Sports

If the 13th Region champion Corbin Redhounds (20-17) are to be successful in their quest to bring home a KHSAA State Championship title in the coming days, they will first have to knock off the defending state champion Pleasure Ridge Park Panthers (26-6) in round one. The Panthers won their second consecutive 6th Region championship last week, meaning they will return to Lexington this week to defend their 2024 state champion-ship title. PRP is a veteran-led team this year. Their roster is full of mostly juniors and seniors, including senior slugger Koble Howard and top pitchers Grayson Roll and Logan Strong. Corbin has plenty of seasoned vets on the roster as well,...

Last week, track and field athletes from Williamsburg, Corbin and Whitley County high schools made their way to Lexington for this year’s Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Championships. Complete results for those teams are as follows…  Class A Championships - Thursday, May 29 From Williamsburg: Girls 4x800-meter relay (Emma Meadors, Brianna Morgan, Addison Moore and Jania Stephens) - 24th place in 12:20.86 Girls 100-meter hurdles - Kaylee Rains, 18th place in 17.68 Boys 110-meter hurdles - Peyton Hamilton, 4th place in 15.09 Boys 110-meter hurdles - Lane Jeffries, 14th place in 16.50 Boys 4x100-meter relay (Lane Jeffries, Trenton Cornett, Ethan Moses and Eli Meadors) - 15th place in 46.14 Girls...

If you read last week’s Par for the Course column, then you know that it was National First Tee Week. We have talked about the First Tee program on several different occasions since the beginning of the year, but this week I’d like to review some important data that the organization has gathered with help from the folks at Harris Poll. These two groups recently got together to conduct an online poll in the United States with the goal of capturing data on youth involvement in extracurricular activities. This, of course, includes golf. After reviewing the findings, I felt like some of the most noteworthy points included the following… • Parents...

After last week’s regional championship competitions, a long list of local high school track and field athletes have qualified to take part in this year’s Kentucky High School Athletic Association championships meets. The 2025 KHSAA championships are slated to get underway this Thursday, May 29, at the University of Kentucky’s outdoor track facility in Lexington. On that day, several Williamsburg Yellow Jackets and Lady Jackets will be in action in this year’s Class A finale. The complete list of qualifiers and alternates making the trip to UK from Williamsburg includes: Ellie Breeding, Trenton Cornett, Lani Couto, Tatum Croley, Lynsie Durham, Braylee Evans, Ashtyn Foley, Nate Goodin, Nick Hale, Peyton Hamilton, Bailee...

Earlier this school year, the Whitley County, Williamsburg and Corbin school systems all voted to approve swimming as a sanctioned elementary school sport. This past Saturday, a championship meet held at the Corbin City Pool marked the culmination of the inaugural elementary swim season. It also served as an encouraging sign for the future of the sport in the local community. The Corbin Elementary swimmers were crowned the champions of Saturday’s meet, but truly, all who participated should be considered winners as they were able to take part in a history-making event that came as a result of many years of hard work from several dedicated supporters. Among those who have...

After recent victories in this year’s NAIA Opening Round competitions, the University of the Cumberlands baseball and softball teams are advancing to the final sites of the 2025 national championship tournaments. The baseball Pats (48-10) are scheduled to play in their first game this Friday, May 23, against Hope International University out of California. The HIU Royals were crowned champions of the Great Southwest Athletic Conference earlier this season before coming out on top of their NAIA Opening Round mini-tournament in Lewiston, Idaho. Lewiston also serves as the final site for the NAIA National Tournament, so the team will be used to their surroundings when they suit up to...

Ethan Mott has been one of Corbin High School’s top golfers in recent years, and last week he realized a personal dream of his when he signed his letter of intent to continue his academic and athletic careers at Union Commonwealth University in Barbourville. “This gives me the opportunity to break into college golf, and to really start to understand the game at a higher level,” Mott said. “Coach Sisson has been gracious enough to assist me in getting to this level. So has Donnie Caldwell, from my First Tee years at Wasioto Winds.” If you have been reading Par for the Course regularly, you will likely recognize Caldwell’s name....

Last week, the Williamsburg High School track and field team hosted its Gold Medal Meet at the University of the Cumberlands. Many coverage area athletes posted top finishes at the event, including the following: Kaylee Rains (W’burg) – Runner-up in girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.65 NaShawn Brooks (Corbin) – First place in boys 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.96 and firt place in boys 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.62 Peyton Hamilton (W’burg) – Runner-up in boys 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.55 and runner-up in boy 300-meter hurdles with a time of 41.34 Bryson Mahan, Colton Mullis, Wesley Sizemore and Dee Parker...

In the past four months, we have tackled many different topics in this column. From golf course management, to competition, to my own experiences learning the game, the goal has been to make everything as accessible as possible to anyone who might pick up the paper and decide to check out the sports page. With this entry, however, we’re going to have to get down into the weeds just a little bit – both literally and figuratively. I came across a Facebook post by the Kentucky Golf Association (KGA) recently that shared some photos of a group of individuals who were out providing course rating services. I thought that enquiring...

Teams from seven different states will soon be gathering in Williamsburg for this year’s NAIA National Tournament Opening Round competition. On Wednesday, teams were announced for the 2025 NAIA National Baseball and Softball Championship Tournaments. The University of the Cumberlands will be among the host sites for Opening Round competition, which will kick off on Monday, May 12. In the baseball bracket, Mid-America Nazarene (33-16, from Kansas) will take on the host Patriots (45-10) Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. That will be followed by Missouri Baptist (40-9) versus Northwestern Ohio (40-13-1) at approximately 4:30 p.m. All games will be played at Doyle Buhl Stadium in Williamsburg. The eventual winner of the double...