Sports

With the start of the 2019 high school football season just a little over a month away and the teams getting closer to donning full pads at the end of the month, a pair of Dyersburg High School players received preseason honors from Murphy Fair as they were selected to the Class 4A Preseason All-State Team.

The Dyersburg 14U All-Stars split four games over the weekend during the 2019 Tennessee Dixie Boys State Tournament at the Ed Wright Baseball Complex to finish third overall in the tournament. Dyersburg opened with a 15-5 win over Chester County on Friday before falling to Dickson County 12-3 on Saturday. The local team bounced back later in the evening with a 21-3 win over Brighton before falling to Dickson County, 12-3, on Sunday in elimination action.

Despite only going 1-2 during the pool play portion of the 7-on-7 tournament at McCracken County High School in Paducah, Ky. on Friday night, the Choctaws got on a hot streak in the bracket play portion of the event, winning three straight games to reach the semifinals before losing to Rochester, Ill. early on Saturday morning.

The Dyersburg 13U All-Stars capped off an impressive weekend of dominance on Sunday afternoon in the drizzling rain as the local team defeated Greenbrier 11-0 to win the city’s second straight Dixie Baseball Tennessee Jr. Boys State Tournament at the Ed Wright Baseball Complex.

JASON PEEVYHOUSE jpeevyhouse@stategazette.com As part of the recently announced partnership between the Jackson Generals, the AA affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Dyersburg City School System, the minor league baseball team in Jackson will host Dyersburg City Schools Night early next month...

After a busy first week coming out of the TSSAA mandated dead period, things will slow down slightly for both Dyersburg and Dyer County as the two teams take part in the final week of practice before the acclimation period begins.

There is one thing about the first week of post-dead period football practice which can get the grind through the preseason and into the season off to a fun start. 7-on-7s. Now, granted, for the most part, these games between two teams’ skill players does look like - and pretty much is - a more organized version of the backyard football games us older people played when we were younger. Who doesn’t like to see the ball thrown around for big catches and impressive interceptions to be made...

A mid-July tradition continued on Thursday morning as over a dozen football teams from throughout Northwest Tennessee converged on J.C. Sawyers Stadium as the Trojans hosted their annual 7-on-7/Lineman Challenge to end the first week of the preseason workouts.

Dyersburg State Community College President Karen Bowyer announced the appointment of David Anderson as the new head coach of the men’s basketball team. “We look forward to Coach Anderson joining us as head coach of the Eagles basketball team,” stated Dr. ...

Though a brief rainstorm threatened to dampen the first local gridiron action of the preseason, the wet weather moved out of the area in time for Dyer County to host Milan in the team’s first 7-on-7 action of the week on Tuesday in Newbern.

For the third summer, the Dyersburg Lady Trojan basketball team as well as members of the boys team are assisting Future City Recreation Center with its annual free basketball camp with kids from Future City, Bruce and the Dyersburg Activity Center among others attending the three-day event which began on Tuesday.

With the TSSAA mandated dead period ending on Monday, Dyersburg’s football team wasted little time getting to work with their preseason beginning on Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. with players reporting for the first post-dead-period practice.

JASON PEEVYHOUSE jpeevyhouse@stategazette.com With the TSSAA mandated dead period now in the rear-view mirror for sports teams throughout Tennessee, Dyersburg and Dyer County athletes will return to the practice field this week as they begin their preseason workouts in preparation for the 2019 fall sports season...

One year after a pair of Dyersburg teams hosted and won state tournaments to move onto world series action, two local teams will look to repeat this feat beginning on Friday evening at the Ed Wright Baseball Complex as the facility will once again host the Dixie Boys and Junior Boys State Tournaments.

While the actual real-world season of summer is just beginning, the end of the dead period for me always feels like the end of the road for summer. From this point until roughly and hopefully late May in 2020, my evenings and days will be filled with watching then reporting on the exploits of our local athletes both here with Dyer County and Dyersburg as well as other places where former Choctaws and Trojans find themselves suiting up to play, coach or just teach the games they love...

Sometimes the last impressions a player makes during the season can make a lot of difference, as was the case this year with Dyer County junior pitcher Cameron Gordon.

Faculty, staff, retirees and alumni joined Alan Barnett, Dyersburg State Community College (DSCC) former athletic director, men’s head basketball coach, and associate professor of physical education, for a heartfelt goodbye during a retirement reception June 27...

Young golfers can have the chance to learn more about the game they enjoy over the next two weeks as The Farms will host a pair of Kids Golf Clinics beginning on Monday, July 8. The Farms’ Nathan Forsythe, who will be running the clinic, talked about what the golfers will learn during the week-long clinic which will be divided into two age groups...

Members of The Farms Junior Golf League posed for a group picture before heading out on the course recently as the program has over 50 golfers signed up during its second season of action this summer.

Being selected in the Major League Baseball Draft is an honor for players either coming out of high school or college as any who get picked by a professional team will tell you.

Just over a month after their final season in black and gold came to an end in the TSSAA Class AA State Semifinals, a pair of Trojan seniors have earned All-State honors from the Tennessee High School Soccer Coaches Association.

The TSSAA mandatory dead period does slow things down just a bit. It does give you time to think about things which you might not have time to once things kick up after the Independence Day break. After all, once July 8 gets here, my focus will stay on our high schools and middle schools as they run through the three-part TSSAA athletic year between then and, hopefully, late-May 2020...

The road to playing in the major leagues is about to begin for a former Dyer County High School standout as 2015 Choctaw graduate and Mississippi State alum Trysten Barlow signed this week with the National League West’s Colorado Rockies.

The Dyersburg 5-6-year-old All-Star team recently won their Dixie Youth District Tournament at Adamsville as the team won all five games it played during the six-day bracket.

Dyersburg Activity Center was a busy place this past weekend as six FASA District Tournaments were held from Friday through Sunday.

For local football players, Thursday’s lift-a-thon events at both Dyersburg and Dyer County brought an end to the long first step on the road to Week 1 and the 2019 football season as both programs held the fundraising weightlifting events as a closure to their offseason workouts.

JASON PEEVYHOUSE jpeevyhouse@stategazette.com With the month of June coming to a close and the start of high school fall sports season now less than two months away, athletes and coaches throughout Tennessee will get a short break from the sports and one another as the TSSAA’s mandatory two-week dead period goes into effect this week and lasts through the end of next week...

Summer came across the calendar finally on Friday and it was only fitting that most fall sports teams wrapped up their respective offseason workouts this past week. Now, we move into the TSSAA mandatory dead period which will take us through the Fourth of July weekend...

The softball fields at the Dyersburg Activity Center will be busy this weekend beginning tonight as the Fastpitch America Softball Association District Tournaments will see five local teams among six age groups take part in bracket action over the three-day event.

Three Dyer County Lady Choctaws and a Dyersburg senior were recently honored by the Tennessee Softball Coaches Association with postseason awards for their efforts during the 2019 TSSAA softball season.

Coming off a season in which the Dyersburg baseball team reached the regional semifinals for the first time in three years, a pair of Trojan players who contributed to that success have been honored by the Tennessee Baseball Report.

Thursday will be a busy day in the weight rooms at both local high schools as area football fans can get a glimpse of how the gridiron teams have progressed in the offseason with the weights as the Trojans and, for the first time, the Dyer County Choctaws will host lift-a-thons at their respective schools which will bookend the day...

With the final week before the dead period set to begin on Monday for teams throughout the local area and the state as well, high school football teams at Dyersburg and Dyer County High Schools will get their final workouts in before the TSSAA’s mandatory two-week dead period this week.

JASON PEEVYHOUSE jpeevyhouse@stategazette.com Based upon the results from last season, the 2019 schedule got a bit tougher for the Trojans as a trio of sub-.500 teams were replaced after the 2018 campaign. Gone from the slate are Millington (4-7), Bolivar (2-8) and Chester County (2-8). In their places are teams with traditions of winning seasons as Hardin County (8-3) and Union City (7-6) as well as Liberty (1-9) make their way to the Trojan schedule this fall...

JASON PEEVYHOUSE jpeevyhouse@stategazette.com When the 2019 Choctaw football schedule was released, the only real surprise on the docket was that there are no new teams on the list of opponents for Dyer County in the upcoming season. In fact, not only did the 10-team slate of games not change, the order stayed the same from the previous two seasons...

When the weather warms up and the baseballs are flying around the parks here in West Tennessee, it’s hard not to think about baseball and being back on the diamond. Well, as I learned when stepping into the batting cage late this past spring, my days on the diamond are well behind me...

Sonic's Clay Dodds (2) makes a catch on an infield flyball as teammate and first baseman Ryker Hayes looks on during Cal Ripken 11-12-year-old action at the Ed Wright Baseball Complex in Dyersburg.