By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Best Sellers’ List originated in the Sports Section of The Millington Star more than a decade ago.
It was a chance for The Genuine Article to recap the best moments of the TSSAA calendar. The June tradition is back looking at the special highlights of 2018-19 from Millington, Munford, Brighton and Tipton-Rosemark Academy.
From individual achievements to team history, lets reflect on the 10 standout moments we covered at The Star this past sports year.
10. ECS and TRA play an instant Classic in Volleyball
CORDOVA — The fifth and deciding set being tied four times and having three lead changes after the score was 12-11 was a synopsis of the night in the ECS Gymnasium.
The visiting Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels were moments away from victory jumping ahead 9-3 in the final set. But the host Evangelical Christian School Lady Eagles were prepared to fight to the very end.
The Lady Eagles used clutch plays from Lillie Robinson, Hannah Benson and Audrey Hutchins to pull out the fifth set 17-15. ECS earned the overall win 22-25, 25-22, 12-25, 25-22 and 17-15.
“We’ve been pushing very hard in practice — really hard,” ECS Head Coach Eric Bouchoc said. “To the point the girls are not liking me very much these days. What the ends up doing is causing them to push all the way through the game.”
9. Alex coming into his greatness
With 20.9 seconds remaining on the TRA Gymnasium scoreboard, Tipton-Rosemark Academy Head Coach Cedric Anderson calmly called timeout.
His cool demeanor stood out among the 57-57 deadlock situation with the Jackson Christian School Eagles. The showdown between two of the best team in West Tennessee Region of Division II-A basketball was going to come down to the final play Jan. 3.
Anderson had plenty of options in the huddle. The leader of the Rebels decided to place the ball into the hands of his sophomore son Alex Anderson. Once the TRA guards were able to drain the clock down to less than 10 seconds, Anderson popped out toward mid-court to retrieved the basketball.
The sophomore guard/forward attacked his Eagle defender and avoided an approaching double team to get his shot off in the paint. The basketball bounced along the rim for seemingly all 10 seconds before falling through the net.
As the basketball collapsed through the cotton, the buzzer sounded and Alex was chased by his older brother and teammate Andrew down the court in celebration of the 59-57 victory.
“That was the second time,” Alex said. “It feels real good. When everybody is trusting me, I’ve got to make the play.”
Alex and his Rebel teammates had to make several plays to erase a 33-16 third quarter deficit.
“I don’t ever think we’re going to lose,” the youngest Anderson said. “It was defense. Everybody had to bring 110 percent and attack. We’ve got to play defense. It’s how we overcame lack of rebounding, missed shots and missed free throws.”
TRA was behind in the rebound battle throughout the first half. The Rebels missed several shots all over the court falling behind 23-14 at the break.
8. Lady Rebels… almost perfect
basketball season
The only team to beat the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels during the 2018-19 season was the University School of Jackson.
On Feb. 5, the Lady Rebels had a shot at avenging the loss to the Lady Bruins from Jan. 11 on their home floor of the TRA Gymnasium. For two quarters, the Lady Rebels were in position to deliver USJ its first defeat in league play.
But the Lady Bruins caught fire early in the third quarter to erase a 29-26 halftime deficit to jump ahead by 11 points entering the fourth quarter.
USJ would go on to prevail 64-47 to improve to 21-5 overall and 12-0 in league play.
“One of the biggest thing they did was get us in foul trouble,” TRA Head Coach Cameron Pridemore said. “That kept us from getting out in our press and speeding the tempo up. That is something we do well. Us doing that it effected our offense a little bit. We went into a low in the third quarter. When you do that against them, they’re going to make you pay.”
Back on Dec. 29, the unbeaten Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels faced their biggest test of the season.
The established Northpoint Lady Trojans opposed the Lady Rebels in the championship game of the 2018 TRA Christmas Invitational. The Lady Trojans were primed to deliver TRA its first defeat of the season.
The Lady Rebels answered the challenged and survived 42-38 improving to 14-0 overall. TRA would start 2018-19 with a 17-0 record.
7. Culley hits 100K in district tournament
victory
RIPLEY — The objective of May 7 for the Millington Trojans was to win a pair of games in the District 15-2A Baseball Tournament.
The mission began on the Ripley Baseball Field against the Bolivar Central Tigers — win and advance to play the Haywood Tomcats. The loser of the first game would have their 2019 season come to an end.
On their way to surviving to face Haywood in the District 15-2A Semifinals, the Trojans enjoyed a piece of history in beating Bolivar 12-7. In the midst of all the offense by both teams, Millington sophomore ace Wesley Culley struck out his 100th batter of the season.
“Having 100 strikeouts, that’s huge,” Culley said. “I’m just doing my job. He’s doing his job. We’re all doing our job. That’s big but to have 100K, I don’t know what to say.”
His battery mate all season has been senior Dylan Doyle. Doyle was honored to be a part of the Trojan Baseball milestone.
“It’s definitely a huge eye-opener to see what a sophomore can do,” he said. “Coming into the year I didn’t think he would be a the level he would be. But I can see him definitely walking onto a college and performing with the best.”
6. Lady Rebels crowned regular-season champs
In order to reach a bigger goal, the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebels had to execute a smaller goal coming into the showdown against the Jackson Christian School Lady Eagles.
After beating the Lady Eagles up in Jackson, TRA still made some adjustments to increase its chances of winning April 16 at Lady Rebel Field.
“Before the game we talked about putting the ball into play,” TRA infielder Emily West said. “We talked about laying off the rise ball and that’s exactly what we did. We made them make mistakes.”
The Lady Rebels got enough runs in the third inning, another solid Charli Rice pitching performance and timely defense to win 7-3 and clinch the district championship.
“This is always step No. 1 if you can get that regular-season district championship,” TRA Head Coach Johnie Sanfrantello said. “We don’t play a district tournament. We jump right into the Regional Tournament. Seeding is so important in that. So you want to be that one seed mainly for that second round match-up.”
But before TRA got to May, the Lady Rebels wanted to take it game-by-game to get back to the Division II-A State championship game. The 2018 season ended for the Lady Rebels dropping two games to Silverdale in the title series. The 2019 season would end in Sectionals against Friendship.
5. Lady Cardinals take flight in basketball
The orange and black of the Dyer County Lady Choctaw faithful as rocking and rolling late in the third quarter of the Feb. 18 District 13-3A Girls Basketball Tournament championship game.
With the regular-season champion Lady Choctaws ahead 42-29, it appeared the Brighton Lady Cardinals were moments away from a sound defeat. But the Lady Cardinals have been on a historic run all season setting records and achieving multiple first in program history.
Brighton was not going to give-in on their home court. The Brighton Gymnasium resembled a typical Lady Cardinal home game in the fourth quarter with Brighton outscoring Dyer County 25-16 to force overtime tied at 58-58.
In the extra session, Dyer County jumped out with a 7-0 run to eventually prevail 73-63 and win the District 13-3A championship.
“The big thing was we kept fighting and fighting,” Brighton Head Coach David Wampler said. “We came back and tied the game to force overtime. I felt like in overtime we gave up a quick two baskets. Then we just panic.
“We’ve got to be more mature than that in those situations,” he continued. “I know we haven’t been in those situations before. Sometimes it just natural instinct. But I am proud of everything they’ve done. Three years ago nobody would have believed we would be here. But here we are. That’s a compliment to them for taking coaching and working hard.”
When Wampler took over the Brighton Lady Cardinal Basketball program three seasons ago, the program had a long winless streak in district and was the normal fourth place team in a four-team league.
Last year Brighton finished third in the new-look five school District 13-3A. And this season the Lady Cardinals were fighting for first place most of the season, finishing in a three-way tie with a 6-2 record.
The Lady Cardinals were the two-seed coming into the championship game against Dyer County.
4. Hearts to run towards history
Runners know every step is interlocked with your heartbeat.
To reach the Division I Large School State Cross Country meet takes hours of hard work, sweat, conditioning and heart. The best in Tennessee who competed in the 2018 State Meet in November at Percy Warner Park in Nashville know those sacrifices well.
But one runner who raced in Nashville this past weekend understands the importance of every heartbeat. Munford senior Erik Walters led a group of Cougars to State, the first for a team in school history.
Walters has the best time at 18:04 of the pride featuring Zerick Brown, Ethan Pacileo, Ashton Rogers, Jackson Taranto, Michael Andrews and Brian Yang.
The senior quartet of Brown, Andrews, Taranto and Walters reached their goal of getting the team up to State. Munford Cross Country Coach Thomas Walters has guided the young men and watched them mature into top flight runners since the middle school years.
The one Cougar he is most familiar with is his son Erik.
“He’s been doing this since he as 7 years old,” Coach Walters noted. “Guys like Zerick Brown and Ethan Pacileo have ran with him since middle school and ran with him 3 years there. Michael Andrews ran with him in middle school at least one year. You’ve got a kid like Jackson Taranto who has been here for four years. Brian Yang is in his second year and Ashton Rogers is a freshman doing very well. We’ve brought these guys up through the years.”
The years have been tough for Walters as a father of a son suffering from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. WPW is a syndrome that affects the heart’s beating pattern. In WPW an extra electrical pathway between your heart’s upper and lower chambers causes a rapid heartbeat.
3. Munford captures district basketball title
With his arrival to Munford in 2015, Ryan Ross had the task of restoring a program back to the top of District 13-3A against the likes of Brighton, Dyer County and Hardin County.
Since that time Liberty has been added making the task tougher. But the man in charge of the Cougars knew he had a group talented enough to bring the district championship back to South Tipton County.
On Feb. 19, night in the Brighton Gymnasium, the Munford Cougar faithful escaped the chilly thunderstorm outside for the warmness of their Cougars fulfilling Ross’ prophesy.
As the final seconds ticked down against the Dyer County Choctaws in the 2019 District 13-3A Boys Basketball Tournament championship game, Ross’ players ran toward him to celebrate the 63-56 victory.
“I’m just real happy for them,” Ross said. “I told them in the locker room before the game and this is a true story, ‘When I first took the job here, they were coming off a four-win season. I sat there in Dr. (Courtney) Fee’s office and told her this group here would be the one to take us back to the top. It might take a while because we’re real young. But this will be the group.’
“I believed it,” he continued. “They believed in us. When you’ve got a bunch of guys who believe in each other and believe in what you’ve done, they trust and good stuff happens.”
Good stuff was happening for both the Cougars and Choctaws in the first quarter with the score 10-9 in favor of Dyer County. District 13-3A Tournament MVP Kyree Cunningham kept Munford close in the first period with 4 of those points.
Cunningham gave the Cougars the lead early in the second quarter with a basket. Then Munford post player Javaris Tolton added a bucket to make the tally 13-10 in favor the Cougars.
Munford was ahead 15-10 after another Cunningham shot. The Choctaws started to match the Cougars’ pace the rest of the first half to trim Munford’s lead to 21-19 by the break.
2. Trojans win Region 8-4A football crown
With the score 35-0 in favor of Millington by halftime, the Trojan faithful were a few minutes away back in late October from celebrating the program’s first Region championship since 2011.
Millington scored two more touchdowns in the season half to defeat the East Mustangs 49-0. Then it was time for the Trojans players, coaches, faculty, administrators and supporters to rejoice. Instead of a wild celebration, those in Black and Gold embraced each other and the moment of being champions.
“We put in a lot of work for this,” Millington senior lineman Kaleb “Big Mac” Macklin said. “For the past three years, it was building on a new program to get to where we are now. I just want to thank the people from the last three years who helped us get to this moment.
“Those three bad years didn’t do anything but make us want to work harder,” he continued. “I just want to give a shout out to all my teammates of the past.”
In recent years the Trojans have played one of the toughest schedules in Tennessee taking on teams like Germantown, Munford and Dyersburg. Millington was 1-9 in 2017. The victory over East was the Trojans’ fourth in 2018. Millington even had shots for more wins against teams like St. Benedict, Bartlett and Raleigh-Egypt.
“It’s satisfying because it’s what we’ve been talking about since the beginning,” Millington Head Coach Chris Michael said. “I knew the schedules have been really tough these past couple of years. Teams on the schedule have had a really good run. Our own district, East has been dominant three seasons in a row. Craigmont has been difficult. And with us trying to rebuild things back, it’s really gratifying for the kids.”
Millington (4-6, 3-0 in Region 8-4A) seized control of the game and championship with 35 points in the first half. The Trojans got touchdowns from Corey Smith, Jer’fonzo Smith, Johnny Mattox and Reggie Caldwell.
1. TRA Basketball heading to State
Pretty much securing a spot in the Division II-A Boys State Basketball Tournament, the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Gymnasium started to erupt in a loud obviation for the Rebels.
Ahead 52-44 with 37.5 seconds remaining in the Sectional contest against the Goodpasture Christian School Cougars, TRA Head Coach Cedric Anderson looked down his bunch and gave his senior Howard Gray the signal to walk toward the scorer’s table.
This would be the first time all season Gray would see action on the floor. A vital part of past success for the Rebels, Gray tore his ACL during the 2018 football season for TRA.
Through rehab, support from his team and a will to get back in uniform, Gray was well enough to be an official part of the Rebels making basketball history.
Right before TRA won the game 54-46 and locked up a spot in the State Tournament held on the campus of David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Gray got a chance to launch a three-point attempt. Not quite the storybook ending, he missed the shot. But Gray was able to cry tears of joy with his coaches and teammates after the final buzzer earning TRA’s first trip to the State since 2008.
