Tigers and Bees to Meet in “The Battle of Center Hill” Tonight (Thursday)

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Tigers and Upperman Bees will meet in “The Battle of Center Hill” tonight (Thursday) in Smithville. The Tigers are hoping to reclaim the oar from the Bees who have a three game winning streak against the black and gold.

(Click link below to hear WJLE’s Tiger Talk Program)

https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk-august-27/

The oar, a trophy instituted a few years ago between these two schools, is affectionately nicknamed “The Battle of Center Hill,” because the teams are on opposite sides of Center Hill Lake.

The game was moved from Friday night to tonight (Thursday) due to the threat of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Laura.

The Tigers will be looking for their first victory of the season. DeKalb County lost in their home opener last Friday night to Warren County 30 to 24 while Upperman lost at Cookeville 28 to 0.
Tickets will go on sale, today (Thursday) first come first serve, at 4 pm at the DeKalb County football ticket booth. There will be a limit of 2 tickets per person. Tickets will be sold until the limited seating capacity is reached for the game.

Tiger Coach Steve Trapp, speaking on WJLE’s Tiger Talk program, explained the decision to move the game from Friday to Thursday.

“We all got together and talked it out to make the best decision for us to have a good environment for our fans and a good playing surface as well as a safe event. The biggest concern wasn’t so much the rain. You can play in rain. You might not like it. But the chance for lightning was a concern. I have been in games with lightning. If you sit for a 30 minute delay and it keeps lightning you have to do it again. One year we didn’t get back from McMinnville until about four in the morning because we had so many lightning delays. We think about the safety of our players and fans in a case like that,” he said.

While he doesn’t question his team’s effort in last week’s loss to Warren County, Coach Trapp said there is definitely room for improvement, particularly defensively and in the kicking game.

“I can’t question my guys effort. I think they played hard. We did some good things especially offensively but we stopped ourselves for the most part on some of our drives. I felt like we moved the ball pretty consistently all night. A lot of times when our drives ended we were inside their 30 or 25 yard line. Penalties and turnovers doomed us in that regard. Special teams play was not good other than we had some pretty good returns on kickoffs. Defensively it was the weakest spot of the night. We preach all the time about being lined up right and making sure our eyes are on our work and that we react to what our keys are but after watching the tape we did not do that well. When you play defense like that and face a quality ballplayer like we faced last Friday night they can make you look bad. Ultimately we scored the same amount of touchdowns as Warren County. The difference in the game was being able to make two point conversions, an extra point , and we gave up a field goal so we have room to improve,” said Coach Trapp.

As for the Bees.

“Coach Adam Caine is a great coach. He always gets his teams to play hard and run around fast on defense. The Bees are a disciplined team that typically don’t make mistakes to beat themselves and if you make mistakes they will capitalize on it. Those old coaching clichés still hold true. We have to be good on first down and limit our mistakes in crucial areas, no turnovers and things like that. If both teams play exceptionally well it will be an exceptional game,” said Coach Trapp.

WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Murphy’s Matchups” at 6 p.m. featuring the Guru of Tennessee High School Football Murphy Fair.

“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players Isaac Knowles, T.J. Alexander, and Peyton Leaf. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.

WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby.

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb Prevention Coalition in cooperation with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and the DeKalb County Recovery Court is calling on everyone to join in a special observance of International Overdose Awareness Day on Sunday, August 30.

This annual event will be held at the Gazebo of the Joe L. Evins Park across from the Smithville Fire Department. The program will feature guest speakers, LIVE music, a candle light vigil and free Narcan training. The community is encouraged to join in this effort to remember the lives impacted by the disease of addiction as well as their loved ones.

International Overdose Awareness Day is a global event held on August 31 each year which aims to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death. It also acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends remembering those who have died or had a permanent injury as a result of drug overdose.

Thousands of people die each year from drug overdose. They come from all walks of life. International Overdose Awareness Day spreads the message that the tragedy of overdose death is preventable.

Do you recognize the signs and symptoms of overdose? What is the impact of drug use and overdose on family, friends and those experiencing it?

//www.overdoseday.com/

Learn more at https://www.overdoseday.com/

August 26, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County is known for tourist attractions such as Center Hill Lake and the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival and those scenes are captured in a “Hometown” mural which is now complete on the exterior west wall of the Gayla C. Hendrix Law Office building on the public square.

Hendrix came up with the idea for the mural and turned to local muralist Scott Shaw of Breakthrough Murals to create the design. They invited WJLE down for the unveiling of “Hometown” on Monday morning.

Local Attorney Gayla Hendrix and local Muralist Scott Shaw unveil Hometown A new mural on the side of Hendrix’s law office buil from dwayne page on Vimeo.

“I had the idea of utilizing this wall space for quite some time and traveling to other towns I had seen where a lot of people had done murals . I thought those looked really cool and promoted their small towns. One day I was at the Button Willow Coffee Shop downtown and ran into Scott who was doing a mural for them inside. I introduced myself and told him you are just who I am looking for. I want something like this mural on my building. Scott gave me his business card and we got together and I started sharing ideas I had. I wanted to incorporate scenes from all around our small town including the lake, the Fiddlers Jamboree, and Storytelling. I gave him my ideas and showed him some pictures from the Fiddlers Jamboree website and told him of scenes from the lake that I liked and he came up with the design. We tweaked it a few times and this is the end result” said Hendrix.

Originally from New York, Shaw said he relocated to Phoenix, Arizona in 1994 before settling in Tennessee. Over the years Shaw has dabbled in creating murals for others and was excited to be able to showcase his talents in downtown Smithville.

“I am originally from northern New York. I have been dabbling in murals for probably 20 years part time. I moved to Phoenix in 1994 and worked in child care and did small murals for friends on the side. I was later blessed to be able to come to Tennessee. I work at Federal Mogul here in Smithville. I happened to be at the coffee shop one day and showed a patron some of my work and Joe and Angela Brown of Button Willow asked me if I would be interested in doing a mural for them. I started a mural there and then ran into Gayla who told me about her great idea for this mural. She asked me if I would be interested in doing it. I was so excited to work with Gayla to create this amazing mural for the wall and town,” said Shaw.

The Mural appears to actually break through the brick wall in sort of a 3D image and depicts a man whittling as a pastime, a young man with his arms raised holding a banjo over his head facing a lake view, a young lady fiddler, a youngster playing a bass fiddle, and a woman sharing a story with a child.

Hendrix said she hadn’t thought much about giving the mural a name until people began asking about it.

“A lot of people would drive by and stop to ask questions because they were curious about it. They would ask what the painting was called. Scott and I thought about it and I talked to my sister and we came up with the idea “Hometown”,” said Hendrix.

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