Best Girls Teams 2025-26
This is part of the Simmons superlatives - a recap of the top high school athletes in warren county chosen by Jeff Simmons.
Sorry for the delay in posting these today - I had a fun day out in the community at our yard sale and car wash, and it was also a delight to talk to all the people I saw at the Phyllis Prater Memorial Steak Cook-off as well. It’s truly one of the coolest things about Warren County that we will all show up for one another to support great causes.
Thanks to everybody who showed up at Boyd and thanks to everybody who went out on the right in Morrison and got some delicious grub. Special thanks to the Sturgeon Sportswear cook team that hooked me up with some wings and hot dogs at the cook-off. It was delicious!
Alright, so let’s wrap this up with the Best Teams on the girls side. As always, these are MY picks from 2025-26 and it’s focused solely on high school teams. I hope you enjoy.
Lady Pioneer flag football
I’m going to be honest: It was a coin-flip between the top two basically until the moment I hit send. I know it feels like this should have been a no-brainer, but considering this squad and volleyball shared athletes and coaches, I’m not shocked they were so tied together in my mind.
Ultimately, I think what put flag football to the top in my mind was my go-to time capsule theory. When in doubt, go with the team that I think people will remember the most in 20 years.
This group may be memorable because it could be the group everybody points to as the launching point of one of the most dominant programs in the state for years to come. Yes, I know this wasn’t the inaugural team, but it was the inaugural year that the TSSAA had state tournaments for flag football and the Lady Pioneers were right on the doorstep from the jump.
The record (17-2) is elite. The standout players are almost too many to list - seriously, Dorlia Haycox and Ariyanna Rippy won offensive and defensive region MVPs and some would argue they weren’t even the two best players on the squad.
But what truly stands out is what it looked like when they were at their peak. Honestly, there’s been few teams I’ve ever covered in Warren County that looked truly unbeatable when it had its A game. And the Lady Pioneers played their A game a lot.
There’s some talent leaving (including three college signees), but there’s an insane amount of production coming back. That should scare the rest of Tennessee.
The 2026 Lady Pioneers were legendary. The next version may be state champions.
Lady Pioneer volleyball
Everybody who has been reading my work long enough knows I’m a massive San Antonio Spurs fan. And while this week hasn’t been so fun, most of the 2025-26 season has been a blast because it felt like something was happening that nobody expected.
It’s similar to the feeling I had when watching the Lady Pioneers last year on the court. It’s not to say that I thought they would be bad (far from it), but I really just thought it was going to take a couple of years for what I believed to be elite talent to find its footing at the varsity level and take charge.
The Lady Pioneers didn’t need a warm-up year - the future stars were good from the start, while the seasoned veterans were ready to push them to great heights.
It wasn’t just the winning season against a tough district that was impressive, it was the fact that volleyball finally made the leap I think coach Erin Blalock had been hoping would happen for years. Some of their games started to become “appointment” viewing - you had to go see them play to get the full effect.
By the end of the season, the Lady Pioneers weren't just winning matches - they were putting on a show. The student section was rocking, fans new and old were into every volley and the team blended together to become a force.
I suspect this program is just scratching the surface of what it can ultimately be. The young talent isn’t going to be young much longer - it’s just going to be elite talent playing at a high level.
WCHS Tennis
No girls team in Warren County has been more consistently successful over the last two years than tennis - it’s true. And if you don’t realize it, then I can’t say I’m shocked, but I hope you make a note of it right now.
Under Hannah Belew, the Lady Pioneers have quietly become one of the strongest programs in the district. This spring, Warren County saw its top doubles team - Izzy Pitts and Abby Graves - claim a district championship (playing their teammates in the finals) and finish runner-up in their district in both the regular season and tournament.
Warren County is going to return almost its entire roster too. Only Graves was a senior and they’ll have another Graves (her younger sister Anna) ready to move up in the lineup. That will be a seamless transition, especially when Pitts is still there at the top to keep everything settled.
I said it in the coaching section, but it is worth pointing out again - the Lady Pioneers are winning at an 88 percent clip over the last two years (22-3) and they don’t seem remotely satisfied.
They’re coming for another team title next year.
WCHS girls wrestling
Honestly, they could make a solid case for being No. 1. Pretty much the entire roster advanced all the way to state and four won individual region championships. As a team, they were the region runner-up as well.
You could argue it’s one of the best years in school history for the Lady Pioneer wrestling program.
Maya Reagan led the way. She captured a sectional championship at 145 pounds - getting a pair of pins and an 11-0 major decision in the finals. And she was competitive at the state event too, putting her on a path to be a multi-time medal winner before she graduates.
She wasn't alone though.
Lila Merriman battled her way to a runner-up finish at sectionals, earning a state berth after pinning her way into the championship match. Olivia Smartt showed incredible toughness throughout the postseason, reaching the sectional finals and punching her ticket to state as well. Olivia Pilcher rounded out the quartet with a fourth-place finish that secured the final qualifying spot.
And most of them did it while still learning the ropes. The majority of the team was made up of first-year wrestlers, which begs the question: What can they do next year?
Maybe that No. 1 spot will be theirs by 2027.
Boyd girls basketball
Here’s a confession: As I was writing this column and had already decided my order and written most of it, I put all the Simmons Superlatives and all my notes on all the team records, individual players, college signees, etc. into ChatGPT and asked it a simple prompt: Which are the top five best teams in Warren County girls athletics from 2025-26?
It agreed with me: WCHS flag football was the clear No. 1. Its No. 2 team? The Boyd Lady Broncos.
I’m just going to leave it at that.
These girls have heard me speak - when I could get the words out - about how much they mean to me and how proud I am of them. Where they land or what I would write on this list won’t matter much to them - they know where they rank with me.
I’ll post the boys list late Saturday PM after I’ve gotten home from the T2T 5K. Thanks!
