Sports

Briarfield Academy staff and parents, along with the staff of the Lake Providence Country Club, honored the 2023-24 Briarfield Academy Rebel basketball team with a special ring ceremony. The Rebels won the State Championship at the MAIS Tournament, finishing the year with a 24-3 record.

Briarfield is typically big winners and spring sports and this year is no different. The baseball team made it to playoffs and the track teams brought home district championship trophies for JV Girls and Boys and Varsity Girls and Boys.

In 1975, Briarfield boys basketball won the state championship in a down-to-the-wire shot coming from a player who hadn’t been slated to take it. The play had fallen apart, it landed in his hands, and the rest was history. The men on that team told the story to the Briarfield boys basketball team Thursday night before they headed to Marks, Mississippi, to claim the state championship title for the first time in 49 years.

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Briarfield’s junior varsity girls and boys basketball teams, both coached by Blake Ratliff, brought home championship trophies from the district tournament held at Riverdale Academy on Saturday. In the final game, which the girls team went straight into as the number 1 seed, they defeated Claiborne Academy 24-23, with Anna Beth Russell and Lila Anne Frith high scorers with 8 points each.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) is accepting applications for Wildlife Management Area (WMA) lottery turkey hunts and the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area (WCA) fishing lottery. The deadline to apply is February 7.

Wydett Williams Jr. left Lake Providence a star of the General Trass Panthers football team, went on to spend two years excelling on the field of Delta State University, and next year will be found beneath the lights of University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Malone Stadium.

General Trass Panthers football team was well represented on the 2023 District 2-2A All District Team, according to Head Coach Toriano Wells. Panther players who received all district honors include: first team offense: Kameron Williams, senior, Anton Davis, junior, Joshua Hopkins, junior; second team offense: Keimare Campbell, senior, Aaron Martin, sophomore, Jamarion Powell, sophomore; first team defense: Kameron Williams, Twan Wilson, junior, Ahmonie Williams, junior; second team defense: Stephon Everfield, senior, Dylan Baker, senior, Za’Corrion McCallum, junior, J’Bion Newson, sophomore.

BA AT FRANKLIN 12/4/23 JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS won 32-13 Scorers: Anna Beth Russell 14; Addison Boyett 7 JUNIOR VARSITY BOYS won 32-18 Scorers: Jackson Thornton 19; Deacon Howard 6 VARSITY GIRLS lost 40-49 Scorers: Anna Beth Russell 19; Gracen Thornton 9; Ella Claire Payne 8 VARSITY BOYS won 33-30 Scorers: Brock Johnson 10; Cullen McIntosh 7 BA AT PORTER’S CHAPEL 12/7/23 JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS won 21-13 Scorers: Anna Beth Russell 12 JUNIOR VARSITY BOYS won 32-29 Scorers: Davis Holt 14; Trecin Baker 9 VARSITY GIRLS lost 33-62 Scorers: Anna Beth Russell 9; Ella Claire Payne 6 VARSITY BOYS won 52-50 Scorers: Ben Coullard 18; Cullen McIntosh 15 BA VS. TENSAS 12/8/23 JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS lost 23-32 Scorers: Ainsley Keene 8; Lila Anne Frith 8 JUNIOR VARSITY BOYS won 35-24 Scorers: Jackson Thornton 14; Jackson Perkins 6; Jake Thornton 6 VARSITY GIRLS won 44-16 Scorers: Gracen Thornton 16; Ella Claire Payne 13 VARSITY BOYS won 57-23 Scorers: Cullen McIntosh 17; Miller Holt 12.