Three Lady Pioneers to Continue Athletic Career in College

Three stellar athletes at East Ridge High School will continue their careers at the next level, school officials said Thursday.

Kati Kennedy, Destiny Wilbanks and Sabrina Thompson, all multi-sport athletes, will further their educations with athletic scholarships.

Kennedy signed to play softball up Interstate 75 at Cleveland State. Kennedy was a four-year starter on the softball team and started on the Lady Pioneers’ volleyball squad for three years.

Wilbanks will continue her career at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. She played four years of basketball at East Ridge and ran track for three years.

Thompson signed with Division I school Coppin State. Thompson was a four-year starter on the softball team and was manager of the volleyball team for two years.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.