By By BRUCE HIXON Sports Editor
Pairings have been set for Friday's Class 3A Area 1 Softball Tournament, which will be held at the Brewton Area YMCA Park.
T.R. Miller will begin defense of the championship it won last year when it meets W.S. Neal at 2 p.m. Straughn and Clarke County will hook up in the other first-round game, which will also be played at 2 p.m.
Two fields will be used during the first two rounds of the double elimination tournament. Only one field will be necessary to complete the final three rounds of the tournament.
Although T.R. Miller has compiled a 5-0 record against Area 1 opponents (3-0 against Straughn and 2-0 against W.S. Neal), the pairings were made through a draw since all schools in the tournament have not played each other.
The top two teams will advance to sub-state competition next week.
Admission to the tournament will be $5.
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T.R. Miller High School graduate and former W.S. Neal head football coach Ronnie Cottrell has landed the head coaching position at Carroll High School, a Class 5A member located at Ozark.
Cottrell has not coached since 2001 when he was fired as recruiting cooridinator and assistant coach at the University of Alabama in the wake of an NCAA investigation.
Cottrell filed a $60 million lawsuit against the NCAA for compensatory and punitive damages. That lawsuit is still pending.
Cottrell, who also spent eight years as recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at Florida State, has not coached in the high school ranks since he left W.S. Neal after the 1988 season, his only year at the school. Cottrell had also served as the head coach at Flomaton from 1985-87 and Kinston in 1984.
The Brewton Babe Ruth League has pushed back the start of its season until May 9. Games were originally have scheduled to start this past Friday.
The Opening Day schedule remains the same. The May 9 games still pit the O's against the Blue Jays at 5:30 p.m. and the Red Sox against the Tigers at 7:30 p.m.
The league's other team,
the Twins, will open its portion of the season May 10 against the Red Sox at 5:30 p.m.
All games will be played at T.R. Miller High School.