When Wes Shappley was a student at Bartlett, he got a chance to witness some of Lynn Whitfield’s career up close. And what a career it was.

Whitfield spent 27 years as the Panthers girls basketball coach, winning more than 600 games and reaching the state tournament twice. Shappley is the current coach and he’s taken Bartlett to another level, finishing as state runner-up last season.

Along the way, they played a challenging schedule and Shappley’s connections have enabled him to bring some strong teams to town Monday and Tuesday for the inaugural Lynn Whitfield Thanksgiving Classic.

In football, the state playoffs have reached the quarterfinal stage with six local teams — Covington, Fairley, Germantown, Houston, Memphis Business Academy and Southwind — still in contention for titles in their respective divisions.

And as always, we need your help in spotlighting our top high school athletes. Coaches and stat-keepers can send in their scores, highlights and top performers from each game either by emailing jvarlas@dailymemphian.com or reaching out on X, formerly known as Twitter, @johnvarlas. — John Varlas

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