MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — In Rutherford County, Blackman Middle School girls are running the basketball court while slam dunking on the competition.
For Coach Katherine Urell, there’s more to the sport than the score.
“I don’t want them to just win games,” explained Urell. “It’s about building your character, representing yourself well, representing Blackman well.”
But the score doesn’t lie, they are a winning team. When News 2 met with the Flames in early February, their record was 187-36 since fall of 2015.
Every season since fall 2018, they’ve be crowned the Rutherford County regular season champions. They were back-to-back state champions in 2022 and 2023.
“It’s not the sole purpose of why I coach,” said Urell. “Being a family, having a good character, all of those are key things that I emphasize in my program.”
Urell said she and the other coaches are here to support students passions.
“They push us and motivate us and they keep us together as a family,” said 8th grade student, Addie Moore. “When a problem strikes up or it appears, they definitely help us get through it.”
Moore is one of nearly 50,500 6th through 8th grade students involved in a school sport this year. That’s across 521 Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association schools.
The number is up about 5,800 students from last year.
Coach Urell said she believes the newly added incentive of championships helps build interest.
“They’ve kind of established a goal for middle school athletes now,” said Urell. “It’s not just, oh you compete in your county and you’re done, they’ve created that, ‘No, you’re going to play other teams across the state.’”
