edwardblake

What do you think about it? To me this is an impossible situation. LJS says the admin is not strong and they're in a tough spot. What are the realistic outcomes? It is possible they'll go into February and not have this sorted out.

Bearden has eight jobs posted. Three special ed teaching assistant jobs, two assistant baseball jobs, one softball assistant job, a supply PE teacher position, and a head football coach job. The folks in charge over there are clearly struggling to hire someone. They've had four weeks to get this figured out. They've got three options: hire someone willing to be a special ed teaching assistant during the day and be head coach at night, have a Cocke Co situation and hire an insurance agent, or hire internally. I think they would have already announced if hiring internally. So really they have two options that they don't want to choose. They've done a decent job keeping this quiet except for one or two guys on the hiring panel but that doesn't change the fact that this is a complete clustercuss.

I think not having a teaching job is the reason this has been a sluggish process. I've heard that the market is softening on Josh Jones and hiring Rusty Bradley is more likely.

All sarcasm aside, what do you mean? Bearden beat West in 2018 and took us to OT in 2019. We went to the semifinals that year. I know their offense struggled mightily all year but it still seems like a proud program.

Snow, Covid, Illness, Flooding Days, the list goes on an on but I agree football teams only need eight to twelve weeks of strength training. It's not like it helps to be strong or fast in the game of football.

Do you know how prep football works? June and July is mostly on the field preseason prep. Take out a month for spring ball, that leaves you with four months. That's sixteen weeks. Uh oh. Spring Break. Fifteen weeks. Five days a week, that's 75 days. Not to mention other school holidays like Good Friday and MLK Day. Do you want a QB standing behind an offensive line that has worked out for 68 days?

It's not baseball or basketball LJS which are individual sports compared to football. No strength and conditioning a few weeks may not make or break a season in the way you imply but it definitely could get kids hurt if they don't prepare their bodies correctly which will make or break a season in the way you did not imply.

No they're not. No 6A school in Knox County has a workout class for football. Multiple 5A schools do but not 6A.

I have been hearing from my perch at West High, Bearden is ready to announce Jones as the new head coach. They just have to wait until Powell's run is finished.

What I'm hearing from my perch at West High; Josh Jones is the leading candidate, would simplify issues as far as faculty congestion, and would serve as a "splashy" offensive hire. Also word is Brad Taylor & Rusty Bradley are interviewing sometime at the beginning of the week. First interviews start today.

At what Randall? Underachieving? In 2010 West went over there and crushed them when they had a once in a lifetime running back in Devrin Young and last week Rhea Co did the same with the once in a lifetime back in Bishop.

Is this a CoachT first? Someone posing as a school administrator? Hopefully an admin will step in and lock their account.

No you're not and no he's not.

It's not all that surprising because I did hear years back that the current AD applied for the basketball job but the school went another direction. Probably still some hurt feelings there.

From my perch at West high, I've heard that the head principal and the AD are not on the same page as far as a teaching position for the potential HC and whether or not the head coach will be in the building or not. Seems there is some tension out west.

Any offense would be better than what they had this past year. When they came to play West the defense had to stop our offense and score to win, the offense didn't get off the bus in most of their games.

This is coming from a West fan, and I'm not saying this because I'm nervous about the game this week, @madhatter2269 you mentioned Heritage, Cocke Co,Hardin Valley, and TN High but Central has averaged scoring 10-12 more points than the all of their opponents' defenses average giving up per game. Their game with us was a total outlier. To say they say they don't have a powerful offense is ridiculous, they're in the quarterfinals for a reason. It's not the worst that offense has looked since 2016 because statistically it's better in every way. Some of this seems like it has more to do with personal feelings rather than statistics or performance. @chsbobcat09

Doubtful Bearden goes with anyone from the Shinlever staff. Again, I’m hearing this is Josh Jones job to turn down. My sons went to West in the late 90’s by the way. Go Rebels!

I'm sure an FHS guy doesn't mind there being staff congestion at Bearden. If what I'm hearing is true they have had to work around teachers not coaching. To me that is abhorrent. You look at West and see a common sense approach to running a school. They have made athletics a priority and hired solid men and women that build relationships in the classroom and coach their rear ends off.

Why no confidence friend? From what I hear on my perch at West high they are working around the staffing issues in a creative way. West doesn't have any PE teachers that don't coach. How many does Bearden have?

From my perch at West High word is that Jones to Bearden is all but a done deal and a solid young QB from another school is transferring in. (The QB part is murky, I was wondering if it was the QB at Fulton) I think what Bearden is waiting on is Powell to finish the season.

The AD at Bearden made it seem like there would be limited teaching positions if that's the case why would they not look internally?

It is definitely commonplace but I don't know about fortunate. It is fortunate if your middle school is in close proximity to the high school but that's not possible at West but it is at a school like Halls. Powell, West, Central, and Farragut have most of their coaches in the school. It is not a coincidence they also routinely put a good product on the field. I think it is a lot more complex than well football is lucky to only get a few positions in the building, it is up to the head coach to get creative from there on out. Not to mention the message it sends to your students that football is not important.

Agreed. It would be something awful if a new HC was hired and those coaches decided not to work there anymore but continued teaching. It is hard to understand how a school as large as Bearden has these limitations in regards to staffing their school.

The FiveStarPreps said he'd stay on as a PE teacher