April 17, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
A DCHS Lady Tiger Basketball star will be playing collegiate ball next season.
Lydia Brown, a senior and the 2019 team Most Valuable Player, signed a letter of intent Wednesday with Vol State Community College to play for the Lady Pioneers.
Joining Lydia at the signing were her parent’s Stephen and Amanda Brown along with Vol State Women’s Basketball Coach Otis Key, DCHS Lady Tiger Coach Danny Fish, and her Lady Tiger Teammates.
“I toured there last year and I just loved the campus and the people there were so nice and then when I got the opportunity to play basketball I knew I couldn’t pass it up. I had prayed about it forever and but I knew this is the school I wanted to go to,” said Lydia.
Her field of study there will be in the Physical Therapy Assistant Program.
“I am very excited for Lydia. She has worked so hard for this moment. She didn’t play a lot her freshman year but played a little more her sophomore year. Lydia was hurt pretty much her entire junior year but she made a commitment after that to get healthy and this year she really turned it on. There weren’t many teams that had a better shooter on their team than we had on ours in Lydia. She ended up being All-District and All-Region and was our team MVP. It’s a great success story about persistence. She has done an excellent job and has been an excellent student. I am very happy for her. It’s well deserved, I believe she will make a big impact there at Vol State,” said Coach Fish.
“I am happy to have her. This will start year six for me as head coach in August. Four out of those first five years I have had either the nation’s leading or the conference leading three point shooter on my team so no pressure on Lydia coming in but I am graduating a shooter this year who led the nation in the conference for two years in shooting three’s so Lydia is going to come in and play immediately. She will have to come in and learn the system and of course get up to speed on the college game but she will not have to be looking over her shoulder. She will have a green light to come in and play her game. I’m expecting great things from her,” said Coach Key.
Along with having earned the MVP honor, Lydia was named to the 2nd Team All-District and 1st Team All-Region.
The DeKalb County Lady Tigers wrapped up an historic season losing to Marshall County in the quarterfinals of the Class AA State Tournament at Murfreesboro in March.They closed out the campaign with a record of 23-12. It was the first State Tournament appearance for a DCHS girls team since 1965.
Volunteer State Community College, popularly known as Vol State, offers more than 100 programs in five major divisions: Business and Technology, Humanities, Math and Science, Social Science and Education, and Health Sciences. The public, two-year school has been in operation for more than 45 years. The College offers the associate of arts and associate of science transfer degrees in more than 40 areas of emphasis. More than 25 programs offer the associate of applied science degree, designed for direct entry into the workforce. Additional technical certificate programs require less than two years of study and are designed for specific career fields. Classes are held at the main campus in Gallatin, with degree-earning center at Vol State at Livingston in Overton County. Off-campus learning sites include the Highland Crest facility in Springfield and the Cookeville Higher Education Center (CHEC). Online courses are also a fast-growing part of the College academic line-up. More than 9,000 credit-seeking students are enrolled in the average fall semester. The College offers Continuing Education courses for workforce development, including OSHA training. Community events and activities extend the campus reach. There are many music, art and cultural programs open to the public throughout the school year.
Vol State is a member of the Western Division of the Tennessee Junior and Community College Athletic Association.