By DALE STUBBLEFIELD / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Another local team was knocked out of the Warren Lodge Christmas Tournament, as the Lady Saints of DeKalb County slipped past the Lady Eagles of Morrison 29-20 in Tuesday night action.First-period action saw DeKalb take a small lead. Melita Pelham put Morrison on the board…

By Rob Nunley Usually, in the newspaper business, your final edition of the year will include some opinion piece where a writer reflects on the events of the past 12 months.But not here, my friends.Here, in your always-innovative, often-imitated, never-duplicated friendly neighborhood sports column, we like to take a look forward — not back.So once…

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard Brooks Majors, shown during a Pioneer game earlier this year, scored a season-high 25 points to help Warren County take a win over Hume-Fogg Tuesday at the Overton Christmas Tournament. (Rob Nunley photo) Warren County’s high school basketball teams turned things around on Tuesday, bouncing…

By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS / AP Sports Writer IRVING, Texas — Tennessee’s Phillip Fulmer knows winning is the key to holding down a coaching job, but he thinks firing coaches after short tenures is bad for college football. Fulmer has racked up the longest tenure (13 years) of any current Southeastern Conference coach while watching…

By ROB NUNLEY / Sports Editor for the Southern Standard Dakota Seamons of the Eastside Bulldogs fights off Aaron Pearson of Manchester Westwood to control the ball during the second half of Tuesday night’s game. (Rob Nunley photo) It may have looked ugly early, and it may have seemed even uglier late.But in the end,…

By DALE STUBBLEFIELD / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard Centertown’s Bradley Steg fires up a 3-pointer during Tuesday night’s tournament game. (Dale Stubblefield photo) The Centertown Warriors advanced to the semifinal round of the Warren Lodge Christmas Tournament by downing Cannon County Eastside Tuesday night, 36-24.The Warriors found themselves trailing after the first period…

By JAIME ARON / AP Sports Writer DALLAS — Four years ago, Rick Clausen sat in the stands watching his older brother start at quarterback in the Cotton Bowl. Two years ago, he watched the Cotton Bowl from the sideline as a redshirt freshman. On Saturday, he’ll be the starter in the Cotton Bowl. Sounds…

By COLIN FLY / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE — Minnesota’s Laurence Maroney did everything he could to make backfield mate Marion Barber III crack a smile. The quiet Barber wouldn’t budge at Maroney’s antics, though, and Minnesota hopes to mirror that serious demeanor when it plays Alabama in the Music City Bowl on Friday. “He’s…

By COLIN FLY / Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE — In a town so small it doesn’t even have a Wal-Mart, two Tennessee couples have been arrested in a scheme that used forged bar codes to defraud the retail giant of $1.5 million in 19 states over the last decade. Authorities in the Nashville suburb of…

GATLINBURG (AP) — Seven people died in accidents in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2004, and most of them perished on the roads rather than in the woods. Officials say that makes 2004 a fairly typical year for the country’s most-visited national park. The 520,000-acre preserve straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina border attracts 9…