BadHat

Was anyone announced yet? If not what is the hold up?

Clint Wilson is the principal at Lebanon and Denise Joiner is the AD and an assistant principal. Ms. Joiner has very limited background in sports and I wonder how much input she really had in this hiring.

Missy Donaldson did have some success at Coffee County, but was run-off from both there and Smyrna because of character issues. Lamb/Thompson was a head coach at Unionville and had no major success there before moving to be an assistant at Shelbville. Woosley was named head coach at either Lincoln or maybe Franklin County several years back and I believe lasted only a year before being replaced. I don't equate AAU coaching with high school coaching. It is really an apples to oranges comparison. Developing and maintaining a program is not the same thing as coaching an all-star team.

Coach Johnson was an assistant at Desoto Central High School, not a head coach. I hope she does well, but it seems eerily similiarly to the hiring of Coach Brown's predecessor, who had a good basketball pedigree(played for Campbell Brandon and at UT vs. Coach Johnson who played for Rick Insell and at Ole Miss), but no head coaching experience. The earlier coach had also been an assistant at the collegiate level for a few years before serving as an assistant for a year at Lebanon before being named the head coach at LHS. Coach Johnson is 2 years out of college with only 2 seasons as an assistant at the high school level so she has even less experience than the earlier coach. She may be a great coach and do a great job, but Lebanon seems to be taking a chance here with a relatively inexperienced and untested coach. Being an outstanding player from an outstanding program doesn't necessarily translate into being a great coach and I can't think of any former Shelbyville players that have turned out to be outstanding head coaches. If anyone can name some I would be interested to know who they are and where they are coaching. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

Was the Siegel game a homecoming game or something of the sort that might have affected the crowd? I doubt very seriously that they had full houses at Cookeville or White County, but what difference does that make to the decision makers at Lebanon anyway? The gate receipts at high schools are not split with the visiting team. Home attendance is what counts for the athletic department, but the only way attendance really impacts the community is if a large number of fans from out of town are part of the crowd. Maybe the folks in Sparta, Murfreesboro, McMinnville, and Cookeville have more at stake in this hiring than the people in Lebanon. I suggest that the mayors of all those towns should be part of the search committee to hire the new coaches for Lebanon girls basketball and volleyball because they want to be sure that LHS will be good enough to have fans follow them to road games. All kidding aside, I think Lebanon needs to pick the very best coach they can get for the sake of their players and fans, but the economic impact of the decision is minuscule at best.

I haven't seen or heard anything about a coach being hired at Centennial. What is the story?

You have to be kidding about the full houses and economic impact. There were not full houses for Lebanon Devilette basketball games, even the District 7-AAA Championship game. Lebanon had a decent crowd, but Riverdale had hardly anyone there and they were the defending State Champions. Regular season games did not draw good crowds and the biggest portion would arrive for the boys games. I know because I attended nearly every Lebanon home game. Even at Wilson Central, where the girls have won 2 of the last 3 AAA State Championships, the girls are normally outdrawn by the boys team. The only exception is when WC plays Mt. Juliet, which is also the only time you'll see a packed house at Wilson Central. Lebanon needs to hire the best available coach so that they can allow their players to maximize their potential, but please stop with the silly economic issues angle.

Who are some of the candidates for this job? One of the assistants, Emily Blanks, is serving as the interim coach.

You have got to be kidding! Don't you think your committee could be affected by politics? You surely can't be serious about polling other coaches for their opinions. Most probably would not want to get involved in such matters and even if they do they may not be unbiased in their opinions. This whole idea would be a nightmare, much worse than having a single weak administrator to deal with.

They are very good. Very quick and really put on a lot of defensive pressure. Shelbyville had 22 turnovers. They have an excellent guard, Jones, that gave Shelbyville fits. I think Wilson Central will also have a tough time handling their pressure as well. From what I saw they are the favorites to win the gold ball.

If you are going to make that statement then you should name the players you are talking about and explain how they are getting around the rules. I'm not saying your accusation isn't true, but if it is true then you should back up your statement with the facts to prove it.

This is an excellent post. I don't recall anyone arguing that the previous coach should have been retained or that she could have had this level of success with the team, I know that I didn't. I believe her hiring was a mistake from the beginning, but that is not the topic of this post. BlueBlooded's post is right on the money and really makes the point that I apparently did a poor job of trying to make with my earlier posts. Well done Blueblooded!

PHargis please explain exactly what you mean by "heavy lifting by a perceptive principal"? They did have a change in principals at the end of last school year so which principal did most of the heavy lifting? Coach Brown has done and excellent job, but repairing some of the public relations problems of the previous coach was something that any coach that took the job was going to have to deal with in order to get a positive direction for the program. No doubt Coach Brown has done well in this area, but if he didn't have talented athletes to put on the floor they would not have had the success that they enjoyed this season. Great coaching and public relations only go so far as Oakland's troubles over the 3 season's would indicate. (How much difference does a great player like Tara Davis make? For the answer to that question check out Oakland's records for '05-'06, '06-'07, and '07-'08.) Again, I think Coach Brown has done a great job and I really like the way he built his depth by playing a lot of girls off the bench as the season progressed, but I don't believe what they acheived this season is shocking considering the talent they had returning this season, but with the struggles they had during the regular season with Cookeville, Siegel, and Riverdale and a 4 game losing streak heading into the tournament it was an unexpected tournament run. I think having the Devilettes in a positive frame of mind and believing that they could win in the tournament is probably Coach Brown's greatest acheivement, not some grand plan. Having said that I will let it go and say congratulations to Coach Brown and the Devilettes on the best season at LHS in nearly 20 years and wish the seniors: London Elie, Ebony Marshall, Jasmin Brooks, and Aquarius Huddleston all the best for the future. You will certainly be remembered for your tournament run for many years to come.

I would be pleased even if they would just make the district consolation game an elimination game. In the region the district champions could be given a bye in the first round. In that situation no one would be thinking about throwing a game. The WC/Smyrna game was a really unusual situation. I don't know how prevent that unless you just eliminate the sectional games, which will not be done because of financial considerations.

Litebrownlady23, To point out that the cupboard wasn't completely bare and that there were others that apparently believed it would be possible to turn things around at LHS doesn't diminish the fact that Coach Brown has done an excellent job. The previous coach did have both Elie sisters, Brooks, Marshall, Howse and Calis playing in her final year. However, Icelyn was a freshman, Brooks, Marshall and London were sophomores, so I think it is not surprising that they played with more confidence as juniors and seniors. Again, I think Coach Brown has done an outstanding job, but I don't think what he accomplished this season is anymore impressive than what Coach Burt at Riverdale did in getting his team to within one basket of winning the district in a major rebuilding year. Both are excellent coaches and deserve tremendous credit for outstanding seasons.