Stories from Friday, August 22, 2014

After posting a disappointing 4-7 record last season, the Marshall County Tigers football program is hoping to return to prominence under first-year head coach Thomas Osteen. Having served as an assistant coach at Giles County High School under David O'Connor from 2007-12, Osteen helped the Bobcats achieve a tremendous run of success on the gridiron during that time. Giles County posted an impressive 64-15 record over that period and captured the 2009 Class 4A State title while reaching the semifinals in 2011 and 2012. Although Osteen believes that Marshall County's program has the potential to reach those lofty heights, he believes it will take some time to reach those goals.

With several starters returning on both sides of the ball, the Cornersville Bulldogs are hoping to build on a successful 2013 campaign that saw them record the program's first winning record in 19 years and advance to the Class A playoffs. The Bulldogs opened last season by defeating Huntland 25-20 before getting shutout by Moore County 35-0. Although Cornersville beat Richland 26-14 the next week to improve to 2-1, the Bulldogs appeared to suffer a crushing blow in that contest when starting quarterback Jamie Crowell suffered a season ending elbow injury early in the first half, which forced senior wide receiver Stone Riner to assume the quarterback duties for CHS.

Football season is getting underway around the county and one local football product from Lewisburg has been placed on a preseason All-Conference team. Dusty Nance a 2011 graduate from Marshall County High School now a junior at Carson-Newman has been selected to the South Atlantic Conference first team as the longsnapper. ...

Charles Joseph "Chas" Zimmer, III, age 61 of Lewisburg, passed away Monday evening, August 18, 2014 at his residence. The family will visit with friends on Saturday, August 23 from 2:00 until 4:00 PM at Heritage Funeral Home. A memorial service will begin at 4:00 PM Saturday, celebrating and honoring Chas' life on what would have been his 62nd birthday. ...

2013 Record 8-4, District 9A 5-1 (Second Place) Playoffs 1-1 Coaches Head Coach-Matt Kriesky 1st Year Kyle Stacey-Offensive Line Coach/Linebackers Brent Johns-Offensive Coordinator Lance Horton-Defense Backs, Wide Receivers Coach Eli Stephenson-Defensive Line Coach Austin Stacey-Quarterback Coach/Linebackers A lot can change in a year's time, exemplified by the Forrest Rockets' football program that will have their third head coach in three years in former defensive coordinator Matt Kriesky, who was the unanimous choice when Brian Coleman left for Summit. "We don't want to be satisfied making the playoffs, we don't want to be satisfied getting to the second round, our goal is to get to the quarters and the semis and so on," said Kriesky. "You can say that's a lot of pressure, but that is part of the game and everybody's ultimate goal should be to win a state championship. If we are going to sit back here as coaches and a community and say were satisfied with just making the playoffs then we are not good servants to these kids, we are not going to be satisfied with being average, we want to be great around here."

Cornersville and Richland High School alumni padded up for a full-contact game at the Battle of Buford Station. The game was hosted by Alumni Football USA, an organization created by Bob Cazet, M.Ed., a former Marine and national championship head coach. With a Master's degree in education, Cazet is a former college instructor at Auburn University, head softball coach at Stanford, and a teacher in the California school...

The Marshall County Tigers jumped out to an early lead in the race to claim the Gary Wells Cup when they defeated local rivals Forrest and Cornersville in the first leg of the event at Henry Horton State Park. MCHS had three players shoot 40 or better and recorded a team score of 159 after playing the front nine holes at Henry Horton. "I'm glad to come out and match our best score of the year. I'm also glad to come out and shoot well on a course that we haven't played on much," said Marshall County coach Alex Phelps.

A group of 33 former Cornersville Bulldog football players experienced the thrill of victory one more time on Saturday night when they pulled out a nerve racking 18-12 win in double overtime against a team of Richland alumni in front of a packed house at Wayne Hobbs Field in Lynnville. With the game being sponsored by Alumni Football USA, the two squads battled to a 6-6 tie through the first four quarters of play before each team scored a touchdown and failed on a two-point conversion attempt in the first overtime to leave the game knotted at 12-12.

Steven Clifton, 59, of Lewisburg, died Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, in Vanderbilt Medical Center. Mr. Clifton was a native of Giles County, and son of the late Nathan Clark and Joyce Baxter Clifton. He was an employee of the Marshall County Board of Education and worked part-time with Mid TN Sand...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Homecoming! In fact, First Baptist Church of Lewisburg will be celebrating their 125th anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 21. Lewisburg's first Baptists belonged to Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Duncanville; however, distance and poor roads made travel to church difficult for those living miles away. ...

By Ivory Riner Staff Writer After three years without a Miss Lewisburg pageant, eager contestants will once again line up on the Dixie stage to compete for the title of Miss Lewisburg. Ariel Borne, the pageant's reigning queen, was crowned on Oct. 22, 2011, and is glad to finally see the pageant back in action...

From Staff Reports After 19 years of service, Roy A. "Rocky" Bowden is leaving his position as chairman of the Marshall County Board of Public Utilities, effective Aug. 31. His fellow board members passed a resolution to honor Bowden at their meeting this week...

From Staff Reports After 19 years of service, Roy A. "Rocky" Bowden is leaving his position as chairman of the Marshall County Board of Public Utilities, effective Aug. 31. His fellow board members passed a resolution to honor Bowden at their meeting this week...

By Karen Hall and Ivory Riner Staff Writers Employees of offices in the Courthouse Annex finally gave up their struggle with the heat and closed at noon Wednesday, with the sincere hope that their new AC unit would be working and the building cooled down by the time they got back Thursday morning...