The King's Academy hires Catholic defensive coordinator Les Greer as next football coach

Les Greer was 99 percent sure he wanted to be the next football coach at The King’s Academy.

He had to call his fourth-grade son Wyatt for the remaining one percent.

Once he got his approval, Greer was all in.

Greer, 36, was named former coach Matt Lowe’s replacement at TKA on Friday as football coach and athletic director a week after Lowe resigned to become the next coach at Powell, his alma mater.

“I had to call him,” said Greer, whose two sons live in the Murfreesboro area. “He understood. It was very important that he was OK with it.

“My sons are everything. Facetime is an important thing. We Facetime twice a week.”

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Greer spent the past five seasons at Catholic as an assistant coach under Steve Matthews. The two went to Catholic after the 2012 season via Siegel in Murfreesboro.

Greer had accepted an assistant position at a school in Rutherford County after this past season. He was even driving back and forth from his Seymour home on the weekends.

That, though, will now change as he prepares for his first year as a head coach.

“I wanted to be a head coach,” Greer said. “I hadn’t looked in the last five years.”

When he began to search, he found that first opportunity about a mile and a half from his home.

“I drive by (TKA) every day on the way to Catholic,” Greer said. “I even coached a fourth grade girls basketball team in their gym.

“I got to know a lot of people in the TKA community doing that. Then this happened.”

Catholic won the Class 5A state championship this past season with Greer as the defensive coordinator. That came two years after the Irish won the Class 4A title in 2015.

TKA finished 8-4 this past season, falling 28-7 to Nashville Christian in the Division II-A quarterfinals. However, Greer said the team lost about nine seniors.

“We just have to build it and roll out the plan, he said. “The expectations are high.

“I expect to win state championships there. We aren’t there to just win a playoff game.”

Reach Tom Kreager at tkreager@tennessean.com or 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @Kreager.