Best High School Football Coaches in State History

[Rainwater]

I am not a coach, just a person who thinks your comment is a little overboard. So if I had been a passenger in Richard Petty's race car for 50 of his 200 wins, I can say I won 50 races.

 

Might be overboard....but I think the proof is in the facts. Ensworth backed up the money truck to pluck him and got what they wanted.......the Gold Ball.

 

Fact:

DCA went 8 years from 1988 before winning it in 1996. They did win it in 2004 as well.

CPA never won a state title with Pack before CPW got there. They won 2 titles and had several kids go onto SEC schools.

Davidson never won jack before he got there (Hence, the division might have been weak, but 3 titles is still tough to do no matter what division) -

Bowers did not win it in football before he got there. (DII-AA state champ) - beat Smyrna regular season, beat BA 2x, MBA and Baylor 2x along the way.

 

And you never rode in his race car.....I think we know who might be driving the race car behind the scenes.

[rollredroll]

No doubt. I apologize for the overlook. No disrespect intended.

 

No apology necessary; my response was more of a preemptive olive branch, given the tenor these message boards evolve into at times.

[KWoodroof]

Might be overboard....but I think the proof is in the facts. Ensworth backed up the money truck to pluck him and got what they wanted.......the Gold Ball.

 

Fact:

DCA went 8 years from 1988 before winning it in 1996. They did win it in 2004 as well.

CPA never won a state title with Pack before CPW got there. They won 2 titles and had several kids go onto SEC schools.

Davidson never won jack before he got there (Hence, the division might have been weak, but 3 titles is still tough to do no matter what division) -

Bowers did not win it in football before he got there. (DII-AA state champ) - beat Smyrna regular season, beat BA 2x, MBA and Baylor 2x along the way.

 

And you never rode in his race car.....I think we know who might be driving the race car behind the scenes.

I'm sure the gentleman is a good coach, but Bowers had some modest success before EHS backed up a money truck to get him to leave his alma mater.

[Treadstone]

Not sure how Bowers can be left off this list.

[CheckerboardEndzones]

Coach Netherland coached his last game yesterday. It's been a pleasure watching him do his thing all these years. I was never a specific supporter of one of his schools but it was always easy to root for his squads when not playing the ones I was for. I don't think I'm alone in that and that says more about the man and the way he went about his business than anything I think.

 

I assume his last time coaching will be as an assistant next Saturday (Dec. 11th) at the Memphis area all-star game. Y'all come out.

 

Thanks for being a great leader to a lot of young men, coach. It appears to me that the Lord has used you in a great way. Enjoy.

 

Coach Netherland coached his last game for SG, but most he has most likely not coached his last game. He will end up coaching somewhere, even it is in another state.

 

It had to be a rough day for him yesterday. The Memphis paper said the other day that his wife was suffering from some health issues and found out Monday that she was having surgery this Friday. Said he coached and then immediately returned back to Memphis to be with her.

[KWoodroof]

Not sure how Bowers can be left off this list.

He's just beginning to reach the level of longevity that gets your name on a list like this. Assuming he stays near this level of achievement for another couple of years, he makes the short list. There's no arguing his record.

[REBELRON]

Maryville has had 2 legends. Current coach George Quarles is the guy everyone knows about now. Former Rebel coach Ted Wilson was a great one. He won over 80% of his games and led Maryville to State Titles in 1970,1976 and 1978. I was at Maryville when Ted Wilson was coaching there. My brothers played for him. You would run through a wall for that man.

[KWoodroof]

Maryville has had 2 legends. Current coach George Quarles is the guy everyone knows about now. Former Rebel coach Ted Wilson was a great one. He won over 80% of his games and led Maryville to State Titles in 1970,1976 and 1978. I was at Maryville when Ted Wilson was coaching there. My brothers played for him. You would run through a wall for that man.

It's off topic, but since you mentioned the '70 championship, maybe you can help out with a question. I think that would have been the 2nd year of state playoffs. How did a team qualify? I know that's before the distict set up (that worked so well, especially when it was just the district champion who went inot the play-offs). I know that in '70 in AAA there were only 4 teams in the play-off: MBA, Covington, Tennessee, and whoever Tennesse beat in the semi-finals. No one has been able to explain the format; do you recall how it worked?

[rollredroll]

It's off topic, but since you mentioned the '70 championship, maybe you can help out with a question. I think that would have been the 2nd year of state playoffs. How did a team qualify? I know that's before the distict set up (that worked so well, especially when it was just the district champion who went inot the play-offs). I know that in '70 in AAA there were only 4 teams in the play-off: MBA, Covington, Tennessee, and whoever Tennesse beat in the semi-finals. No one has been able to explain the format; do you recall how it worked?

 

Based on looking at some of the newspapers from that era, it may have been driven by some sort of ratings system (Litratings). I have a copy from the Banner of the last week of the 1972 regular season, and it appears the playoff participants largely followed the hierarchy of the Litratings shown in that issue of the paper.

[cbg]

I'm sure the gentleman is a good coach, but Bowers had some modest success before EHS backed up a money truck to get him to leave his alma mater.

Most of the time when Ensworth or Ricky Bowers name comes up the word MONEY is not far behind. I know of no high school coach that would not leave their current job if given the same opportunity as Bowers was a few short years ago. Like him or not Ricky Bowers is a very good high school coach that took the MBA football program to a level that few could even dream about and he is doing the same thing at Ensworth

Edited December 8, 2010 by cbg

[KWoodroof]

Most of the time when Ensworth or Ricky Bowers name comes up the word MONEY is not far behind. I know of no high school coach that would not leave their current job if given the same opportunity as Bowers was a few short years ago. Like him or not Ricky Bowers is a very good high school coach that took the MBA football program to a level that few could even dream about and he is doing the same thing at Ensworth

Ricky and i played together in the 7th-9th grade teams at MBA. While we weren't really friends, we obviously knew each other, and I always sent congratulationsto him after his state championships at MBA. I always got a cordial response from him. I also sent him my best wishes when he took the ensworth job. At that time, he mentioned that Ensworth gave him the personal opportunity to spend more time with all of his kids, who would be able to attend Ensowrth (free no less, which is nt an incosiderable financial bonus). Professionally, it was the opportunity to build a great program. While he did a magnificient job at MBA, MBA had a long and storied football history before he took over.

 

There's been speculation that there was conflict between him and Gioia at MBA. Knowing what I do, it seems plausible, maybe even likely. There've been some suggestions that Bowers is not the classiest coach...while I think he ran the score up unnecessarily against MBA in 2009, I've never heard of Bowers criticizing anything about his treatment or relationships at MBA. He should get some credit for that one.

[flashgordon]

Tommy Owen.....Bob Cummings.....Ricky Bower.....123!