Tennessee
Why Tennessee high school boys basketball rankings feature two new teams
The Tennessee Sports Writers Association and USA TODAY Network in Tennessee has released its boys TSSAA basketball statewide rankings for Feb. 9.
The TSWA/USA TODAY Network poll will be released each week until the conclusion of the Tennessee high school basketball season.
In Division I, each first-place vote receives 10 points, second place receives nine points and that continues to the 10th-place vote, which receives one point. First-place votes are listed in parentheses.
In Division II, the first-place team receives five points and is reduced by one point for each additional place. The DII rankings are the top five teams in each class.
Tennessee high school boys basketball rankings for TSSAA season
Division I
Class 1A
1. Eagleville (12), 120 points. Record (20-0). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Pickett County, 108 points. Record (24-3). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
3. Jackson County, 88 points. Record (20-5). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
4. Richland, 84 points. Record (16-4). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
5. Humboldt, 74 points. Record (12-6). Last week: Ranked No. 5.
6. Perry County, 60 points. Record (14-5). Last week: Ranked No. 6.
7. Gleason, 49 points. Record (20-3). Last week: Ranked No. 7.
8. Booker T. Washington, 37 points. Record (14-4). Last week: Ranked No. 8.
9. Wayne County, 17 points. Record (15-9). Last week: Ranked No. 9.
10. Jo Byrns, 16 points. Record (14-6). Last week: Ranked No. 10.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: None.
Class 2A
1. Chattanooga Prep (9), 116 points. Record (10-10). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Tellico Plains (3), 109 points. Record (18-4). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
3. Huntingdon, 88 points. Record (13-3). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
4. Gatlinburg-Pittman, 79 points. Record (18-4). Last week: Ranked No. 5.
5. Peabody, 72 points. Record (18-3). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
T-6. White House Heritage, 48 points. Record (17-5). Last week: Ranked No. 6.
T-6. Westview, 48 points. Record (15-6). Last week: Not ranked.
8. Cannon County, 37 points. Record (18-6). Last week: Ranked No. 8.
9. Tyner Academy, 30 points. Record (15-8). Last week: Ranked No. 7.
10. Summertown, 18 points. Record (18-4). Last week: Ranked No. 9.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: Hillcrest (10).
Class 3A
1. Upperman (11), 119 points. Record (21-5). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Tullahoma (1), 106 points. Record (18-4). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
3. Jackson North Side, 95 points. Record (18-2). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
4. Alcoa, 81 points. Record (15-9). Last week: Ranked No. 5.
5. Fayette-Ware, 70 points. Record (16-3). Last week: Ranked No. 6.
6. Fulton, 62 points. Record (16-8). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
7. Heritage, 52 points. Record (19-6). Last week: Ranked No. 7.
8. Stone Memorial, 36 points. Record (15-7). Last week: Ranked No. 8.
9. Red Bank, 19 points. Record (19-7). Last week: Ranked No. 10.
10. Cumberland County, 12 points. Record (17-7). Last week: Not ranked.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: None.
Class 4A
1. Bartlett (12), 120 points. Record (21-4). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Bearden, 108 points. Record (27-1). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
3. Houston 94 points, Record (15-5). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
4. Maryville, 85 points. Record (20-3). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
5. Walker Valley, 68 points. Record (21-2). Last week: Ranked No. 5.
6. Whitehaven, 58 points. Record (19-7). Last week: Ranked No. 7.
7. Beech, 51 points. Record (24-2). Last week: Ranked No. 8.
8. Brentwood, 31 points. Record (22-3). Last week: Ranked No. 6.
9. Blackman, 29 points. Record (20-3). Last week: Ranked No. 9.
10. Southwind, 13 points. Record (19-6). Last week: Ranked No. 10.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: None.
Division II-A
1. Providence Christian Academy (12), 60 points. Record (20-6). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Battle Ground Academy, 48 points. Record (24-5). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
3. St. George’s, 36 points. Record (18-5). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
4. Boyd Buchanan, 17 points. Record (17-11). Last week: Ranked No. 5.
5. Franklin Road Academy, 13 points. Record (18-6). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: None.
Division II-AA
1. Knoxville Webb (12), 60 points. Record (27-2). Last week: Ranked No. 1.
2. Briarcrest Christian, 45 points. Record (20-3). Last week: Ranked No. 4.
3. Knoxville Catholic, 38 points. Record (18-5). Last week: Ranked No. 3.
4. Lipscomb Academy, 17 points. Record (24-3). Last week: Ranked No. 2.
5. Pope Saint John Paul II, 11 points. Record (20-6). Last week: Not ranked.
Other teams that received 10 or more points: None.
Publications that participated in the voting include The Tennessean in Nashville, the Knoxville News Sentinel, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, The Daily Herald in Columbia, The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Mirror-Exchange in Milan, The Herald-Citizen in Cookeville and Tri-Cities Sports.
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean’s high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
Tennessee baseball received a commitment from UC Irvine pitcher Ricky Ojeda on June 19.
Ojeda, who is eligible for the MLB draft in July, announced his decision on social media. He visited Tennessee on June 15-16.
The lefthanded Ojeda had a strong 2026 season primarily as a reliever, posting a 3.77 ERA with 62 strikeouts and 20 walks in 62 innings. In 2025, he became the first reliever to be named Big West Pitcher of the Year after going 13-1 with a 3.55 ERA and 83 strikeouts in 66 innings, which also earned him a third-team all-American nod from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Perfect Game.
Whether Ojeda makes it to Tennessee remains an open question. Perfect Game ranked him as the No. 179 prospect for the draft. That would place him in the sixth round.
Should Ojeda join the staff, however, he would instantly become one of the team’s top options out of a bullpen that struggled immensely in 2026. The pitching staff is also under new leadership under pitching coach Austin Knight, who was hired from ECU.
Ojeda is the fourth player to announce they will transfer to Tennessee this offseason, joining two-way Mercer transfer Braydon Kersey, Northwestern State pitcher Brody Trosclair and Air Force infielder Wyatt Hanoian.
Who’s leaving Tennessee baseball
- UTL Jay Abernathy (Oklahoma)
- RHP Nic Abraham
- INF Ariel Antigua (Arizona)
- INF Finley Bates
- RHP Ari Bethea
- OF Hutson Chance
- RHP Sawyer Deering (San Diego State)
- OF Nate Eisfelder
- 1B Evan Hankins (Virginia Tech)
- UTL Hunter High
- RHP Brayden Krenzel (Arkansas)
- INF Manny Marin
- INF Ethan Moore (Missouri)
- UTL Chris Newstrom
- LHP Taylor Tracey
- C Cash Williams (West Virginia)
Who’s joining Tennessee baseball
- RHP/DH Braydon Kersey
- LHP Brody Trosclair
- INF Wyatt Hanoian
- LHP Ricky Ojeda
Emmett Siegel covers Tennessee baseball for Knox News. Email: emmett.siegel@knoxnews.com; X: @EmmettSiegel_
JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – An exciting day of sporting clays in West Tennessee is doubling as a major fight against hunger.
Today’s “Shooting Hunger” event took place at the Carroll County Shooting Sports Park in Huntingdon. It’s a partnership between Tennessee Farm Bureau, Tennessee Farmers Co-Op, Farm Credit Mid-America and Rural First.
Since 2015, Shooting Hunger has helped provide more than three million meals to Tennesseans with money going to food banks, backpack programs, and local hunger relief. A $500 scholarship will also go to the top youth shooter in each flight.
“We’re joining together to raise money for school backpacks to feed hungry kids. We do these, we actually do three of these across the state of Tennessee so at the end of the day we take, we take all the money we put it into a pile and when we divide equally amongst all 95 counties across the state of Tennessee,“ said Bryan Wright, executive vice president for the Tennessee Farm Bureau.
Organizers say events like this matter because one in six children in Tennessee struggle with hunger.
Copyright 2026 WBBJ. All rights reserved.
Tennessee director of track and field Duane Ross gauged the hunger of the men’s 4×100-meter relay team to pull off the upset.
“They said, ‘Coach, we’re going to win,’ ” Ross said. “When they bring you that much confidence, you can grab your popcorn and enjoy the meet.”
No popcorn was consumed, but the appetite was there from the start.
Traunard Folson, Davonte Howell, T’Mars McCallum and Elijah Clark finished in a school record time of 37.98 seconds at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 12 in Eugene, Oregon. It was the the program’s first national title in the 4×100 since 1983 and the fourth-fastest in NCAA history.
Four other relay teams never crossed the line. Auburn, the two-time defending champion, had run an NCAA-record 37.75 in the semifinal, but had a botched handoff on the last exchange. Arkansas, the reigning SEC champion, also dropped its baton, along with Oregon and Houston.
McCallum said staying clean through a race of chaos starts with a focus on winning, even in practice.
“In the moment we can’t really worry about anything else, just what we can control,” McCallum said on June 18. “We came to practice every time with the idea of, ‘OK, we’ve got to make sure this is fixed, because we know if we run that time, we can win.’ “
It was the final event of McCallum’s college career. It didn’t fully hit until the long flight home to Knoxville.
“I was like, we really did it,” he said. “Now we have a school record, the first team to ever go under 38 seconds here.”
Whether belief had anything to do with what went wrong in those four other lanes isn’t something Tennessee’s runners can answer. It’s exactly what they point to for why theirs didn’t.
Clark, a freshman who ran the anchor leg, said winning was just a matter of starting the race.
“We knew we had it the whole time,” he said. “No matter who did what, what happened, we knew what the outcome would come to.”
Ross said the victory wasn’t a surprise inside the program either.
“I wouldn’t say unsung,” Ross said. “I’ve watched this team all year long, and we were expecting to come out of there with the championship. It was a tight competition down to the last event.”
Tennessee finished third in the men’s team standings with 46 points, its best total since 2002.
Howell, a junior who ran the second leg, said the belief behind the relay team’s confidence was built long before the race.
“Three of the four of us already ran under 10 seconds,” he said. “Last year we all trained together during the summer, all lived together. We already had the bond, and adding the freshman on anchor was just a cherry on top. He figured it out at SECs, ran a 10.1, season’s best, and we trusted him to bring it home.”
Clark said the title is already part of something bigger to him.
“The goal is to always make history,” said Clark, who was hired by Tennessee four years ago after a successful run at North Carolina A&T. “It’s been one of my dreams. To be able to be on the wall, especially at a school like this, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
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