Getting caught up, looking ahead to the next few weeks

(Column by Trevor Sherman)

Howdy folks, it’s good to see everyone again! For those of you who may not know me, I served as Sports Editor here at the News Journal from December 2013 until my departure in November of 2020. I’ve contributed to the paper’s news and/or sports coverage a few times since then, so you may recognize the name.

At any rate, I join the rest of the News Journal staff in wishing Dean Manning the very best in his future endeavors, and I am excited to now have the opportunity to fill in for a few weeks while long term plans get sorted out.

Of course, not having regularly reported on local sports for going on two years now, I am a little bit out of the loop on several fronts. For this reason, please bear with me as I ease myself back into putting a weekly sports page together for the paper.

Luckily, I had already been working on a series of sports-related articles when I got the call to temporarily jump back into my old sports reporter duties. These articles, the first of which appears to the right, will serve as updates on many of our area’s former high school student-athlete standouts.

All of these athletes have gone on to compete at the college level, and most are now nearing the completion of their collegiate careers. I wanted to do this series of articles for two reasons….

First, I was genuinely curious to find out what was going on with some of the student-athletes that I had the pleasure of covering during my time as Sports Editor. Second, I wanted to commend some of those athletes for not only making it to the next level in their chosen sport, but for continuing to compete at that level for two, three, or even four years.

That is way easier said than done, let me tell you…

So, for the next 2-3 weeks, or maybe longer if I’m needed, we will be getting re-acquainted with many of these young men and women, beginning this week with former Corbin Redhound runners Cora Bo Stevens and Hailey Martin.

I hope you will enjoy!

Other stuff:

• Of course, this is a super-busy time as far as local high school sports are concerned. The baseball and softball regular seasons are both starting to wind down, and we will soon find out who will be qualifying for state competition in both tennis and track-and-field.

Should any major developments take place in the near future, I will do my absolute best to document it here, but I am only serving in a part-time capacity right now. For that reason, I ask that, should anyone have any important updates or information to share as it pertains to local athletics, please contact someone at the News Journal office, and they will see to it that I am notified.

Once again, I ask for your patience if the sports coverage is not as detailed as you would like it to be for the next little bit. Things are beginning to come together again here at the News Journal after the recent departures of two full-time staff members, but we’ll need just a few weeks before everything is back up to full speed again.

• I saw where Williamsburg baseball head coach Bryan Hopkins gave a Facebook shoutout recently to one of his star players, junior Sydney Bowen, for hitting home runs in SIX consecutive games. Congrats Sydney!

• New Whitley County boys basketball head coach Eric Swords made a Facebook post containing details on the Colonels’ 2022-23 season schedule. Some games of note included contests against Owsley County and Richmond Model on Dec. 9-10 in the 2022 Colonel Classic, an appearance in the Lopez Holiday Classic in Daytona on Dec. 20-22, and an appearance in the Cumberland Falls Invitational Tournament at Corbin High School Dec. 27-30. The Colonels will also compete in the 2023 2A regional tournament just after the New Year.

• Speaking of 2A tournaments, I also noticed recently that Corbin softball head coach Crystal Stidham took to Facebook to congratulate her team on their fourth place finish at the 2022 Kentucky 2A fastpitch softball tournament, held in Owensboro. According to the post, Lady Hounds Kallie Housley and Kaila Stidham were named to the 2A All-State team. Congrats to those ladies and their teammates on their success.

• Finally, I saw over the weekend where Corbin Lady Hounds basketball head coach Isaac Wilson made a post congratulating his star senior, Shelby Stewart, on signing with his alma mater, Alice Lloyd College. Best of luck to Shelby in her future as an Eagle.

That’s all for now, see you next week!