Moving to Knoxville

[shawwrestling]

Good Evening All,

I am relocating to the Knoxville area with my family in the next few months. Since the conclusion of my college career in 1999 (Sacramento City College, Fresno State) I have been the head assistant wrestling coach, and for the last 7 years, Associate Head Coach,  which is a fancy title that means I do all the paperwork and my best friend gets all the credit (J/K), at my alma mater, Elk Grove High School. Our program was recently rated the #24 ranked program in the history of California wrestling. Yes I am coming from California, but we are small town folk with conservative Christian values...please don’t roast me:-). I understand the frustration. 
I am a secondary science teacher with 10 years of middle school experience and 4 years of high school experience. I have two sons, currently in the 7th and 8th grade who both wrestle and play baseball. We are leaving a huge family support system behind, so moving into a wrestling community for us is a must! My father was a college wrestler, who at 70 years old still coaches at our feeder middle school. My brother and I both wrestled in college. My wife’s brothers all wrestled at Elk Grove High and one even made it to the UFC, Scott “hands of steel” Smith. If you get nothing else out of this post and you are a fight fan, search him on YouTube, he has some amazingly entertaining highlights. Bottom line, we are a wrestling family through and through.

 I am hoping to hear a little about the wrestling community in and around the Knoxville area. Specifically which communities have a strong wrestling tradition. There is really nothing like a wrestling community in my opinion, and leaving so much behind (between my wife and I we are leaving behind 7 siblings and families, and my parents who all live within 5 miles of us, not to mention 30 years of friends) moving into an area where we can be involved as a family is goal number 1. I still want to coach and am hoping to find that opportunity...It is in my blood, and is the sole reason I started teaching to begin with.
 

Thanks in advance for any input. I appreciate your time,
 

Ryan Shaw

 

[noonesfool]

Knox Halls, strong program and seems family community oriented from an outsider’s perspective.

Pidgeon Forge, (small school division) can wrestle with anyone. Lots of state titles and champions, great coach. Family, community orIented. 1/2 hour to 45 minutes East of Knoxville.

Greeneville HS (small school division) returning 3 state champions. Lots of state champions, has produced a ton of great coaches, State title and always in the hunt for the title. Great school system, family, community oriented and great coach. 60 miles east of Knoxville.

Edited September 7, 2020 by noonesfool

[shawwrestling]

1 hour ago, noonesfool said:

Knox Halls, strong program and seems family community oriented from an outsider’s perspective.

Pidgeon Forge, (small school division) can wrestle with anyone. Lots of state titles and champions, great coach. Family, community orIented. 1/2 hour to 45 minutes East of Knoxville.

Greeneville HS (small school division) returning 3 state champions. Lots of state champions, has produced a ton of great coaches, State title and always in the hunt for the title. Great school system, family, community oriented and great coach. 60 miles east of Knoxville.

Thank you for the info Noonesfool. Much appreciated. 

[EastTN]

East Tennessee is a great area to relocate.  Wrestling programs are fluent within high schools but club wrestling, as you probably know, is where leaps and bounds are made.

We currently practice with TNWA and wrestle with Lakeway Christian Academy about 35 miles eat of Knoxville.  LCA is a new facilty with top notch facilities and our wrestling coach is a recent D1 wrestler from WVU.  The TNWA club has 2 locations, Morristown and Heritage.  I'm sure you will want to check all options and find the best fit for you and your family.  Hope that helps.

Edited September 8, 2020 by EastTN

[Floyd]

If you are looking in the West Knoxville area, Bearden High School has a strong foundation. We run a freestyle club during the summer and are rebuilding our youth program. We also have a really good Baseball team, and I am good friends with the baseball coach and love sharing kids. I would love to talk with you.

Donnie Floyd

donnie.floyd@gmail.com

[TotallynotLEO]

In the greater Knoxville area Halls is one of the more established wrestling communities with a lot of history. They have an excellent feeder AAU program. Anderson County is trying to get on the map in large school category and the feeder program is doing well finally but they have work to do. I mention them because they are in close proximity to Halls and compete for many of the same kids. Bearden is  good and Pigeon Forge punches above their weight. 

The Lakeway Academy, while small, is legit in every aspect and has excellent coaching. Possibly the best wrestling coaching in East Tn. 

Take note that there is usually a difference between schools classified as 'small' and 'large' . Overall the talent and competition is significantly better in the schools classified as large. That's not to diminish any small school accomplishments, it is what it is. This allows you to have multiple state champions in each weight class. If you could have a duals meet with the champs from large vs small schools the large schools would win. 

Tennessee overall is ok for wrestling but not great, it's kinda in the middle. The Chattanooga area has some very strong wrestling schools. Cleveland, Soddy-Daisy, Baylor... Nashville has some too and it's getting better. 

I'm just trying to prepare you for the climate and mean no disrespect. A TN state champ would likely get pinned or majored at a regionals in PA or Ohio in most cases. 

I've helped out with a local AAU team the last couple years, it's so rewarding to see kids fall in love with this sport. 

I can think of a couple places that could be a great opportunity with a great community to live and work in. Good luck wherever you land and welcome!

Edited September 10, 2020 by TotallynotLEO

[JSamson7]

On 9/7/2020 at 3:36 AM, shawwrestling said:

Good Evening All,

I am relocating to the Knoxville area with my family in the next few months. Since the conclusion of my college career in 1999 (Sacramento City College, Fresno State) I have been the head assistant wrestling coach, and for the last 7 years, Associate Head Coach,  which is a fancy title that means I do all the paperwork and my best friend gets all the credit (J/K), at my alma mater, Elk Grove High School. Our program was recently rated the #24 ranked program in the history of California wrestling. Yes I am coming from California, but we are small town folk with conservative Christian values...please don’t roast me:-). I understand the frustration. 
I am a secondary science teacher with 10 years of middle school experience and 4 years of high school experience. I have two sons, currently in the 7th and 8th grade who both wrestle and play baseball. We are leaving a huge family support system behind, so moving into a wrestling community for us is a must! My father was a college wrestler, who at 70 years old still coaches at our feeder middle school. My brother and I both wrestled in college. My wife’s brothers all wrestled at Elk Grove High and one even made it to the UFC, Scott “hands of steel” Smith. If you get nothing else out of this post and you are a fight fan, search him on YouTube, he has some amazingly entertaining highlights. Bottom line, we are a wrestling family through and through.

 I am hoping to hear a little about the wrestling community in and around the Knoxville area. Specifically which communities have a strong wrestling tradition. There is really nothing like a wrestling community in my opinion, and leaving so much behind (between my wife and I we are leaving behind 7 siblings and families, and my parents who all live within 5 miles of us, not to mention 30 years of friends) moving into an area where we can be involved as a family is goal number 1. I still want to coach and am hoping to find that opportunity...It is in my blood, and is the sole reason I started teaching to begin with.
 

Thanks in advance for any input. I appreciate your time,
 

Ryan Shaw

 

How often do you guys wrestle Gilroy? A good friend of mine is the head coach there and I know quite a few of coaches on that staff.

[shawwrestling]

1 hour ago, JSamson7 said:

How often do you guys wrestle Gilroy? A good friend of mine is the head coach there and I know quite a few of coaches on that staff.

Daniel Cormier? The Champ! I got to meet him at mid-cals (gilroy’s tournament) last year. Seems like a good guy. Gilroy is trying hard to rival Buchanan and Clovis. Cormier has those boys driving up to San Jose wrestling with khabib nugamedov (think I just butchered that) tons of AA’s, ufc big timers at AKA. Pretty special situation for those kids.
 

they are still light years behind the tirapelle brothers right now at Clovis and Buchanan. Those two schools have won 9 state titles in a row. And they are about 7-8 miles apart. This is a league dual: 

Thanks to everyone that posted here. We have limited means so we don’t exactly get to pick where we live, but at least I have a few areas that we can look! Super cool to see so many schools and areas listed, and sounds like it is growing. Unfortunately that is not the case every where. Numbers are down out here. Lots of schools have trouble filling a lineup.Too many soft kids.

[JSamson7]

14 hours ago, shawwrestling said:

Daniel Cormier? The Champ! I got to meet him at mid-cals (gilroy’s tournament) last year. Seems like a good guy. Gilroy is trying hard to rival Buchanan and Clovis. Cormier has those boys driving up to San Jose wrestling with khabib nugamedov (think I just butchered that) tons of AA’s, ufc big timers at AKA. Pretty special situation for those kids.
 

they are still light years behind the tirapelle brothers right now at Clovis and Buchanan. Those two schools have won 9 state titles in a row. And they are about 7-8 miles apart. This is a league dual: 

Thanks to everyone that posted here. We have limited means so we don’t exactly get to pick where we live, but at least I have a few areas that we can look! Super cool to see so many schools and areas listed, and sounds like it is growing. Unfortunately that is not the case every where. Numbers are down out here. Lots of schools have trouble filling a lineup.Too many soft kids.

Yes, DC is a great dude. I spent a few days with the guys at AKA and all of them are great. I spoke to Patrick Coffing aboutyou some on email, look forward to talking with you soon!

[Pondfish]

Hey would love for you to look at the Gibbs area , great country setting and awesome place to live . We have really good wrestling program . We are currently building up our middle school  program with coaching opportunity. We have a really good baseball program too.

[PatCoach09]

On 9/7/2020 at 3:36 AM, shawwrestling said:

Good Evening All,

I am relocating to the Knoxville area with my family in the next few months. Since the conclusion of my college career in 1999 (Sacramento City College, Fresno State) I have been the head assistant wrestling coach, and for the last 7 years, Associate Head Coach,  which is a fancy title that means I do all the paperwork and my best friend gets all the credit (J/K), at my alma mater, Elk Grove High School. Our program was recently rated the #24 ranked program in the history of California wrestling. Yes I am coming from California, but we are small town folk with conservative Christian values...please don’t roast me:-). I understand the frustration. 
I am a secondary science teacher with 10 years of middle school experience and 4 years of high school experience. I have two sons, currently in the 7th and 8th grade who both wrestle and play baseball. We are leaving a huge family support system behind, so moving into a wrestling community for us is a must! My father was a college wrestler, who at 70 years old still coaches at our feeder middle school. My brother and I both wrestled in college. My wife’s brothers all wrestled at Elk Grove High and one even made it to the UFC, Scott “hands of steel” Smith. If you get nothing else out of this post and you are a fight fan, search him on YouTube, he has some amazingly entertaining highlights. Bottom line, we are a wrestling family through and through.

 I am hoping to hear a little about the wrestling community in and around the Knoxville area. Specifically which communities have a strong wrestling tradition. There is really nothing like a wrestling community in my opinion, and leaving so much behind (between my wife and I we are leaving behind 7 siblings and families, and my parents who all live within 5 miles of us, not to mention 30 years of friends) moving into an area where we can be involved as a family is goal number 1. I still want to coach and am hoping to find that opportunity...It is in my blood, and is the sole reason I started teaching to begin with.
 

Thanks in advance for any input. I appreciate your time,
 

Ryan Shaw

 

Coach, 

No doubt there are great schools in Knoxville but there are also good programs right outside as well, We are in Jefferson County, about 30 minutes away, we have 3 returning state medalists and typically have openings in the system if you are looking to teach. If you want more info you can email me at jchspatriotwrestling@gmail.com 

[shawwrestling]

On 9/11/2020 at 11:07 AM, Pondfish said:

Hey would love for you to look at the Gibbs area , great country setting and awesome place to live . We have really good wrestling program . We are currently building up our middle school  program with coaching opportunity. We have a really good baseball program too.

Thanks Camper! We are flying out in a couple of weeks with some family to cruise around the area for the weekend. Quick trip to visit some different areas, now I can add Corryton to the list!

Non wrestling question for you: Is you name camper because you like to camp? We love to camp, upgraded to a trailer about  3 1/2 years back and have close to 40 trips. I don't see many campers on properties or at houses we have looked at on realtor sites. Is camping not that big in Tennessee?