The DeKalb County Tiger football team – off to a 2-0 start for the first time in 17 years – is ranked in this week’s Associated Press poll. The Tigers garned 17 votes for the top ten in Class 3A, which was good enough to place them at number-12 in the weekly poll. The poll was released by the Tennessean newspaper on Wednesday morning.
The ranking is believed to be the first for the Tiger football team since being ranked in the Nashville Banner’s top 5 early in the 1991 season.
David Lipscomb is the top-ranked team in Class 3A. Lipscomb pulled in 11 first place votes and 134 total points to earn the top spot just ahead of Knoxville Catholic, who had three first place votes and 127 total points. Lipscomb beat the Tigers’ opponent for this week – Greenbrier – 42-3, last Friday night. McMinn Central, Giles County and DeKalb’s Region 4-3A foe, White House, round out the top five.
Teams six through ten are as follows: Dyersburg, Knoxville Fulton, Jackson South Side Anderson County and Austin-East. Marshall County earned 19 points to earn the number-11 ranking, just two points ahead of the Tigers at number-12. Sheffield and Mitchell round out the poll’s top 14 spots.
Meanwhile, Tiger quarterback Hunter Poteete is the top-rated passer in the mid-state according to staistics collected by the Tennessean. Poteete is credited for 491 yards on 29-of-61 passing, with six touchdowns. Poteete is also listed among the mid-state’s rushing leaders with 146 yards on 38 carries and two touchdowns. J.J. Herriott and Abram Edwards are also ranked in the top ten in the mid-state in receiving. Herriott has nine catches for 178 yards and two touchdowns, while Edwards has six catches for 144 yards and a touchdown. Logan Roller and Matthew Collier are also mentioned among the tackle leaders. Roller is listed with 11 tackles, while Collier has 10 for the season.
The Tigers will welcome Greenbrier to the VanHooser Stadium, this Friday night, for the Region 4-3A opener for both teams. DeKalb County will be looking to snap a 14-game losing streak to the Bobcats, a team the Tigers have not beaten since the 1979 season. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night, and WJLE plans live coverage.

One of the men the Tennessee Highway Patrol and others spent two days looking for in the Temperance Hall area almost two weeks ago is dead.
Sheriff Patrick Ray says on Wednesday, August 27th, Nicholas Hixon was at his home in Independence, Missouri, where he was found dead by a family member. Hixon apparently died of a self inflicted gunshot wound.
The Examiner, a Missouri newspaper, reports that the funeral for the 19 year old Hixon will be tonight (September 3rd) at the Mount Washington Chapel Mausoleum in Independence, Missouri
Hixon and Kirk Douglas Fincher, who were spotted by the THP on Interstate 40 Saturday, August 23rd, bailed out of the stolen car they were in near the Walker Creek Bridge at Temperance Hall after leading officers on a pursuit from Smith County into DeKalb County.
Fincher showed up at a residence in the area on Sunday and was held at gunpoint by a private citizen until officers arrived.
The search continued for Hickson, who authorities initially thought was still at large in the area.
However, Sheriff Ray says the TBI later learned that Hixon left the area enroute to Missouri. He apparently caught a ride to Nashville on Sunday morning, August 24th and used someone’s cell phone to call his mother in Missouri.
The TBI has also learned that Hixon got someone to check him into the Knight’s Inn on Spring Street in Nashville using a ficticious name Sunday evening where he spent the night.
He was last seen at a Greyhound bus terminal in Nashville Monday night, August 25th. His picture was captured at 6:01 p.m. Monday on a video tape from a surveillance camera at the bus station.
Sheriff Ray says Hixon was facing charges in Tennessee, but not in DeKalb County.

Two from DeKalb County lost their lives and four others were injured in a two vehicle crash Monday afternoon in Warren County.
Dead are 22 year old Bryan Timothy Walker and 19 year old Casaundra R. Maple both of Smithville.
The accident occurred around 4:14 p.m. on Highway 56 at the intersection of Capshaw Road.
According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, 20 year old Miranda L. Maple of Dowelltown was driving north on Highway 56 in a 1995 Nissan Maxima when she attempted to make a left turn onto Capshaw Road and turned into the path of a loaded southbound 1990 Dodge one ton roll back wrecker, driven by 59 year old Charles Larry Pack of McMinnville. After impact, both vehicles went off the highway, over an embankment and into an open field where they came to rest about 50 feet off the highway.
Both Bryan Walker and Casaundra Maple were passengers in the Nissan Maxima along with 15 year old Brittany Smith also from Smithville.
Miranda Maple was airlifted from the scene by a Life Flight helicopter ambulance and flown to Vanderbilt Hospital while Smith, who had to be cut from the wreckage by emergency workers, was airlifted by Life Force and flown to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. Walker and Casaundra Maple died at the scene
A 13 year old boy of McMinnville was a passenger of the Pack vehicle. Both Pack and the juvenile were injured and transported by EMS to River Park Hospital where they were treated and released.
The crash was investigated by Trooper Bruce Pryor and Sergeant Billy Prater of the Tennessee Highway Patrol along with the THP Critical Incident Response Team. The North Warren Fire Department and the Warren County EMS were also on the scene.

All pre kindergarten classes are full this year, but you can have your named placed on a waiting list if or when there is a vacancy.
Michelle Burklow, Supervisor of Instruction for Pre-K to 6th grade says around 100 students are being served by the pre-k program this year. “Several years ago we were able to receive a pre-k program. It was referred to as a pilot program. We received that at Smithville Elementary and DeKalb West School. At that time, we could take three and four year olds into the programs. With the success that was shown across the state with the pre-k programs, we were able to expand. At the present time we have four pre-k classrooms at Smithville Elementary and one at DeKalb West School. We have completely filled our classrooms for this school year and we’re really excited about that because all the children are coming in, we’re all starting at the same time of the year, and the teachers are getting to know an entire class. It’s just absolutely wonderful that our community has taken advantage of the pre-k programs. We had several packets picked up on registration day that have not been returned to us. Even though our classrooms are completely full we have started a waiting list and that simply means that when you turn in your application, your child’s name will go on a list, and if we have a spot to open up in the pre-k classrooms, we will call the parents on that list and ask them if they would like to add their child to the class at that time.”
Burklow says all instructors are certified and the curriculum is well structured. “We can have up to 20 students in a classroom. All of our pre-k teachers are certified. They hold a teaching certificate in pre-k. They also do the 30 hours of in-service, professional development training each year. They are CPR and first aid trained and certified. As far as our educational assistants, we do have to keep a one to ten ratio in the pre-k classrooms so each classroom has an educational assistant. The educational assistant is highly qualified under No Child Left Behind guidelines. The first year that they are with us, they complete 18 hours of training. After that first initial year then they only have to complete 12 hours of training, but they too are CPR and first aid certified. Just like the regular school day, our pre-k day is the same. The children are given an opportunity to ride the bus each day. We have a seven hour day. We have an “OWL” curriculum, it’s called “Opening the World of Learning” that we use as our main curriculum. We have the letter people, which is introducing the alphabet to the children through puppets and inflatable people. We also use Frog Street Press as supplements to this curriculum. Concerning the pre-k curriculum, the children are not at a table all day long. The state requires that the children go to centers and are given an opportunity to choose a center for two and a half hours a day. They may decide to go to dramatic play or they may decide to go to blocks or an art activity. They may choose to do a puzzle. So there’s two and a half hours a day that the children choose what they would like to go into and to socialize with their peers.”
For more information, call Michelle Burklow at 215-2107, Clay Farler at 215-2101, or call Smithville Elementary or DeKalb West School.

A 25 year old Smithville man was seriously injured in a pickup truck wreck late Friday night on Highway 70 east on Sligo hill.
Trooper Brian Raymond of the Tennessee Highway Patrol says Bryan Officer was traveling west in a 1988 Chevy pickup truck when he failed to negotiate a curve, overcorrected, and over turned. The truck came to rest upright on it’s wheels. Officer was ejected from the vehicle. He was taken by DeKalb EMS to DeKalb Community Hospital and later transported to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville.