camppack

Hearing the same thing from people I know associated with the program. The OZ hype was a big boost initially but reality has set in. He has only one priority and that's promoting himself. Hopefully it's only a matter of time before he decides to go elsewhere, engages in such egregious behavior he has to be fired or those involved in hiring him finally admit they made a huge mistake and do the right thing. The kids in this program deserve better and the school administration should be ashamed and embarrassed they've created this mess.

Hammontree is a great strength and conditioning guy. I love his old school, disciplined approach that also integrates a real deep expertise. Any athlete who is willing to commit to his program will get better working with him in the weight room.

Agreed. Josh is a very high quality person who offers a low key personality that will complement the high strung HC. Solid defensive coach who will run a fundamentally sound scheme. Been around both the middle school and high school programs at Heritage for quite awhile. Married to an Assistant Principal at HHS. Who is the new weight room coach?

Agree. Reeves is committed, building this program the right way and a good fit with the school and community. They may never be a championship team in 6A but they can be competitive and a program the school can be proud of. On the other hand the hype at Heritage has died as players, parents, and the community have seen through all the self promotion and realized who the coach really is. They’re left trying to move ahead while the prospect of their coach taking his big ego and moving on hangs over the program. Almost no one I know connected to the program really expects him to stay.

Looks like Osovet at Heritage is interested in the Stony Brook University HC job. Joe Osovet reposted a post from Hans: Joe Osovet is a great fit for the SB football job..LI born/bred..played D1 ball..JUCO coach of the year…coached at power 5…knows the NY area…this is a no brain hire !!

Wouldn’t surprise me from either person allegedly involved in this interaction. There is a fairly positive, respectful community of coaches in Blount County (many who played and/or coached together in the past. ) Osovet’s in your face, NY, JUCO attitude doesn’t quite fit in around these parts.

Last year HHS regressed late in the season and they seem to have regressed from last year. I’ve heard his me first, poor sport, win at all costs, volatile personality is wearing on people. He came in with a lot of hype, making a lot of promises but has proven to be just an average high school school coach (but without the character of most of his peers in the area.) Now that the Pruitt investigation is closed and he wasn’t implicated and subject to any penalties, I look for him to move on after this season. His ego is too big to be the head coach at Heritage long term.

Interesting thought. Why pour years of time and effort into developing someone (who might leave) when you can go on the open market and recruit a transfer to fill your needs. Sure hope this doesn’t become the new norm but I share your concern that this approach might attract some coaches.

Classic example of the problem. The kid and parent not happy with direction of previous school and thought they could get more attention from colleges elsewhere. Parent shops kid to various programs in area. Gaining coach takes the kid, not knowing him like a kid who grew up in the program. Player doesn't know system or fit culture. End result, everyone (previous school, new school & player) loses. Same thing is unfortunately getting played out way too often these days.

Arguing about where kids play vs. where they should go to school is just pointless at this point. Sadly, like college, transfers are now just part of the HS game. There were at least three QBs at Friday night’s Jamboree who were transfers. Coaches are recruiting. Parents are shopping their kids to programs. Players are too impatient to work their way up through a program. Less and less commitment to a program, gratitude for how it helped them develop and school/community pride. It has been happening for a long time on a very irregular, limited basis, but over the past several years it’s gotten out of hand. These days if coaches or parents believe a kid has talent, there will be offers to transfer.

Any word on how the scrimmage with Morristown West went on Friday?

@5StarPreps JUST IN … Former William Blount head football coach Philip Shadowens has resigned as head coach at Eagleton CCA after one season to join the coaching staff at Knoxville Catholic as an assistant coach.

The Maryville Daily Times just posted the following... Ethan Edmiston's tenure as Greenback's football coach is over. Edmiston resigned from his position "to have more family time," he confirmed to The Daily Times. He recently completed his second season with the Cherokees, accumulating an 8-13 overall record, including a 7-5 mark in Region 2-1A play, and advancing to the Class 1A playoffs both seasons.

In the last 24 hours I saw tweets teasing the upcoming reveal of a local high school's "16 uniform combinations" for next season, a HS player hawking tee shirts from a company he has an NIL deal with and a HS player promoting training with D1.

When a young man I put several years of time and energy into helping grow as a player, student and person jumped ship his senior year for what he and his father thought were greener pastures (with the encouragement of the other school's HC), I knew it was time to get out of coaching. I still love what happens on Friday nights between the the sidelines, but it's no longer worth what coaches have to put up with. Sadly changes in player/parent expectations and the trickle down negative influences from the NFL and college have really changed the game at the HS level. I'm just not interested in recruiting or competing to keep transfers, NIL deals, social media, entitled kids and parents, elite 7 on 7 leagues, camps and combines, fund raising to have multiple new uniform combinations every year, etc.

WB lost it’s QB to injury in the first quarter of the Mo East game and had to play the rest of the game with a freshman QB. Made an offense that struggled all season even less effective. No way they would want to play another game.

With new fieldhouse, new turf coming next season, renewed fan interest and some on field success, the job should be more attractive than in the past if they do find themselves looking for a new HC. I do like the up tempo, RPO based offense they used and hope it gets retained if there is a change.

Very sad to see the lack of progress. All the outside factors affecting the program have been well documented in other posts over the course of the season. Now you have to take a hard look at what’s going on internally. You could argue that it’s unrealistic to expect a turn around in a season. On the other hand, there should be some signs of progress and there weren’t many. The big question at WB is do they stay the course and give the current coaches more time or make another change, which is something they’ve not done well the past several times.

There has definitely been a noticeable change in the last few weeks. Agree that something may have happened internally. Now the Coach Oz watch begins. UT just requested an extension to respond to the NCAA violations from the Pruitt era when Oz was doing juco recruiting there. Once that wraps up and if he is not implicated, colleges, particularly juco’s, will be willing to consider him for a head coaching position. Then we’ll see if Heritage is really where he wants to be or if it is just a temporary gig until he can get back to college coaching. Time will tell.

Great job of LC coaches adapting and getting the most out of what they have to work with. Rather than try to be something they don’t have the talent to be, they found a way to have success with their limited talent. Lined up in heavy single wing formation and just pounded the ball by putting more bodies at the point of attack than Heritage had. Ate up the clock and just methodically worked their way down the field. Loved the old school approach.

I don't know that anyone is using Eagleton as a "crutch' for WB's poor play. It is just one of a whole host of factors that have been mentioned that have contributed to WB's decline. The only ones who really know the true impact are the coaches involved. The rest is just conjecture from people without full knowledge of the situation. I think either extreme is probably incorrect. Eagleton is not THE only cause of WB's troubles. On the other hand, Eagleton probably does play at least some role what is happening at WB.

Good to see some energy and excitement back in the program. I hope they can sustain it going forward.

The last time WB got TSSAA to make a change, they moved regions. They gave up the gate receipts of a home game with Maryville and relatively short region trips to/from Bearden, Farragut and HVA. Instead they picked up long trips to/from DB, Science Hill and West Ridge. Added increased travel time and cost, reduced visiting fan gate receipts. Another of the many questionable decisions at WB.

There is a perception the previous WB HC is "easy" to play for because when he was at WB, behavioral expectations, discipline, and participating in off strength and conditioning seemed to not be priorities.

Thanks for the correct numbers. The map does show Heritage should be most impacted. What skews things, though I don't know by how much, is Samuel Everitt School of Innovation (led by a former WB HC.) Kids from anywhere can do "hybrid" learning through them and play football at Eagleton (for another former WB HC.) I do know of a few kids who played elsewhere but are now enrolled in SESI and playing at Eagleton.