Tech honored at second annual Hometown Champions Night
Former Tennessee Tech women’s basketball coach Bill Worrell received the Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday evening, while All-OVC right-side Cody Dodd was also honored at the second annual Cookeville/Putnam County Hometown Champions Night hosted by the Cookeville-Putnam County Sports Council.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Former Tennessee Tech women’s basketball coach Bill Worrell received the Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday evening, while All-OVC right-side Cody Dodd was also honored at the second annual Cookeville/Putnam County Hometown Champions Night hosted by the Cookeville-Putnam County Sports Council.
Worrell was part of more than 500 Golden Eagle women’s victories, including 408 wins and 12 Ohio Valley Conference championships during his 20 seasons as head coach of the women’s basketball program.
A New Jersey native, Worrell played basketball at Tennessee Tech from 1964 to 1967, lettering each year under coach Kenny Sidwell. Following his playing days, he spent two years as a graduate assistant with the men’s squad.
Worrell received his B.S. degree from Tech in 1968, followed by a master’s degree in 1969. Prior to his return to Cookeville in 1981, Worrell coached in the high school and junior college ranks for 10 years in New Jersey.
Worrell was inducted in to the TTU Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
Dodd, a senior-to-be on the Tech Volleyball team, earned the Katherine Brown Female Athlete of the Year Award. The 6-foot-4 Cookeville Native earned a place on the 2014 All-Ohio Valley Conference team following an impressive 2014 season where she finished the regular season with 408 kills, 306 digs, 85 blocks, and 46 aces. She led the conference in points (4.36) and service aces (.40), and was second in kills (3.58) in overall play. In conference play, she finished first in aces (0.44), and second in both points (4.75) and kills (3.97) to the 2014 OVC Player of the Year Scottie Ingram of Murray State. Dodd is the first player to earn the honor of All-OVC since Kelsey Grey earned the honor following the 2012 season.
Recently, Dodd was selected to participate in the U.S. Collegiate National Team (CNT) program that will train and compete in conjunction with the USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championships this summer.
Pictured, from left: TTU Director of Athletics Mark Wilson, Cody Dodd, and Bill Worrell
Long-time Tech fan, the late Ken Peterson was named the Hoke White Super Fan. Peterson was a huge support of Tech athletics, and attended Tech basketball game for years. He was a Murray State guard and graduate, but he was proud to support the Golden Eagles.
The evening was concluded with an inspiration speech from Inquoris “Inky” Johnson, a former Tennessee cornerback who suffered a life-threating injury in 2006 in a game versus Air Force. Inky has used his life experiences to help mentor and motive.
