Around the local sports world in 80 seconds, or as long as it takes you to read this

I’m calling this week’s column around the local sports world in about 80 seconds as there are several items to cover.

• First and foremost, in the top 10 sports stories, I overlooked one big accomplishment.

Coach Jimmy Hendrickson’s Corbin Middle School Seventh Grade Boys won the state basketball championship on March 7 with a 38-18 victory over Clay County.

“This group is just ultra-competitive,” Hendrickson said of his team. “They want to win everything.”

The Redhounds started out the season 9-0 en reoute to the 22-2 season.

At the state championship tournament in Wilder, Corbin defeated South Oldham, Elkhorn, North Marshall and Ashland to advance to the championship game.

• On Saturday, the Corbin Wrestling team, aka the Rasslin’ Redhounds, competed in their first meet at Barbourville. The meet also included the Knox Central Panthers and Bell County Bobcats.

Corbin finished third as a team, and individual wrestlers turned in some great performances, led by Seth Huff, Zayne Hammack, Clem Sell, Gage Feltner, Leland White, DJ Jackson, Koryon Smith, Abriella Sizemore and Allison Neeley, who took home first place in their respective weight classes.

Coach Chuck Davis said it is a learning curve for the Corbin wrestlers as most of them have never wrestled before and the Redhounds were still trying to get a coaching staff together and get organized two months after the established teams had first gotten on the mat in October.

Among the Corbin wrestlers were seven girls. Don’t be surprised if the Redhounds have a full girls’ squad of 12 in the next couple of years.

• Area basketball teams got back on the court Monday and Tuesday night after weather forced the cancellation of games Friday and Saturday.

Corbin, which has been on a nine-game winning streak over the last month, is second in the 13th Region standings.

The Redhounds face one of the toughest stretches of games this week with South Laurel twice and a visit from Bell County.

Both teams are also near the top of the region standings.

Whitley County and Williamsburg are both in the middle of the region pack with just over a month of regular season basketball to be played.

On the girls’ side, Corbin sits near the top of the region standings with an identical 11-2 record to North Laurel.

The Lady Colonel will sandwich the two South Laurel games with visits from Pineville and Elizabethtown.

Whitley County is among a string of 10 teams in the region that are riding around the .500 mark with records ranging from 8-5 Bell County to 3-7 Williamsburg.

A winning streak could vault one of those teams to the top of that pack. A losing streak could send a team down with also-rans Pineville, Lynn Camp and Oneida Baptist Institute.

The only record that really counts is district. Corbin is 2-0 with victories over Whitley and Williamsburg while South has yet to play a district game. The Lady Colonels and Lady Jackets are both 0-1.

The district records will determine seeding in the district tournament. The region tournament and state tournaments are blind draws, so it is conceivable that any of the 17 teams could go on a winning streak come tournament time. Or get a favorable draw in the region and a few upsets and make a run to the state tournament.

Stranger things have happened in the world of sports.