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The Final Horne: Thanks to run by High School Teams in State Tournament add ‘Hoops City’ to list of Clarksville’s nicknames

The Final Horne with James HorneClarksville, TN – Every city is known for something and its fair to say Clarksville is know for many things. Tobacco, Wilma Rudolph, Fort Campbell, Harry Galbreath, the 1999 Tornado, Mason Rudolph and Austin Peay (the governor and the university), are just a few.

Clarksville’s nicknames have ranged from: The Queen City, Queen of the Cumberland, Gateway to the New South to the current Tennessee’s Top Spot.

Fly Williams addresses the crowd in the Dunn Center during his jersey retirement ceremonyFebruary 5th, 2009.
Fly Williams addresses the crowd in the Dunn Center during his jersey retirement ceremony February 5th, 2009.

But Clarksville also has a long history with basketball, with James ‘Fly’ Williams, Pat Summitt, Trenton Hassell, Shawn Marion, Bubba Wells, Marcus Maybin, Drake Reed and Dawn Evans, all shinning a considerable light during their days on the court here.

And this year glut of basketball players going to play on the Division I level is quite impressive with Northeast’s Alex Poythress (Kentucky); Clarksville High’s Bashaara Graves (Tennessee), Chandler Cooper (Florida), Jessy Ward, (Mississippi State), Tiasha Gray (Austin Peay), and Tia Nicholson (Tennessee Tech); Kenwood’s Blake Jenkines (Hampton University) and Rossview’s Kyle Weldon (Army).

Clarksville High's starting five
Clarksville High's starting five

Plus throw in Clarksville High’s Daijon Williams, who was an McDonald’s All-American candidate along with Weldon, Poythress and Graves. And Poythress and Graves are playing in said game on in Chicago on March 28th.

They along with the Lipscomb group of Malcolm and Martin Smith (Clarksville Academy), Zavion Williams(West Creek), Damarius Smith (Kenwood), Tennessee State’s Jasmin Shuler (Kenwood) and Rachel Allen (Northeast) and Austin Peay’s April Thomas (Northeast), Tyrone Caldwell (Clarksville High) and Brandon Burney (Montgomery Central).

And I know I’ve forgotten some, but please don’t hold it against me, just let me know and I’ll add them to the list.

That expanse of talent is one reason Clarksville has been so dominant on the high school level here of late.

Just how dominant?

The City of Clarksville has had a boys high school basketball team represent it every year in the TSSAA Class AAA State Tournament since 2007 beginning with Clarksville High in 2007 and 2008, Northeast in 2009 and 2010 and West Creek and Clarksville High last season.

Northeast's Alex Poythress
Northeast's Alex Poythress

There’s good chance Northeast will be back this year with Poythress and don’t count out Ted Young and the Wildcats cause Williams, Drake Young and Anthony Hightower make for a scrappy bunch.

On the girls side, Clarksville’s been represented in two of the last four state championship tournaments with Northeast in 2007 and Clarksville High going last year, and very likely again this.

So just add ‘Hoops City’ to Clarksville’s name plate and just know that I’ve got next.

James D. Horne
James D. Hornehttp://www.clarksvillesportsnetwork.com/
James D. Horne began his writing career at the Carrollton Missouri Democrat in 1995, and was the assistant sports editor/writer for the Hammond Louisiana Daily Star for two years.  In 1998, Horne became the Missouri Basketball beat writer for the Columbia Daily Tribune. He joined The Leaf-Chronicle in Oct. 2003 as the lead prep writer and became the Austin Peay beat writer in March of 2005. During his career he won a state association sports writing award at the Daily Star and two while at the Leaf-Chronicle. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Horne earned his B.A in communications from Central Methodist University in Fayette Missouri.
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