camppack

You have to be careful of assuming too much from football spring practice numbers. Teams are competing with track, baseball, soccer and tennis for kids. The more multi sport athletes you have (generally a good thing) the bigger the impact. Practice numbers for football can vary significantly day to day in the spring based on the schedule of other sports. Also in the spring, teams are without one class. The HS careers of current seniors are over and the upcoming freshman class are still officially in middle school and can’t practice. If they have roughly equal numbers per class this reduces a team by 25%.

WB spring ball finished last week. They have a talented QB transferring in that will likely be an upgrade from the one that left.

Announced as new OC at Oceanside Collegiate Academy in SC.

Get your $500 parking spot for Heritage football games before they sell out! https://www.facebook.com/HHSMountaineersClimbersClub/photos/a.104104275603289/104104258936624

Spent some time watching several of Osovet's videos on his offense. His offense is high tempo (13 seconds, 80 snaps a game) using lots of RPOs out of a spread/pistol look. It's a good system that can put a lot of pressure on a defense. Should be interesting to see how he adapts it to the realities at Heritage. The lack of numbers resulting in many kids playing two ways will impact what he can do with tempo. He'll need to find and coach up a QB who can consistently make the reads to execute the three types of RPOs he uses. He'll also need a QB with enough arm strength to spread as wide as he'd like. The system simplifies things for the o-line which is great, but does puts a lot of responsibility on the QB. I'm looking forward to seeing how he tries to adapt the offense to make it work at Heritage. At all his other stops he had the advantage of recruiting kids to fit the system. Now he'll have to fit the system to what he has to work with.

Good question. It would be great for BC if these schools played one another. With the change in leadership at WB, HHS and AHS the potential for this to happen has probably increased. If WB and HHS aspire to be championship quality programs there's no better way to see firsthand what it takes and measure where you are than playing Maryville and Alcoa. It also would be a boost for their gate receipts.

Been wondering the same thing myself (though I guess I shouldn't say that since they've implied Futbolffan2022 and I are related or the account is somehow a second account of mine.) BS101 created an account just after Hammontree leaves and every post seems to either defend Osovet or attack those who criticize or joke about the hire. People on this thread have just been expressing their opinions on the topic of the coaching situation at Heritage and sharing a little humor which is what this Coach T is all about. When someone turns the conversation from the topic (the new hire at HHS) to personally attacking others who post on the board they've crossed the line. If you disagree with someone's opinion, share your own, but don't attack others for having and sharing their opinion. I'm done reading and responding to anything from BS101, whomever they are.

No jealousy or hurt feelings here. I don’t have a vested interest in who they hire. I just want the best for the program and am skeptical this is it. Seems when people made jokes about Shad at WB it was all in good fun but doing so about this coaching hire makes you a “crybaby” and negative.

The press release announcing his hiring mentioned he would be joining the staff full time this spring. If he is not a teacher there are other roles in the school he could probably fill. It obviously would be a huge advantage for him to be in the building.

I didn’t go away all those years. I followed Coach T the entire time but I was in a position where I felt making comments about teams in this area would have been inappropriate. Circumstances have changed and I jumped back in, particularly with the coaching changes at WB and HHS. I’m passionate about HS football in Blount County and want the best for these programs.

Next week we'll hear he used his awesome recruiting skills and huge salary to recruit bigfoot out of the mountains in Townsend to anchor his offensive and defensive line.

If this is what he's saying, it tells me all I need to know about his character (or rather lack of.)

Agreed. There is a standard district schedule for both salaries and coaching supplements and there is certainly no booster club to provide under the table cash (ala Rush Probst.)

There are so many red flags that should have been raised about this hire that you have to hope that there was lots of due diligence done before this decision was made. It might go well and I certainly hope it does but if I were a betting man, I wouldn't put my money on it.

This will be worth watching. He did a lot of Jr College recruiting at UT which is an area where you could easily see "McDonald's bags of cash" changing hands.

For reasons unknown to all but a few people involved in the decision, this is the direction Heritage has decided to go. At this point the new coach needs everyone's support. Regardless of which team(s) in Blount County you are a fan of, I think most would agree the HS football community in the county would be stronger with a healthy program at Heritage. Let's hope this decision heads the program in that direction.

It was interesting that the photo of him in the new field house had no coaches in it. Just a bunch of his buddies patting themselves on the back for having one of their friends build an over budget, undersized, poorly planned facility years after it should have been done.

Hiring a staff has and will continue to be an issue. Coaches who teach can make more at any other school district in the area. Non faculty coaches also have better options. They might get two or three coaches back from last season so there’s a lot of work to be done.

If I remember correctly the deadline for applications was yesterday which is why the posting is now gone.

I did see the job posted on the BCS we site. I also know a copy of the posting was sent out to BCS employees via email.

Haven't been in Coach T retirement. Kept tabs on things for the past several years but just didn't have time nor felt it appropriate to make comments when I was coaching. I care deeply about these two hires because they are perhaps the most crucial decisions the football programs in Blount County Schools have ever faced. I also personally know many of the people involved and who will be impacted by these decisions so I want the schools to get it right.

Hope they don't go in this direction for the reason mentioned in previous posts. There are several local coaches who would be much better candidates. Adam Hendricks at Maryville was at Heritage for a long time working with both Hammontree and Russell. Great person and coach. Don't know that he'd move but he'd be a good choice. Josh Whitehead at Heritage Middle is a solid coach and person who has helped out at the HS. He has ties to the HS (wife is assistant principle.) To build numbers they really need someone in the building full time. They also need someone who knows the community to work the feeder programs and build support. Bringing in what would seem like a short term coach with no local ties seems like just another nail in the coffin for this program.

Strength is absolutely critical but the need for and use of size has really been evolving in the past few years. For instance more teams, including Maryville, are using LB size kids at DE because they want the athleticism and speed. On the o-line, spread offensives and zone run schemes require more athletic lineman who can move. At the college and NFL levels you can find big bodies who are athletic and quick. At the HS level you usually have to settle for one or the other so more and more teams are going with the smaller, more athletic body types.

Sadly, what has been said in this thread is true. Horrible support at Heritage makes the job almost impossible. AD is a big part of the problem. Assistant coaches liked working for Hammontree but left for better opportunities (which can be found almost anywhere outside of Blount County Schools.) Hammontree was more committed and worked harder than most coaches would have in this no win situation. A new coach isn't going to help much unless the broader culture and system changes.