This blog will help me "clean out" the notebook from time to time, and hopefully keep my readers informed on what's happening in Wilson County sports. TB

* Tough loss for Wilson Central Thursday in the TSSAA state tournament. A 46-39 final score doesn't tell the whole story. WC was down 19-10 after one quarter and trailed by 11 a couple of times. They came back to tie the score at 32-all in the fourth, but poor shooting at the free throw line (18-of-29) hurt.

What also hurt was a 1-for-11 effort from three-point land and 18 turnovers. They say a turnover is worth one point to the other team. Central bids goodbye to senior Ieshia Hassell -- the only Lady Wildcat to stick it out for all four years.  Kudos to Central head coach Bud Brandon. Five trips to the state tournament in 10 years on the job. SOLID!

* Hate to see Lebanon High assistant football coaches Eric Lawrence (OL) and Tim Lounsbury (WR) decide to move on. Lawrence had been at LHS for seven years; Lounsbury for five. Good guys who helped keep the weight room going in the aftermath of Bobby Brown's December resignation. Both will be successful where ever they land. I expect Lawrence to stay close, perhaps join up with Brown at W.J. Baird where Bobby has been hired as an assistqant principal.

* On that front, former LHS receiver Kenny Sallis is coming back home to coach for new Blue Devil head coach Troy Crane. A "jack-of-all trades" at Cumberland, Sallis will coach the LHS ninth grade team and teach special education. His dad Randy is the LHS public address announcer for football.

* Word is Coach Crane will be changing the Lebanon head gear back to white with blue facemasks. The LHS hats had been blue for Coach Brown's entire nine-year tenure. HISTORY LESSON -- Former Blue Devil coach David Petty changed LHS to white helmets in time for the 1972 season. The old helmets were an ugly Navy Blue with a small white "L" on each side.

* Now that prep basketball is over, spring sports will crank up in earnest next week. The LHS baseball team is headed to Hoover, AL for a pretty sporty tournament. The team leaves sometime Sunday with pool games scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Elimination-round begins on Thursday.

* Good luck this weekend to CU baseball coach Woody Hunt. He's rung up 1,298 victories in 30 seasons as the Bulldog head coach. Arch-rival Trevecca comes to town for a single game Friday and a twinbill on Saturday. When I spoke to Woody Thursday morning, he was more concerned about getting the field playable for the weekend.

If you want to do something special for Woody in honor of this milestone, here's a hint. He's a coffee freak! Get him some gift cards from somewhere with high-end java. He'll love you forever.

BTW -- Live radio coverage of the CU - Trevecca series can be heard on WCOR AM-1490 on Friday and WANT FM-98.9 on Saturday. I'm helping out with broadcasting the road conference games this season, having already spent a lovely couple of days in Henderson last week as the Bulldogs swept Freed-Hardeman.

Other scheduled ports of call for this traveling microphone -- Blue Mtn. Mississippi; McKenzie, TN and Batesville, Arkansas. I've been to McKenzie before. I think they have / had a Dairy Queen.

Anyway -- that's all for the inaugural blog. Feedback -- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it