beachboy

Why do we continue to insist on connecting schools with a certain club? I understand the connection between the BHS coach and his club. And I get that a bunch of his players played in his club, but who cares. Let the kids choose where they want to play. It is up to them. I think all of this creates unnecessary animosity when clubs and schools should be working towards each others mutual benefits. I just don't think we need this mindset for Knoxville volleyball if we are going to improve volleyball here. It is much too negative. Sheesh....

BBV as far as I know the head football coach at Catholic is not the AD. The AD however, is one of the assistant football coaches.

How about Coach Garland for BHS? I think he is a Bearden graduate.

BruinBabe, you show much wisdom! Maybe you can apply for the Bearden and Catholic jobs. Bring some of the middle Tennessee moxie to ET.

I agree with your assessment of the coaching numbers. But don't forget the coach at Hardin Valley. He does as good of a job with his kids as anyone. As an AD once told me, the hardest coach to hire for high school around Knoxville is an experienced and good varsity volleyball coach. They are very rare, and around here especially rare. I also agree on your comment about college players becoming good coaches. Not all good players become good coaches. Most of them just regurgitate the drills they know without any knowledge of why they are doing them. No rhyme or reason. Training good coachs takes time. One day coaching clinics only teach drills, and not the nuances of how to incorporate those ideas. Maybe K2 can start working as hard with its coaches on great teaching/coaching techniques as it does with training its players. Lets develop some coaches too, not just players. That could be a challenge for K2 to step up and be a cutting edge club. As far as AC coaches go, I really have no insight as to whether any of them would leave or not. I am certain that Coach Smith or Cantrell would not leave. Coach Sewell, who knows for sure. But I think those three are where they belong in the universe of high school volleyball and they know that. Sides they get paid too much. No one else can touch them for salary. But the bottom line at AC, is tradition and culture. They live and breath it up there. At AC volleyball actually is a very important sport for the school and the community. Where do the new coaches to Bearden and Catholic come from? That is a good question. I honestly have no clue. Maybe one of them can get Coach Neely to unretire and move to Knoxville. She is a Hall of Famer! All class, that lady.

K2R, I agree with alot of what you said. Much of your discussion shows that high school is more challenging to coach than club. It is much easier to just coach, than to deal with all of the other matters a high school coach deals with on a daily/yearly basis. And I also agree with you that there are not very many good volleyball coaches in this area. But I think that includes high school and club both. There are a few in each arena, that can get the job done. I think my expectations of what an exceptional coach should be is pretty high. And that is hard to find in most places (across the country). There are more younger coaches now that have grown up playing volleyball at a high level, and if they work at it, they have a chance to be good coaches (remember good coaches are good teachers). Many of the older coaches did not have the luxury of playing the game at a high level. Compare that to football, basketball, and baseball. Totally different culture and level of experience. I think television even contributes to the various experience levels, since overall in the past years exposure of volleyball on television is pretty low. But I digress, lets keep it on the coaching carousel.

Wow, that sounds as if you have some good insight on the KCHS program. Interesting....

K2R, I have a question for you because I do not know the answer. Was Jason Keeble the assistant coach at Webb before the current coach got the job? Did he get an opportunity to interview for the head job at all? Just curious.

If the four club coaches K2R talks about will apply and actually get hired for any high school openings that might occur, then we will see if they are really as good as K2R advertised. And they may be. That remains to be seen though, since none of them have high school experience. I for one hope that some of them get a high school job and then we could get a good comparison of high school versus club coaching. Could be interesting and fun to watch. Maybe Coach Cantrell from AC would consider going to his old nemisis and rival at KCHS to continue Coach Garlands good works. Naw, never mind, just kidding. Just remembered he is a MFL.

Have not tried to. It would be a futile effort on CoachT. I can name coaches who have had success with their high school teams, but they are still criticized for their efforts. I am still not convinced except for Coach Mincy who has college coaching experience if any of the three you mentioned would have "lasting" success at the high school level. I do not know anything about them except they coach at K2. But maybe they would, guess they would need to take that leap and try it huh? Like I said, club and high school are different. We shall see how this all unfolds. So far as I know only one school is looking right now. K2R keep us up on things, we appreciate it.

Does Jason have head coaching experience outside of club volleyball. As I said before coaching club and high school are two different animals, and I think high school is the more difficult of the two. But we can probably agree to disagree on that point. But experience at something besides club would sure help his cause. Just a question, and not meaning anything negative about it, but do you have coaching experience? Would you apply for any of the jobs that are open or might open up? Curious.

Ditto!

K2R, are any of those coaches you mentioned going to apply for the Catholic position?

K2, I agree, it seems as though there may be several coaching positions open. And I also agree, there are high school coaches that are not world class coaches. However with that said, when I look at the coaching rosters of some of the local clubs, there are not very many of those that I would think would elevate a high school team with state tournament aspirations either. Just because they are part of KVA or K2 does not make them the best of the best. Coaches are teachers, and we don't have very many "volleyball" coaches that are good teachers of the game. Too many coaches know the X's and O's, but don't do a very good job of getting that knowledge to the players in the best way. Very frustrating. Being the varsity coach at a competitive high school is much more difficult than coaching a single club team. The administration time alone is very time consuming. And from my experiences of doing both, there is much more pressure to succeed at the high school level than the club level. You can look at all the frustrated posts on CoachT to see that. K2 who do you think are the top 4 club coaches as of right now, in the Knoxville area that are not already coaching high school that you would recommend to a high school athletic director looking for a new coach to lead their program?

Bratman you are right about AC and a bunch of good players there. Just thought of another one; the Peterson girl from Seymour. She turned out very good and is still playing quite a bit from what I hear.

OK, gotta thing about that. Thanks for clarifying. Two that come to mind are the Templin girls from Anderson County. I think they played in the late 90's?

BBV, I don't know the names of players outside of Knoxville, but there have been some very good ones. Are you talking about outside of Knoxville in this area, or the state of Tennessee? Lots of D1 players from Nashville. East Ridge, Goodpasture, and Page have all had some very good ones. Notre Dame had a very good middle several years ago who was dominate. No doubt the quality of volleyball in Knoxville has improved the past few years. Volleyball has definitely grown more popular recently, which is a good thing. I've seen Earl Sharpe play volleyball and he is one of the best ever in this area, hands down. But he is one of the guys......lol!

Bratman, thanks for the insight on the AC coaches. I was not aware of Coach Sewall's experience. Sounds like she has the experience and knowledge to take over a high school program. I just know all of the coaches there are very loyal to the AC legacy, and do not think any of them will leave to go to another rival program. The only coach I know of to leave was Coach Smith, and she received a great experience at Oak Ridge before returning to lead the Mavericks to where they are today. It will be interesting to see what happens at Catholic or any of the other schools that might eventually be open. I do not know much about Coach Mincy (mentioned earlier), but that would be interesting to see where or if she ended up. Does she have aspirations to coach high school after coaching at Carson Newman? I have no idea. I know she works hard at KVA. Just thinkin.....

I cannot speak directly for any of the AC coaches. But I know Daile Cantrell is a Maverick for life (MFL) and he does not have aspirations to be a head coach anywhere. He already is helping run the show there anyway. As far as Coach Smith goes, I think she loves Anderson County and that is where she will stay. Concerning the other two assistant coaches, I can not honestly say what they would do. But I do not believe they have any head coaching experience at any level, and I would assume that would not help their cause to become a head coach for a high level program as their first gig. And as PhillyAl says Bearden still has a coach, and last I heard so does CAK. So right now the only opening is at Catholic.

K2, the coaches at Anderson County are a part of their history and culture. Their program is home to them. I would be very surprised if any of them even applied. As far as Williams goes, from what I understand of her departure at Karns, she would probably not be a good fit for Catholic at all. If Bearden and CAK both open up as you suggest, then it looks like there are too many coaching jobs and not enough high level coaches, maybe.....

Have not heard of anyone yet. Guess the administration is still too early in the process especially with football still going on. My guess is not much will happen until that season is over, but I could be wrong. It will be interesting if all three schools are looking for head coaches with experience. And even more so since all of those programs have been very competitive in recent years.

Just heard that Coach Garland is now "officially" gone from Catholic. Big loss for their program as he did a very good job there as head coach the last two years. He helped guide the Irish to sub-state twice and the state tournament this year. Now the question is who will Catholic try to hire as his replacement? Who is at a level as a coach that can keep the good works going for the future? Any ideas or applicants out there?

I usually try and stay as neutral as I can on most matters. However, this one really seems to smell bad. KCHS is a team that has had its ups and downs all year. Lots of potential but never seeming to get there. They play a great match against CAK in the regional finals and barely get beat out. Then against all odds they travel to a perennial state powerhouse and upset them in their own gym, and apparently (it sounds like) some of the parents of the KCHS team are complaining and bitching about the coach. Wow, your team is going to the state tournament for the first time in 6 years. This is a moment your child will never forget. Embrace it, and support it 100%, My goodness don't be a divider, be a supporter. No wonder Coach Garland (according to CoachT) wants to leave. Despite all of the negative comments out there, and I am sure he hears it everyday, he is still coaching his butt off for your girls the best he can. Parents out there, be team players and not such a bunch of selfish individuals. Get over it and support your team. Somewhere we have lost something in our society. Pull together people and be team players. Parents, you have no idea how much you influence your kids when you ###### and complain at home. Think about it. Volleyball is a great game and this high school experience is something your kids can cherish the rest of their lives if you don't mess it up. Embrace the journey, if you can get over the "me" syndrome. Good luck to all of the teams at the state tournament. Beachboy

I agree with Doxie. What the heck is that about? Axe to grind with kchsrg. If you don't like him as your coach take your kid off of the team. C'mon!

Nope, coach at K2 is the wife and she runs K2 with her husband.