HIGH SCHOOL

Halls' Caden Harbin to play football at East Tennessee State

DAVE LINK
KNS-sports@knoxnews.com

Caden Harbin’s basketball career came to an end Friday night when Halls High School lost to Powell 56-42 in the District 3-AAA tournament at Clinton.

Now, Harbin’s focus turns to his football career at East Tennessee State University.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior signed to play for the Bucs on Thursday.

Halls' Caden Harbin, left, is tackled by Powell's Brandon Smith, left, and Eric Ludwig on Oct. 13 at Powell High School.

“I’m super excited,” Harbin said Saturday from Johnson City while visiting the campus with his mom, Chappell, who went to ETSU. “It’s just beautiful. I came up a couple of weeks ago to meet the coaches and fell in love with it. It’s like home, the atmosphere, the coaching staff. I just love it.”

Harbin played four years of basketball for Halls – mostly in the frontcourt, but also some guard – but there was no question his college future was in football. He said he scored “four or five points” in Friday’s loss to Powell.

“I’m usually just there for defense and to get boards (in basketball),” Harbin said.

As a freshman in football, Harbin started six games at quarterback, and the next year started every game at cornerback. In 2015, Harbin played an H-back position and scored 20 total touchdowns on catches or runs out of the wildcat formation, and earned second-team All-PrepXtra honors as a linebacker.

Harbin moved to quarterback in 2016 with the departure of Andrew Davis, and also started at outside linebacker. He threw for 2,160 yards and 28 touchdowns, and rushed for 923 yards and 12 touchdowns. On defense, he had 71 tackles, eight sacks, and 14 tackles for loss.

Harbin was a Class 5A Mr. Football semifinalist, the Region 2-5A MVP, and earned first-team all-state honors. He holds school records for tackles in a season (163, junior year), tackles in a game (25, junior year), total offense in a season (3,083, senior year), total touchdowns in a season (40, senior year), and total career touchdowns (64).

“He can do it all,” Halls football coach J.D. Overton said. “He did a great job for us, no matter where we asked him to play. He was outstanding.”

Harbin said ETSU signed him as an athlete, and probably not as a quarterback.

“They really haven’t said where they want me to play,” he said. “Probably for me, I’d like to play outside linebacker. I’d like to play on defense.”

With basketball finished, Harbin will begin offseason conditioning this week with three other Halls seniors headed to play college football: receivers Matthew Runge-Gold (Centre College) and J.T. Freels (Pikeville) and lineman Jackson Looper (Pikeville).

“We’re going to hit the gym hard,” Harbin said. “We’re just trying to get bigger and stronger.”

CAK-Catholic rematch: Christian Academy of Knoxville will play rival Catholic on Tuesday night at 7:30 for the District 4-AA boys championship at Alcoa.

CAK (14-13) advanced with a 75-58 victory over host Alcoa on Friday night, while Catholic (24-1) beat Scott 88-40.

Senior wing Isaiah Sulack had 24 points in CAK’s win over Alcoa, while senior point guard Hunter Reynolds had 18 points, senior guard Turner Helton 15, and senior post Haydn Tanner 10.

“We’re starting to play a little better and get healthier,” CAK coach Shane Wells said. “We got a good win at Sweetwater in our last game (92-66 on Monday). It was good coming into the tournament with a win against a pretty good team.”

Larry Hodge had 13 points and Dante Harris had 11 for Alcoa.

Top-ranked Catholic got 25 points from Brock Jancek in Friday’s win over Scott, while Chase Kuerschen had 19 and Luke Smith 16.

The Irish beat CAK twice during the regular season, each time by 20 points.

“That’s about as tough as it gets,” Wells said of Tuesday’s game. “Catholic has had a great year.”

Alcoa will play Kingston at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the District 4-AA girls championship. Alcoa beat Scott 46-43 in Friday’s girls semifinals, and Kingston beat CAK 61-49.

District 4-AA consolation games are Monday with CAK’s girls playing Scott at 6 p.m. and Alcoa’s boys playing Scott at 7:30.

Crucial consolation game: Bearden’s girls (24-2), ranked fourth in the state, play Hardin Valley Academy (20-8) in a crucial District 4-AAA consolation game Monday at 6 p.m. at Hardin Valley.

The Bearden-HVA loser could play third-ranked Oak Ridge in the first round of the Region 2-AAA tournament on Friday. Oak Ridge is the top seed in the District 3-AAA tournament.

Maryville (17-11) upset the Lady Bulldogs 56-49 in Friday’s district semifinals, while William Blount (20-9) beat Hardin Valley 55-45 in the other semifinal. Maryville lost to Bearden twice during the regular season.

“This is the first time in six years we aren’t playing for a district tournament championship,” Bearden coach Justin Underwood said. “We have to refocus and play a very good Hardin Valley team Monday, but our goals don’t change. The path just looks different.”

Dave Link is a freelance contributor.