Every week Scott Wallace and his WTNTrib Radio team covers the best sports news in the Metro-Nashville area.
Nashville Black Coaches Association To Honor Six
The Nashville Black Coaches Association would like to announce its annual banquet. It will be held April 24, 2014 at Martin Luther King High School from 6:30-8:30pm. The NBCA is a non-profit organization that started in 1995.
“We will be honoring outstanding individuals who have made contributions to the city of Nashville,” said Cane Ridge Head Basketball Coach Marlin Simms. “We will also announce coaches of the year awards in the sports of Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball, and Football. We want as many people to come out for this great cause.”
A list of the people we will be honored including Dr. David Jones Jr., Dr. Aldorothy Wright, John Younger, Richard Anderson, Dr. Samella Junior- Spence, and Julie Waters. On this special evening, the organization will also be giving out three scholarships to our Nashville youth. This event is open to the public. The cost of dinner is $15.00. If you would like to attend please contact James “Doc” Shelton at james.shelton@mnps.org or (615) 329-8400 ext. 1500.
Venom Back To Work
The Nashville Venom will be back in action at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium tomorrow night as they will take on the Alabama Hammers for the second time this season. The Venom spoiled the defending Professional Indoor Football League Hammers “banner night” by convincingly defeating them 57-40. The Hammers will be looking for revenge when they come to the “Snake Pit”.
“They won’t be happy when they get here because they are 0-3,” said Head coach Billy Back on WTNTribune Radio’s Bench Press. “We will have to play well to beat them. We can’t take them lightly. I don’t like to lose to be honest. It will not be good to allow a no win team to come to your place and defeat you. I remember when my team lost two games in a row and I was not easy to live with. I love Nashville. We would like to have more butts in the seats. The fans were loud. It sounded like it was 4,000 people in the stands. Just think if we can get 6,000 in there.”
Coach Back has been an extremely successful coach during his tenure as an indoor football coach. He has won two championships and has a 42-11 record. He contributes hard work, attention to detail and choosing guys that “look the part” as a key to his success.
“I tell my guys all the time to dress like the part that you want to play not the part that you are in. These guys want to play in the NFL or CFL. Drinking and smoking won’t get you there. We understand that these guys have jobs but the hours they are off they have to work. Some guys get it. Guys like Scooter Rogers and Mack Ogletree and Anthony Kelly stay in the gym working out. A guy like Ernest Ramsey III is the type of team player that I like. He was always at D1 working on his game and made the team. You heard the saying that a player looks like Tarzan and plays like Jane. Well, if a guy doesn’t look like Tarzan he won’t get a chance to play like Jane for me.”
The Venom are 2-0 going into the game tomorrow. Tickets for the game are still available at www.nashvillevenom.com or by calling 615.223.1272. For more information on home games, season ticket packages, and other ways to get involved with exciting Nashville Venom indoor football, contact the team at 615.223.1272.
Ricky Collins Gets Inducted Into The Hall of Fame
Retired Metro Basketball Coach Ricky Collins was inducted into the Metro Coaches Hall of Fame in a ceremony held this past week. Collins, who coached 35 years including stops at Pearl-Cohn and Whites Creek took two teams to Final Fours, four teams to sub state and coached many successful college and professional players including Ron Slay, John Henderson, Andre Starling and WTNTribune Sports Radio’s own McKinley Young Jr. Coach Collins credits family as the contributing factor in his caching success.
“My wife (Andrea Collins) was like my coach during my long tenure. She was very supportive of me. She has the ability to turn a negative into a positive. I just don’t know if I could have done this as long without her on my side. I am sure she heard some horrible things being said from fans about me at times but she never said them to me. She was always the same after a win or loss. My older sister Ida Garrett is like that too. She loves all sports and would always encourage me. It is good to have an older sibling have your back like that.”
Andrea Collins held the family together. She grew up around the sport of basketball. Her father, Ben Jackson, starred at Tennessee State University and played with the Harlem Globetrotters. Having a son and daughter that was very active in school and a husband that was a head coach is tough to juggle. Daughter Ashley was a star on Pearl-Cohn’s basketball and track teams. She also was on the flag team and was an honor student. It was easy for Andrea to attend games because her husband and daughter were at the same school. When it was time for their son to go to high school a tough decision was made. Mrs. Collins did what was best for the family.
“I knew our son Brian was going to be special when he was in junior high school,” said Andrea. “I remember he went out for the team and a parent and I snuck a peak at practice. While the parent said she hoped that her son made the team, I told her that I was watching to see what player my son was going to replace. I decided that it would be best that Brian attend Whites Creek because it would have been bad for him to play for Ricky. People are mean at times and probably would have made comments about him receiving preferential treatment because he played for his father. Sending him to Whites Creek canceled all of that. When they played each other they would tease the other one about what they were going to do. I just sat back and listened because I knew I would be happy for someone after the game.”
Ricky Collins retired and was immediately asked by the head coach of Columbia State Community College to help him out at times. The Collins family was not reluctantly by the gesture and immediately said yes. He helped the coach take the team to the Elite Eight of the junior college championships last month. The team was ranked as high as third in country. The coach that asked him to help was no other than his son Brian.
“I tell you I am blessed,” said Ricky. “You would think that the father would have his son on the bench but I got to watch my son coach. I enjoyed watching him handle issues on and off the court. Andrea and I have two great children that are successful. I can’t ask for more than that. To get this award after being retired for one year is special. To watch my son follow in my footsteps is amazing. I know The Lord has my back. This has been an amazing ride.”
Featured Image Caption: The Collins Family l-r Ashley Collins, Coach Ricky Collins, Andrea, Lakeya and Brian Collins
Sales’ Pitch
Won’t a gay athlete divide a locker room? I mean, all those men have to shower with him, and he might, you know, look at them. A gay man won’t be athletic enough to really compete in a high-adrenaline, contact sport like football, right? Gay men can’t really be good enough to be a productive player, right? Sure gay women can compete in team sports, but no way that a gay man will be able to. Remember when Jason Collins came out last Spring, and no one signed him? Many thought that his sexuality would scare teams away. Besides, his stats were never great. No NBA team ever signed Collins to score 10 points a game or dish out assists. You know what Collins’ calling card in the NBA has always been? To rebound, set tough screens, and give 6 hard, clean fouls on defense. And Collins does just that. Yes, a gay man is called upon to do the “dirty work” in the highest level of basketball in the world. When the Brooklyn Nets signed Collins in February to a 10-day contract (he is now signed through the rest of the season), some thought it was a bit of publicity stunt by a team trying to improve their playoff hopes. Actually they did sign Collins because they were trying to improve their playoff hopes. Collins was signed the morning of Feb. 23 and played that night against the Lakers His box score read 11 minutes, two rebounds, and 5 fouls. Those aren’t minutes normally given to a publicity stunt are they? Nets head coach Jason Kidd played with Collins during his NBA career and knew what he would bring: the aforementioned toughness and veteran leadership. What Collins hasn’t brought is any form of distraction.

Jason Sales
Neither did Michael Sam. In the nation’s best college football conference (this isn’t debatable either), a homosexual athlete was named the best defensive player. Let me repeat some key words: homosexual, best, and defensive. We’re not talking best kicker or punter, but a defensive end who had 11.5 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in the SEC. Those poor SEC quarterbacks, especially Vanderbilt’s Austyn Carta-Samuel and Florida’s Tyler Murphy. Those men were sacked three times apiece by a gay man last season. Think of those offensive linemen who couldn’t prevent a gay man from dominating a game. Sam said he told his Missouri Tiger teammates about his sexuality before the 2013 season began, and no one seemed to have any issue. GASP! College kids, football players at that, were not being worried about Sam’s sexual preference? The team actually decided to not bring it up unless he did. Some questioned the timing of Sam’s open announcement, why would he do this before the Combine?
In high school, I wrestled and played football. To high school students, these sports were opposite ends of the machismo spectrum. The most common thought that came along with wrestling was how “gay” it was. These ideas stemmed from the tight singlet wrestlers wore and the fact there was close contact with another male. When people would approach me with this talk, I would always encourage them to come to one of our practices and see how tough they were. One day, one of the school’s “tough guys” came to one wrestling practice to see if he wanted to join the team. During that practice, I dislocated my pinkie right in front of him. He got up, walked out of the room and never returned. I guess that injury was too gay for him.
I would love to see one day where professional sports can fully say they accept people from all walks of life, including an openly homosexual player. This sounds like an ideal world for homosexual athletes, but our world in general isn’t fully accepting yet. A person’s play on the court, field, etc, should be what we worry about. So for every Britney Griner and Sheryl Swoopes the WNBA has, how many Jason Collins and Michael Sam’s are in the sporting world, scared to come forward and disclose their true identities?
Over the years it seems that being classy was not cool for Prom. Check out these Metro High School Athletes that have dispelled that perception.
- Maplewood three sport star Dante’ hall with his date Rishae Hassell and Hall’s brother former Maplewood football star Ladarrious Vanlier
- MLK star basketball player Jalen Duke and his date Chelsea Duke (no relation)
- Jordan Majors and her date East Nashville two sport star Pat Smith.