Sports

This time of year most sports headlines revolve around what’s happening on the basketball court, but plenty of exciting action is also taking place on the wrestling mat, in the swimming pool and at the bowling lanes. This week, we meet the senior athletes from the Whitley County wrestling team and the Corbin swimming and bowling teams, and we get an update on how each of those seasons are currently going. The Colonel wrestling team, coached by Ralph Carte, is being led this year by four seniors – Matt Copeland, Ana Lindsey, John Cusson-Walker and Daniel Wohlfarth. With their veteran presence, Whitley wrestling has enjoyed a good amount of success on...

Three former Lady Hounds and one former Lady Colonel are currently playing together at the University of the Cumberlands as JV Lady Patriots. Corbin’s Natalye Gallagher and Meghann Blackburn graduated with the class of 2015. They were members of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 girls basketball teams that won 50th District and 13th Region championships. As seniors in 2014-15, they helped lead the team to an 18-12 overall record, as well as another district title. Candice Gulley graduated from Corbin with the class of 2016 after helping the Lady Hounds to yet another district championship season. Brandi Smith graduated from Whitley County High School in 2014. As the Lady Colonels’ go-to scorer, she...

Things have not gone as well as the Corbin Lady Hounds hoped they would to start out the 2016-17 season, but brighter days are surely ahead for this talented group. Leading the way are three senior players with a wealth of knowledge in the sport – Kameryn Ashurst, Sarah Beth Price and Tori Baker. Ashurst, 17, has been playing basketball since her elementary school days, and when asked to talk about her history with the game, she explained, “I started out playing in rec and church leagues, and then I got to play for the middle school team. I played up on the seventh and eighth grade teams as a...

The following From the Sidelines column appeared in the 12/7/16 edition of the News Journal... It’s old news to some by now, but I got word last Tuesday night that Kentucky High School Athletic Association Commissioner Julian Tackett has stepped in and ruled that the 13th Region basketball tournaments will be held at the Arena in Corbin once again in 2017. I was personally very happy to hear this, and this week I would like to point to some indisputable facts and figures that help to back up my stance that the Arena is the best place for the region tournaments to be held. I think having the region tourneys at...

Boys Basketball Wrap Up for 12/7/16... The Corbin Redhounds impressed in their season opener last Friday night, defeating a tough Mercer County team in this year’s Legacy Nissan Classic at North Laurel High School. “I’m really proud of my team,” said Head Coach Tony Pietrowski after the win. “I thought we did a whole lot of things well, and now we can hang our hats on beating a really good team.” “We weren’t real fluid offensively early on in the game,” Pietrowski continued. “But I feel like we really bought in defensively, and we were able to negate a lot of the things that they were trying to do. It was a...

Girls Basketball Wrap Up for the week of 12/7/16... The Whitley County Lady Colonels started their winter campaign off right last Tuesday, easily defeating the visiting Jellico Lady Blue Devils in their season opener. They followed that up with another win at home against 13th Region opponent Barbourville on Thursday, and on Saturday they traveled to Berea and came away with the 46-34 victory to improve to a perfect 3-0 ahead of their Tuesday night matchup against 50th District rival South Laurel (see Tuesday Night Highlights in print). Juniors Abbey Estes and Sierra Feltner and sophomore Kaelie Frazier have all been big point producers for the Lady Colonels so far this...

The Whitley County girls and boys basketball teams started off their seasons off right Tuesday night, defeating Jellico, TN in double header action. The girls were up first, cruising to a 61-16 victory to start the season out at 1-0. "We're testing those habits that we hope we learned in the preseason," said Head Coach David Estes after the game. "We want to be better defensively, pressuring the basketball and making it difficult for teams to initiate their offense. Also, rebounding the basketball. Those are things that we have struggled with at times, but I feel like we have made improvements in those areas. The score tonight wasn't really that...

The Williamsburg Lady Jackets basketball team put up a good fight Monday in their season opener, but they would ultimately end up on the losing end against the visiting Rockcastle County Lady Rockets, 57-44. “There is a lot to build on,” said new Head Coach Randy Crider after the game. “What we told them is we need to take the things that we did out here tonight, and take it right into our practices.” “We need to continue to work each and every day, and we need to continue to fight. Basically, we have no choice but to get better.” The Jackets started out shaky Monday, finding themselves down 15-4 early in...

The following is the News Journal’s list of Most Valuable Players in Whitley County for the 2016 high school football season (Corbin, Whitley County and Williamsburg High Schools). Overal MVP - AJ Moore (Sr, Corbin) Moore helped lead the Redhounds to a 12-2 record in 2016, including a district championship, a region championship and an appearance in the Class 3A state championship tournament semifinals. He led all Corbin receivers with 800-plus yards and 13 touchdowns on the year, setting a school record for career receptions in the process. Quarterback First Team - Camron Sizemore (Jr, Corbin) Quarterback Second Team - Dylan Wilson (Jr, Whitley Co) Quarterback Honorable Mention - Alec Poore (Jr, W’burg) Running Back First...

“We came up short today, but we have to learn from it, and we have to keep working.” In addition to letting his players know how proud he was of them for all of their hard work this season, that was Corbin Head Coach Justin Haddix’s message to his team after suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Belfry Pirates last Friday in the semifinal round of this year’s Class 3A state championship playoffs. The loss was heartbreaking for many different reasons. It marked the end of the Redhounds’ 2016 season just one week short of an appearance in the state championship game, it marked the end of the high school careers...