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Fulton's Jody Wright is recipient of inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award

Aaron Torres
Knoxville

Kim and Jody Wright thought back to the time before state championship runs and coaching accolades.

Before the three state championships and eight runner-up appearances. Before Fulton's basketball gym was named after Jody in 2011. Before his 700th career win in 2018.

Kim was there at the beginning – when Jody was hired as the head coach at Union County at age 22 and then the coach at Fulton at age 23. 

"I wasn't thinking it might go into what it has gone into," said Kim, 55. "It's just kind of evolved." 

Jody, 58, sat in a chair next to her, wearing a Fulton basketball shirt, having come home from practice and offered his own opinion of what his wife probably thought when they first started dating. 

"I'm sure she thought I'd be selling insurance in a couple of years," Jody said. "He's not going to last." 

Wright, of course, did last. And has lasted for 34 years as Fulton's boys basketball coach. For his many years of success, he will be the recipient of the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented to him at the third annual Knox News Sports Awards presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans on Wednesday at the Tennessee Theatre. 

Success came slowly

Wright is 730-322 and has guided the Falcons to 18 appearances in the state tournament and three state championships in 2008, 2009 and 2016.

But in his first few seasons at Fulton, Wright 's teams didn't accomplish much other than the collective "there's always next season."

Wright's first team finished 2-22. He won 13 games combined in his first three seasons. But he showed up to work early and stayed late, trying to instill a culture of discipline.

"I always felt like watching Jody's team practice, his practices were a whole lot harder than the games," said Fulton football coach Rob Black, who was an assistant basketball coach with Wright for more than a decade. "You could tell early on he was a worker and he was very competitive." 

Wright remembers those years well. He'd often ask himself whether he was meant to be a basketball coach. 

"Those (years) were so hard ... so hard," Wright said. "I was young. I was gung-ho. And I worked hard. It was just unbelievable the amount of time you have to do to change a culture. ... I thought I was good enough to coach, and that was what was so discouraging – maybe I am not good enough." 

His first winning season was the 1988-89 season, when Fulton went 19-8. The freshmen Wright had coached his first season at Fulton were seniors on that team. Instructions had set in. A culture had been built. 

"It took awhile for us to figure out what we were doing and to close the gap in competition with the other schools in our district," Wright said. "The ingredients really came together that fourth season."

Fulton made it to the state tournament the next season, starting a state tournament run that's still going. 

A fierce competitor 

Kim says off the court her husband is funny, quick-witted and patient.

But during basketball season, he's prone to small outbursts of competitive rage on the court. Once, while meaning to kick a chair, Wright instead kicked former assistant coach David Haskell in the shin, drawing blood. 

"He kicked the hell out of me," Haskell said chuckling. "And I don't think he apologized after he did it." 

Another time, in the state tournament, he yelled at Haskell and Black for taking 30 minutes to come back with breakfast for the team. 

Even after 34 years of coaching, Wright still enjoys it. Although he will be 60 in a couple of years, he said he has no intention of retiring. He didn't go into coaching with a goal of coaching a certain number of years, and that hasn't changed. 

"I've got no end game," Wright said. "I ask myself the same questions every year: 'Do you still enjoy it? Are you still effective?' And when the answer to either of those becomes no, then it's time to go. ... 

"But I still love the teaching part of it."