Unaka at Greenback

[creekerballer]

Held interviews for the position today. Will supposedly know something by the end of the week.

[uknoit2]

Shewwwwwww

[BlueDevil58]

Interviews were yesterday.  I think they brought in 4 finalists.

 

I called up the former TN High assistant who put in for it.  He said his interview went well and they seemed to like a lot of the things he said about getting kids out and stressing academics and discipline, too, but he's not sure if they want him.

 

His goal is to recruit like crazy to get 40 kids out at Unaka and have them competing with Cloudland for the conference championship within a few years.  Of the candidates that leaked my way, I think he's the best fit after talking with him about it.  He wants it badly and has experience helping rebuild small schools up from nothing before.

 

The pay makes the job unattractive.  Carter County has probably the lowest teaching salary in the area and the stipend is only about $2500 for a head coach.  An assistant coach who teaches in any of the surrounding systems is going to be taking a sizeable pay cut to work much longer hours.  That turned off a lot of people who applied.  They also don't have any spots to bring in other teachers to work as assistant coaches, so whoever they get is going to have to do it all by himself.

 

They're supposed to announce who it is in 2 weeks.

[creekerballer]

The guy from TN High sounds like a good one. You know who else interviewed, BD?

[BlueDevil58]

The guy from TN High sounds like a good one. You know who else interviewed, BD?

I know that Carr did, and a couple of other young coaches also interviewed but I haven't heard names.  I hear they may have interviewed Adam Bolling separately, too, but he wasn't there yesterday--he's the interim coach right now and is handling the weightlifting.  My source could not deny that Brock Pittman might've been brought in...

 

Most coaches in Carter County feel like Unaka's a lost cause and a "coach killer" job, so they didn't get much interest from within the system at all, despite some of the things I heard earlier.  A few of the candidates they tried to bring in for interviews removed their names from consideration when they found out about the pay.

Edited January 24, 2017 by BlueDevil58

[BlueDevil58]

Another round of interviews is being scheduled for next week.  No word on who they're bringing in.

[BULLRUSH]

Sounds like decision has been made and from what I hear a very positive addition

[creekerballer]

Hire made http://www.cartercountysports.com/unaka-tabs-bennett-new-football-coach/

[pujo]

Hire made http://www.cartercountysports.com/unaka-tabs-bennett-new-football-coach/

Good news ,hope he does well.

[uknoit2]

Had not heard of him in previous conversations.

Hope he's able to hit the ground running

[creekerballer]

Had not heard of him in previous conversations.

Hope he's able to hit the ground running

I knew of him because my sister teaches at Halls, but didn't know he had applied. His biggest challenge is going to be hitting the halls and getting kids to come out. That's step 1.

[rememberthealamo]

good luck to the new coach.  Sounds like Unaka is a unique situation but i know just a few years ago halls was also in bad shape so it sounds like he at least has a game plan to fall back on.  Biggest thing is support and understanding from the community and time for him to implement the changes that he will have to make.