SPORTS

Why are prep football coaches leaving Jackson?

Brandon Shields
bjshields@jacksonsun.com

Today’s local sports trivia question: What do Tab Vowell, Steve Hookfin, Jason Driggers and Orentheus Taylor have in common?

They were all varsity head football coaches in the Jackson-Madison County Schools System 18 months ago. And now, they’re all elsewhere.

They left under different circumstances. But the end result is the same in each case.

It started with Hookfin. His team at Liberty Tech lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2014. It was the first time since 2008 that Liberty Tech was eliminated before the second round of the playoffs.

He was announced as the new head football coach at Haywood High about three-and-a-half months later.

UPDATED: Haywood football hires Liberty's Steve Hookfin

Driggers announced his resignation at South Side just after Memorial Day last year, and he took offensive coordinator Jay Taylor with him to Peabody. The pair knew what kind of team they had coming back in 2015 and had a chance to do things that hadn’t been done at South Side in a while.

They left anyway, for a better job at a smaller school.

UPDATED: Driggers leaving South Side for Peabody, Hawks name interim

Taylor’s situation was different. He was the head coach at Jackson Central-Merry, and the system voted to shut the school down, leaving Taylor in limbo other than having the assurance he would have a job somewhere in Jackson available to him.

He’s since opted to leave for a job closer to home, in Shelby County.

JCM coach Taylor considers next move

Then in February, Vowell announced his resignation from North Side. On Friday, he was announced as the new defensive coordinator at Peabody.

Former North Side head coach Vowell now at Peabody.

If the loss of four head coaches from the system in less than 18 months wasn’t already a huge red flag for those who may be concerned, how about two head coaches gone in about a year for a smaller school in a neighboring county for assistant coach positions?

From talking with coaches throughout the area outside the system, there are several who are interested in leading programs in Jackson.

The athletes are present to compete. The pay is competitive with other systems in the area. But there have to be reasons to coaches are leaving.

One big reason is the removal of the athletic block in the school class schedule. That happened about a decade ago in an effort to improve test scores across the school system.

When doing research for past stories relating to Vision 2020 and the school system, we’ve seen scores haven’t gone up.

What has gone up is stress level of coaches who try to keep up with rival schools who do have athletic PE classes and are able to keep working with their kids in offseason conditioning and workouts without having to stay after school.

In Jackson, those athletes keep working out and conditioning as well, but they have to stay after school until 5 or 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, in research we’ve done looking at test scores, while there have been improvements in some areas, there haven’t been dramatic increases in test performance since 2007, when the athletic block was taken away.

With that being the case, J-MCSS should feel grateful it kept Vowell and Hookfin as long as it did. Current South Side head coach Brian Moore has been with the Hawks for over a decade, and his loyalty is to be commended as well.

Liberty coach Tyler Turner and North Side’s Donnie Nickey are new to the area and the system. The jury is still out about how long they will put up with that kind of pressure to continue to produce.

It would be easy to tell the coaches not to worry that much about offseason work and to go home and enjoy time with their families. But you let a program that’s averaged X number of wins per season cut that X in half, and see how many people in the stands are second-guessing that coach.

JCM alumnus and former NFL lineman Artis Hicks was interviewed for a column earlier this year, and the discussion veered to the importance of athletics in a school. The JCM he attended was thriving in the classroom and on the field of play in nearly every sport.

“Athletes wanted to come to JCM because they knew they would compete in our school, and they got a quality education, so their parents wanted them to come, too,” Hicks said. “I think if the school system supported athletics a little more, it would give some kids more of a reason to come out for athletics and just improve the pride and attitude of the kids in the hallways.

“Good athletics is a part of the foundation of a good school from what I’ve seen.”

I couldn’t have said it any better myself. Hopefully the school system’s decision makers will listen to Hicks’ words and at least give a serious look to bringing the athletic block back.

Brandon Shields is the high school sports columnist for The Jackson Sun. Contact him at 425-9751 or at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.