The winningest girls basketball coach in the history of the Tennessee High program ensured Tuesday that his status as such likely won’t be the case for long.
THS athletic director Barry Wade – the current record-holder – announced the hiring of Kim Bright as the new Vikings girls hoops coach, bringing back aboard the leader of the program from 2000-08 and the woman who he narrowly passed atop the career wins list at the school in his final season on the bench before taking the AD job last summer.
Bright takes over for Thad Lambert, who the school parted ways with after just one season following the end of the 2017-18 school year when his grant-funded teaching position wasn’t renewed.
“She’s just always been one that really cares about the kids,” Wade said. “We got her back into coaching and helping us in softball and I think that sort of sparked the flame to get back into it.”
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Bright continued as a physical education teacher at Tennessee High even after stepping down from her coaching post and will be entering her 25th year at the school in 2018-19, but hadn’t coached for the Vikings in a decade until being drafted as a last-minute fill-in for an assistant softball job this spring.
She confirmed Wade’s assertion that the softball gig renewed her passion for coaching.
“I helped out with softball because someone had dropped out right when the season started,” Bright said. “I just realized how much I missed the young ladies and working with them. That was a smooth move by Coach Wade.”
Bright posted a record of 183-76 in her first go-around as the THS girls hoops head coach, leading the Vikings to five Big Nine Conference championships.
Wade served as Bright’s assistant for three years before taking over the program for the 2008-09 season and passed her wins mark with his 184th victory in November 2016, a record he extended to 195 wins before stepping down after the 2016-17 campaign.
“When the job came available she just walked in and said she was interested in coming back as a coach,” Wade said. “Any time that you have somebody inside like that that’s done it before and wants to do it again, that’s an ideal situation for us.”
Wade expressed his appreciation for Lambert’s year leading the THS program and said it was disappointing that his teaching position was discontinued.
“At the time that was something we didn’t think would work out on either side,” Wade said regarding the possibility of keeping Lambert on board just in his coaching role.
Lambert didn’t respond to a message Tuesday seeking formal comment on his departure from THS.
While Bright has been away from the THS bench for a decade, she said she’s maintained close ties to the program.
“Once you’re a Lady Viking and you’re in the program, you’re always a Lady Viking,” she said. “It’s imbedded in you.”
Two of Bright’s former players, Courtney Watkins Stone and Elizabeth Vance Arnold, are slated to be on her staff as assistants for the 2018-19 season, along with Amanda Vance, back with the program after spending recent years at David Crockett, and longtime teaching colleague and Vikings assistant Charlie Tiller.
“The staff, I’m pretty excited about,” she said. “Really, we’re all family. It’s going to be pretty fun.”
Bright acknowledged changes to the coaching profession in her time away from the THS program, but said she believes her core values will still reach her players.
“I know kids and I know they want discipline and they want someone that cares about them,” she said. “They want a positive experience and I don’t think that’s changed.”
Wade said Bright’s ability to connect with players is one of her strengths as a leader.
“Coach Bright just does a good job with relating to the girls and really a lot of team building things,” he said.
Bright’s hiring will also impact the THS boys basketball roster next season.
The Bright family has lived in the Johnson City corner of the Tri-Cities in recent years and Bright’s son, Mchale, a rising junior, played the past two seasons for David Crockett, memorably scoring the game-winning basket for the Pioneers in 2017 to clinch a sub-state berth for the Jonesborough crew.
With Bright taking the THS coaching job, the family is in the process of moving back to Bristol and McHale is slated to enroll at Tennessee High and play for the boys squad in 2018-19.
“It was just good timing for our family,” Bright said. “We’re all pretty excited. It just kind of all surfaced when the job opened up here and then we started talking about it and it was just the best move for our family.”
Bright joked that taking on the responsibility of leading the THS girls program will keep her occupied enough not to holler as much when McHale’s on the court.
“I’ve been coaching my son from the sideline, which is not good,” she said with a laugh.
Still, she said she’ll relish putting her stamp back on THS hoops again while having her son compete at the school where she’s spent nearly a quarter-century.
“It’s pretty awesome to kind of come full circle with things,” she said.