Tiffany Woosley, coach Rick Insell and Anita Overcast of the 1991 Shelbyville girls basketball team

With an endless bevy of outstanding games, teams, coaches and players, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) girls basketball state tournament ranks among the very best in the nation.

While the game of girls basketball in Tennessee can trace its roots to the early 1900s, it was not played on a statewide level until 1922. That same year, The Nashville Tennessean and George Peabody College for Teachers sponsored the state’s first girls state basketball tournament, which was really an invitational tournament.

The TSSAA took over administration of both the boys and girls state tournaments, with its first girls championship being held March 20-22, 1958, when Loretto defeated Litton, 57-45. Held at David Lipscomb College in Nashville, that inaugural tournament drew a total attendance of 9,725. Three years later, it was moved to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and attendance increased to 14,701. Maryville Porter became the first repeat champion in girls basketball with state titles in 1959 and 1963.

In 1964, Shelbyville Central defeated Bradley Central, 48-46, with total paid attendance reaching 16,668. Four years later, Waverly Central topped Maryville Everett, 73-64, behind a state tournament-record 52 points from the state’s leading scorer, Sally Smith.

The six-on-six game was the style of play used for Tennessee girls until the 1979-80 school year, when five-player, full-court basketball rules were adopted.

One of the first Tennessee girls basketball dynasties was the Jim Smiddy-coached Bradley Central program, which won five state championships from 1962 to 1976. A 1992 inductee into the NFHS’ National High School Hall of Fame, Smiddy retired a year later. According to the NFHS’ National High School Sports Record Book, Smiddy’s 1,217 girls basketball career victories rank No. 2 all-time.

Three other standout girls basketball coaches who enjoyed both regular-season and state tournament success were Campbell Brandon of Rutherford County Lacassas and Lebanon, Lamar Rogers of Clarkrange, and Jill Prudden of Oak Ridge.

Brandon, who retired the same year as Smiddy (1993), finished his career as the second-winningest girls basketball coach in Tennessee history with 740 victories during his 33 seasons at Lacassas and Lebanon.

Rogers led Clarkrange to 1,073 victories, which ranks second only to Smiddy’s 1,217 in state history, and fifth all-time nationally. With seven state titles to his credit, he ranks second to Rick Insell, who led Shelbyville to 10.

(From left) Longtime Bradley Central girls basketball coach Jim Smiddy; Lacassas and Lebanon coach Campbell Brandon; and Lamar Rogers of Clarkrange High School

In addition, Rogers has distinguished himself as a successful coach at one of only eight schools in the six counties in the Upper Cumberland Mountains. While those six counties account for only 1.4 percent of Tennessee’s total population of 5,689,293, the Upper Cumberland plateau has enjoyed a longtime great tradition of outstanding girls basketball.

From 1986 to 1999, Prudden guided Oak Ridge to the TSSAA state championship game eight times, winning it in 1988, 1994 and 1997. At that time, no other female coach had won more than one girls state championship. During her career, Prudden compiled a 908-161 win-loss record (all at Oak Ridge), and her victory total ranks eleventh all-time, according to the National High School Sports Record Book

The school with the most state championships is Shelbyville Central, which captured 12 titles in the 40-year span between 1964 and 2004, and from a historical perspective is still viewed as the most successful program in state history. Clarkrange and Jackson County rank tied for second with eight championships each.

Not surprisingly, along with Pickett County, Jackson County and Shelbyville Central also tie for the state record for most consecutive state titles with four.

For 28 years from 1978 to 2005, Insell adroitly directed the fortunes of the Shelbyville Central girls basketball program. Insell, who compiled a glittering 775-148 win-loss record, led the Golden Eagles to 10 state titles and five runner-up finishes, along with 23 district titles and 16 regional titles. From 1988 to 1991, his teams won 110 consecutive games, a Tennessee record and seventh-best nationally. In recognition of his efforts, Insell was inducted into the NFHS’ National High School Hall of Fame in 2007.

Five of Insell’s players combined to earn state tournament Most Valuable Player honors eight times – Misty Lamb in 1988 and 1989, Michelle Johnson in 1991, Conswella Sparrow in 1994, Abi Ramsey in 2000 and 2001, and Ashleigh Newman in 2003 and 2004.

With Insell’s retirement, the mantel for supremacy among Tennessee girls basketball program unofficially seems to have been passed along to TSSAA District 7 – which includes the Murfreesboro schools of Riverdale, Blackman and Oakland.

With a 65-44 victory over Ridgeway in the 2014 TSSAA Class AAA state championship game, Blackman is the defending champion in the state’s largest enrollment classification. The Blaze are currently 14-2 and ranked No. 1 in Tennessee, and return all five starters from last year’s team, including a point guard who is committed to the University of Connecticut.

However, if one goes back a few more years, it become apparent that Riverdale carved out a “mini-dynasty” in Volunteer State girls basketball during the first two decades of the New Millennium.

It all started a generation ago when Riverdale first made a splash as it compiled a 20-6 win-loss record en route to a runner-up finish the 1979 Class AAA state tournament.

After a 28-year respite, the Lady Warriors made up for lost time by compiling a 38-3 record as they claimed the 2007 Class AAA state title.

Three years later, Riverdale (30-2) won the 2010 Class AAA state title. After a runner-up finish in 2011 and a 34-2 record, Riverdale then won back-to-back Class AAA state titles in 2012 and 2013, compiling records of 34-3 and 35-0, respectively. As of January 24, Riverdale stood 18-4 and was ranked No. 2 in the state.

Numerous players have also distinguished themselves at the TSSAA girls basketball state tournament.

Among them are Brooke Johnson of Seymour and Sherelle Warren of Dyersburg, who scored a single-game record-42 points in 2004 and 1986, respectively. In that same 2004 game (with McMinn Central), Johnson also set the tournament record of 18 field goals in one game.

Missy Herndon of Gibson County was deadly from the field when she connected on a tournament-record 92.8 percent of her field-goal attempts (13-of-14) in the Pioneers’ 1989 game with Bolton.

In the 1993 state tournament, Michelle Street of Bradford turned in an amazing rebounding performance when she amassed records for single-game rebounds (23) and offensive rebounds (17) in the same game with Gleason. Andrea Davidson of Jackson Country holds the single-game defensive rebounds record, with 14 in the Blue Devils’ 2002 tournament game with McMinn Central.

Deft and adroit playmaking skills were displayed by two standout guards 30 years apart, as Brenda Randolph of Giles County and Mallory Charpentier of Nashville Christ Presbyterian Academy dished out 14 assists in their respective state tournament games in 1982 and 2012. Interestingly, Charpentier also set the state tournament record of 24 assists as she helped lead CPA to the state title that year.

A quartet of players exhibited defensive prowess in two different state tournament record categories.

Jennifer McInnis of Heritage (2000), Danielle Page of Bradford (1999) and Teia Ashlock of Celina (1992) all had eight steals in a game, while in 1994 Krista Harrison of Hancock County set the single-game record of nine blocked shots in a game.

The Murphy Center of Middle Tennessee State University

For 40 years, the TSSAA girls basketball state tournament has called the Murphy Center its home.

“We have been very fortunate to hold our girls' state basketball tournaments at Murphy Center on the campus of MTSU since 1975,” TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress said. “It's a special place that has created so many lasting memories for fans, coaches, and student-athletes across Tennessee. It's a perfect venue for our state tournament.

“More than anything, the longstanding working relationships we've had with the people at MTSU, the city of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County are so vital to the success of this tournament.  If it weren't for everyone involved, there's no way it would be the event that it is today. We are very lucky to work with such outstanding people at this tournament.”