“I’m going back to what our monicker was three weeks ago, this team has to have more discipline,” Coach Anderson said. “And we started showing that more in the past two weeks. That’s one took resiliency because we stayed the course the entire time. They made us play their pace. We tried to speed them up but just couldn’t. We just stayed down and stuck to our guns. I really appreciate those guys.”
3. Green’s Day
No luck is needed when you have Patrick Green on your roster.
But the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Rebel senior being around for the final moments of the Game 3 Sub-State Division II-A Series against the visiting Grace Christian Academy Lions was in jeopardy Friday afternoon.
After fouling a ball off his face, Green started to bleed from his nose. With his team trailing 2-0 to the Lions in the first inning, the senior first baseman/pitcher wasn’t going to miss a chance to help his team clinch a spot at the Division II-A State Baseball Tournament in Murfreesboro.
Sweating through eight competitive innings, Green was back at the plate with the game tied at 5-5 with runners on first and third and two outs.
“Coming into the bottom of that inning Coach Cole said get us to the top of the order,” Green recalled. “Give us a chance. The bottom half of the lineup did their jobs. They got us to the top. Once I got up there, just trusted in myself and got the hit.”
Green’s single down the right field line drove home the winning run and sent the Lions packing and the Rebels to State winners 6-5.
2. Trojan Home Cooking
The Millington Trojan Soccer team has been on a historic march all season.
Last Thursday evening at Hornet Field the Trojans had a chance to add another footnote to a special season. In the way was familiar District 15-2A foe the Haywood Tomcats. Winners of the regular-season title, Millington captured the district tournament title in a thriller of Haywood.
The Tomcats earned the right for a rematch against the Trojans beating Craigmont in the Regional Semifinals.
Haywood appeared ready to stop Millington from winning its first Regional title in soccer heading into halftime tied 0-0. Then the Trojans blitz Haywood with five goals to prevail 5-0 and win the championship.
“The first half we tried something different just to give them a different look because this was the third time we were playing them,” Millington Coach William Carter said. “In the second half, when we felt we had them efficiently tired we went back to playing what we like to play and I think they were tired enough. The passing lanes were there and our captains did a good enough job directing traffic. Luis and others did a good job back there.”
1. Cardinals fly to State
GERMANTOWN — District championships banners decorate the outfield wall at Brighton Baseball Field.
Under the leadership of Brian Oswalt and Michael Wickersham, the Cardinals have been competitive in District 13-3A for nearly 20 years. But unlike their Tipton County brothers Covington and Munford, Brighton has never reached the final baseball tournament of Class 3A.
Friday night that all changed on the turf of Houston High School Baseball Field. Lead by Head Coach Ryan Wood and senior ace Logan Rushing, the Cardinals finally captured that elusive trip to Murfreesboro by defeating the Houston Mustangs 4-1 in the Class 3A Sectionals.
“It feels amazing we’re going to be in Murfreesboro next week,” Wood said. “It’s how hard each one of those players worked, each one of those assistant coaches. You’ve got to give all the credit to them. Logan pitched a heck of a game but it took very single guy over there. All 20 of them worked their tails off. Day one when we started working August what we had to do each step of the way.”
The Cardinals journey to the historic celebration got rolling by winning the 2021 District 13-3A Tournament to earn a home Region 7-3A Semifinal game.
Brighton outlasted the Bartlett Panthers 3-2 to reach the Regional title game against Hardin County and earn a Sectional spot.
