TSSAA Spring Fling in full swing with Memphis-area high schools on top
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Welcome back to the Memphis Sports newsletter. It’s Ray Padilla, The Commercial Appeal’s digital producer, with the latest in Bluff City Sports.
While the Grizzlies and Tigers are amid their offseason, high school sports in Memphis are still in full swing. This week, the TSSAA holds its spring sports state tournaments for its annual Spring Fling event.
State champions will be crowned in baseball, softball, boys’ soccer, track and field and tennis.
The prediction for Collierville baseball to take home a state championship is already high among our USA Today Network-Tennessee staff.
Already Collierville Dragons advance in Class 4A following their win against Riverdale 6-4 after 10 innings, our Wynston Wilcox reports.
Collierville (38-9) opened the game scoring three runs in the first inning. Riverdale quickly responded with two runs in the second innings. With the game tied at four after four innings, the Dragons got the go-ahead runs in the top of the 10 to seal the win. They will play today against the winner of Farragut-Hendersonville, which was suspended Tuesday night for weather.
Wynston has a recap of everything that happened in day one for Memphis-area teams in the spring championships.
Also from Wynston, he reports how last year’s first-round exit motivated Collierville boys’ soccer this season. Not even a 3-1 win over Knoxville West at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex on Tuesday could erase the frustration of last year.
“They’re used to winning state championships at the club level,” coach Gareth Munro said. “They’re ready to win one at a high school level. A lot of us were here when Bearden … put us out in penalty kicks.”
TSSAA Spring Fling is about to explode with new sports
The key idea for the TSSAA Spring Fling is to keep it centrally located to allow teams to play each other and let it grow that way before expanding statewide, Tom Kreager writes in his latest column.
Here’s an excerpt:
Welcome to Titletown, where high school state champions will be crowned this week in baseball, softball, boys soccer, tennis and track in what is known as Spring Fling.
But what about boys and girls lacrosse and girls flag football?
The day is coming when more sports will be added to the list of TSSAA-sanctioned competitions, starting with the 2023-24 school year when the next classification cycle begins.
Here, though, is the dilemma for TSSAA: How does the association add boys and girls lacrosse along with girls flag football in what is already a jam-packed four days of spring sports state tournaments during Spring Fling?
In short, they can't.
How Penny Hardaway’s recruiting approach is changing for Memphis basketball
Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway is adapting his recruiting approach as he heads into Year 5 with a loss of eight players so far, either to the transfer portal or the NBA Draft, our Jason Munz reports in his story for subscribers.
“I think the biggest problem I’ve had in the past was I had way too many guys,” he told The Commercial Appeal. “When you have 13 starters – or, everyone thought they were a starter – it poses problems. And it’s not really fair to everybody.”
Hardaway said he didn’t sweat it when players began to bail for the portal, and he has new plans for this upcoming season.
Ja Morant believes Grizzlies could’ve won NBA title if healthy
“If the Grizzlies were healthy, would they have won it all?” That hypothetical question could lead to an equally ridiculous answer.
Of course, the Grizzlies could have won it all! But is that really the prism through which this NBA playoff run should be remembered, our Mark Giannotto asks in his latest column.
Here’s an excerpt:
Out on that basketball court during the season, there are any number of ways in which Ja Morant is nothing like us. The way he jumps, the way he sees the floor, the way he carries himself, they’ve all coalesced to create a burgeoning NBA superstar.
But out in the world when the offseason arrives, sometimes hidden behind the designer clothes and the diamond necklaces and the stream of consciousness social media posts, Morant often seems to think like us.
Or at least tweet like us.
So it only makes sense that Morant is watching the Western Conference finals just like us.
With a sense of what could have been, and maybe even a tinge of regret.
The Memphis Sports newsletter was written by Ray Padilla, the digital producer for The Commercial Appeal, and features stories written by Wynston Wilcox, Tom Kreager, Jason Munz and Mark Giannotto. Ray can be reached at raymond.padilla@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Ray_Padilla_.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis sports: TSSAA Spring Fling; Penny Hardaway's recruitment
