DCHS Softball Star Signs with Trevecca Nazarene University

November 15, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

An outstanding DCHS softball outfielder has signed a letter of intent with Trevecca Nazarene University to play collegiate ball after she graduates here.

Megan Walker, a senior, put pen to paper Friday at the DCHS auditorium. Members of Walker’s family, coaches, and fellow players joined her for the occasion.

Trevecca Nazarene University (TNU), founded in 1901, is a private Christian liberal arts college in Nashville and is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II

“The reason I chose Trevecca is because it’s a small Christian school so I really thought that would be best for what I want to do in my future. Right now I plan to become an Occupational Therapist,” said Walker.

Tigerette Coach Danny Fish said he is very happy that Megan will have a chance to play softball at the collegiate level.

“I am very proud of Megan reaching her goal of going to Trevecca. That is where she wanted to be. She has worked real hard to make that dream a reality,” said Coach Fish.

“Megan is a program changer. She is a great player and not just in one sport. She also plays basketball. Last year we got a little worried about her because she was playing in the Gold Tournament in Texas and suffered an injury and had surgery. She missed all of the basketball season last year and coming back from that injury I would never have thought she would have the impact she did last year in softball but she had a really solid year after her recovery. She has had three solid years so far and I expect her to have a great senior year,” said Coach Fish.

Before she heads off to college, Megan has one more high school softball season in front of her and she is looking forward to it.

“I think we have a lot of potential this year. We lost a lot of good players last year and we need a lot of people to step up into their roles but I think we can definitely do it,” said Walker.

November 15, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Although the Board of Education has policy restrictions passed down from the state on smoking and vaping at school campuses enforcement is often a challenge especially during after school events.

To better educate the public and to discourage smoking, members of the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD Club) at DeKalb Middle School in conjunction with representatives of the DeKalb County Health Department and DeKalb Prevention Coalition are asking that they be allowed to post anti-smoking signs at all schools.

Megan Kinslow of the health department and SADD sponsor, addressed the Board of Education during Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting.

She began by reading a letter to the board on behalf of the SADD Club.

“As a DeKalb County Health educator I have had the opportunity to partner with the DeKalb Middle School’s SADD Club on tobacco related topics. We would like to ask for your consideration to help increase awareness of the current tobacco campus policy by increasing signage at all schools and other school properties. We hope to decrease the amount of tobacco litter on school grounds. This includes after school events such as sports and extracurricular club activities and anything where adults would be present on our campuses,” said Kinslow

“As a baseline for your discussion the SADD Club students recently picked up cigarette butts for one hour after school at the middle school and high school and collected 87 cigarettes in just that one hour. To evaluate the added signage and decreases in the amount of tobacco litter, we will replicate that activity at the end of the 2019-20 academic year and compare results,” she said.

“Your policy says signs will be posted throughout the district’s facilities to notify students, employees, and visitors but when we recently went out to all the schools helping to administer flu vaccines the only school we saw that had a sign posted was at DeKalb West School,” Kinslow continued.

“My idea is to let our SADD Club members create signs which the health department would purchase and make them specific for each school with the school mascots in the hope that there would be fewer cigarette butts to pick up next time”.

“It takes seven years for one of these butts to disintegrate and they are all over your school ground properties.  We want to make sure our kids and others are not walking through smoke clouds, whether it be football games, baseball games, etc.”

“We also ask that you make sure your School Resource Officers are watching more closely and writing citations for violations.  We checked and learned that the problem is mostly at the high school.  Four citations have been written this year and about 20 to 25 were issued last year”.

Chairman Danny Parkerson and Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the principals would have to be consulted before the board grants the SADD Club request.

In his monthly report on personnel, Director Cripps said those employed since last month are Samantha Antoniak, teacher at DeKalb Middle School to replace Justin Nokes and Natasha Tindle, school psychologist to replace Jennifer Shores.

Cody Randolph was granted a leave as requested and Jennifer Shores resigned.

November 15, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS Tigers will be on a mission tonight to do what no other team before them has ever done in school history. Advance to the third round of the TSSAA football playoffs.

(Click link below to hear WJLE’s  Tiger Talk Program)

Tiger Talk November 15

After knocking off the Tullahoma Wildcats last week in the 1^st round of the playoffs in Smithville, the Tigers will hit the road tonight to Lewisburg to face the Marshall County Tigers.

DeKalb County enters the game at 7-4 while Marshall County is 9-2.

The Tigers concluded the regular season at 6-4 and runners-up in Region 3-4A at 3-1 while Marshall County finished 8-2 and entered the playoffs as the best team from Region 4-4A at 5-0.

“They are an athletic football team. I think the strength of their team is probably their defensive line. They have some quality guys there. I wouldn’t equate it to the same type of defensive line they had a couple of years ago but they have some guys who can get after it. They are athletic in the secondary and have athletic skill positions. They kind of have a power back, not much of a scat back or something like that so we want to make sure we don’t give him a clean look at any hole and make sure he has his feet stuttering. Our defense will really have to swarm to the football. They have a young quarterback but he seems to manage the game well and puts the football where it is supposed to be put. They have a solid football team but I feel we are also a solid football team so I think it will be a good night of football,” said Tiger Coach Steve Trapp.

This season DeKalb County has beaten Stone Memorial 33-0, Grundy County 49-12, Cannon County 41-10, Smith County 28-24, Macon County 26-13,  Cumberland County 41-6, and Tullahoma 45-34 and lost to Warren County 35-21, Upperman 35-0, Watertown 42-20, and Livingston Academy 31-0.

Marshall County has beaten Columbia Academy 41-7, Lincoln County 31-14, Tullahoma 30-6, Maplewood 35-20, Springfield 42-12, Lawrence County 48-3, Spring Hill 45- 13, Nolensville 30-14, and Stone Memorial 39-8

Kick-off will be tonight (Friday) at 7 p.m.

WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 p.m. featuring former coaches Doug Matthews, Dave McGinnis, and broadcaster Larry Stone.

“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players David Bradford, Axel Aldino, and Desmond Nokes. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.

WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby.

LISTEN LIVE ON WJLE AM 1480/ FM 101.7 and LIVE STREAMING at www.wjle.com.