Stories from Thursday, May 3, 2012

Jace Bryant announced on Monday that he has resigned his position as head coach of the Community Vikings basketball team to take a similar position at Oldham County High School in Kentucky. In this day and age coaches do not always get to leave on their own terms, but the former Freed Hardeman star, who compiled a 67-71 record in five seasons, departs the Viking program as one of the most respected coaches in the region...

Bedford County is home to many unique people, places and events. Some have become legendary, although sometimes more for participants than local residents. One such event is the annual Strolling Jim 40-mile ultra-marathon held the first weekend of each May in Wartrace...

Rock by rock, inch by inch, for hours on end a team of experts searched Duck River on Wednesday for additional traces of Bobby Smelcer, whose skull was found nearby in April and identified Monday. All to no avail. "We haven't found anything," Detective Sgt. Brian Crews of the Shelbyville Police Department said at mid-afternoon...

Michael Gregory has announced his candidacy for a District 2 seat on Bedford County Board of Commissioners in the Aug. 2 general election. Gregory is a lifelong resident of Bedford County and a graduate of Cascade High School. He attended Middle Tennessee State University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in animal science. ...

CHAPEL HILL -- Before Wednesday's game against the Forrest Middle Rockets, Cascade coach Josh Hammonds told his team that if the Rockets were going to beat them, they were going to have to make big plays in order to do so. Unfortunately for the Champs, the Rockets came through with such a play at the plate in the top of the seventh to end the Champs' season with a 4-3 loss...

No. 1 Page hosts No. 8 Fayetteville Thursday 6 p.m. No. 4 Summitt hosts No. 5 MTCS Thursday 4 p.m. No. 2 Community hosts No. 7 Cascade Thursday 6 p.m. No. 3 Marshall Co. hosts No. 6 Forrest Friday 5 p.m. Note: Semifinals and finals to be held at Forrest with the semifinal round on Tuesday, May 8 and the Finals round on Thursday May 10...

It was a tough afternoon for the Shelbyvile tennis teams in their matches against St. Andrews on Tuesday. The Eagles and Eaglettes dropped a pair of tough matches to St. Andrews, 4-3 on the boys' side and 7-0 on the girls'. The Eagles gave it their all, but in the end fell just shy of knocking off St. Andrews 4-3. Jonathan Smotherman and Ben Morgan picked up the only singles wins against the Mountain Lions...

It's been a good year for the city as far as property and sales taxes go, Shelbyville council was told this week. City manager Jay Johnson briefed the council on Shelbyville's finances during the third quarter of the fiscal year, as they prepare for a number of meetings this month focusing on next year's budget...

The focus for Shelbyville's city council over the next few weeks will be the 2012 -2013 budget, and part of that process begins tonight. A total of 22 nonprofit and social service agencies are due to make their presentations to the council at 6 p.m., in the courtroom of the Shelbyville police department...

Shelbyville Central High School Theatre Arts Group will present the classic Sherlock Holmes this weekend at the SCHS Theater. The four-act play is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous character Sherlock Holmes, who first appeared in publication in 1887 and would live out his fictional exploits as a London-based "consulting detective," in four novels and a series of short stories...

Sobriety roadside safety checkpoints are planned in three locations over the next two weeks, according to the Bedford County Sheriff's Department. One is planned during the week of May 6 at Huffman Road and Red Hill Road in Normandy (the intersection east of the town toward Normandy Lake). During the week of May 15 checkpoints are planned at the intersections of State Route 437 (the Shelbyville bypass) at Railroad Road and U.S. 41A South at Mullins Mill Road...

James Bryant "B.B." Bowden, 67, of Tullahoma, died Monday at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Tullahoma Funeral Home with Derek Purser and Jack Hice officiating. Visitation will begin at 11 a.m.