Best Tennessee High School Coaches From The Last Twenty Years

Sean O’Neil at Knox Catholic has had three different FLN runners (Ferowich, Thompson, and Renfree).

Grant Sinclair at White Station High School in Memphis sent two girls (Rita Jorgensen and Virginia Hine) to Foot Locker Nationals for a few consecutive years. In 2006, both finished in the top 10. Not sure if any other high school in Tennessee coach can make that claim.

White Station had a good run.

Bryan Brown—Hardin Valley

Jennifer Brockett—Science Hill

Peter Mueller—Ravenwood

Allen Etheridge—Oak Ridge

George Gibson—Houston

Heather Ott and Jan Gautier—Baylor

Gibson was a nut, but had an insanely deep guy's team from 2000-2008 or so. Lauren Paquette, local Memphian and 4:09/15:14 performer, spent a year with the Houston girl's team a few years back and nabbed a state championship with seven girls under 19:00 and two under 18:00 in the same season.

Etheridge’s teams both won in 2007 and scored under 100 points between them. Boys won NXN Southeast. They had a good run between 2004-2010.

Brown had both Templeton boys win State and Aaron 2x FLN. Had at least one team win but I think two.

Jeffers has been solid on the boys side in particular.

Phil Young has won two in a row at Siegel, as did Mueller. Agree on Smith at BA.

hmmmmmmmmm wrote:

Gibson was a nut, but had an insanely deep guy's team from 2000-2008 or so. Lauren Paquette, local Memphian and 4:09/15:14 performer, spent a year with the Houston girl's team a few years back and nabbed a state championship with seven girls under 19:00 and two under 18:00 in the same season.

Coach Gibson coached 6 boys state championship teams in 12 years from 1997 to 2008 (97, 98, 00, 03, 04, 08) and 3 individual state championships (Doug Ellington ‘93 , Brett Baddorf ‘97, Alex Herringshaw ‘04). ‘97 and ‘04 Houston were some of the most successful Tennessee teams of all time. ‘97 Houston produced 6 all state runners, the most of any school in the AAA division in state history. You may term Gibson a “nut,” but that is a subjective social concern and irrelevant towards evaluating the objective pedigree of these coaches. To be honest, given the lackluster performances over the last decade of most boys Memphis teams I think we could use more “nuts” coaching our runners. I’m sure the guys who won under Gibson will appreciate the memory of being state champions for the rest of their lives. It must be a great feeling.

One coach who is up and coming and flying under the radar some is Bill Gardner. His team at Bartlett finished 2nd in AAA XC this year with a group of almost entirely underclassmen. He has taken a team that had virtually no tradition of excellent XC running and transformed them into a potential state championship winning team. Over the next decade he may establish himself as one of the all time Tennessee coaching greats.

Coach Guy has to be in the conversation of greatest TN XC coaches. He has coached a half dozen sub 9 3200 runners and about as many who have run in the 15:30s and under on the difficult Percy Warner State course. Under his tutelage, Brodey Hasty became one of the best in the nation. His Brentwood team in 2016 scored just 29 points, the lowest ever in TSSAA AAA history. They had 4 runners in the top 6 which is virtually unprecedented. Based solely on the numbers, he is probably the best ever. It is unfortunate that he has been surrounded by controversy in recent years, but again, that is a subjective social concern rather than an objective evaluation of a coach’s abilities. Coach Guy is certainly among the greats.

You mentioned Lauren Paquette. While she is a good person and highly accomplished runner, I don’t think any reasonable person could suggest she deserves to be mentioned among coaching greats. She was not even the head coach for that team. Maybe one day she could be a coaching great, but that day is not today.

Overall, there is a lot of coaching talent in Tennessee and hopefully the tradition of excellent XC running is continued over the next decades.

I cant believe no one has mentioned Van Townsand. He was a true student of the sport. Almost a mad scientist. I'm not sure how many FL guys he produced:

Jamie Gifford

James Strang

Brandon Lord

That other kid that got anemia in college

Hearing about Gibson's 6x2 mile workouts on grass, 80+ mpw summers, etc., I can reasonably classify him as a "nut", yes. Guy certainly should be considered a contender. Nick Dwyer of Christian Brothers High School should be mentioned, as well, for building a consistent (and very sizable) stable of young guys over the last couple of decades.

Houston had all these rituals that really worked for them: the shaved heads, burning the shoes. And they were known to work hard. Their 2004 team is a bit underrated simply because they didn’t get picked for NXN. The 1997 team is one of the top teams the state has produced. Gibson was the one who orchestrated that, which is funny because he didn’t look too much like a runner.

Van was an unusual presence running around in his shorty shorts and surfer hair, an unabashed cheerleader for everyone running. The fourth name was Bill Matthews. Baylor nearly made NXN one year also.

hmmmmmmmmmm wrote:

Hearing about Gibson's 6x2 mile workouts on grass, 80+ mpw summers, etc., I can reasonably classify him as a "nut", yes. Guy certainly should be considered a contender. Nick Dwyer of Christian Brothers High School should be mentioned, as well, for building a consistent (and very sizable) stable of young guys over the last couple of decades.

Gibson certainly had his guys work hard, but 80 miles a week during the summer isn’t exactly unprecedented. If you are running twice a day, it is not a very hard number to hit. The Gibson guys were not the only Memphis guys who ran that much. Rob Sorrell, who ran 1:54, 4:09, and 9:03 and qualified for Footlocker XC Nationals running 15:08, ran 75 miles a week in singles and hit up to 100 when he was doing doubles ( source:

-). He went on to run 3:44 1500/ 13:54 5000 in college. The reality is that building a successful team requires high mileage. Miles make champions, period. That’s been proven time and time again. Many guys, including myself, have seen massive gains that correspond to higher mileage. You can hardly blame Gibson for doing what is necessary to build a great team. More guys ran for college under Gibson than almost all the other Memphis coaches combined. I think those guys appreciate that they were given a chance to run for college. Many would not have been good enough with the restrained approach taken by most Memphis coaches. I applaud Dwyer for his work at Christian Brothers, but his guys would not hold a candle to the Memphis greats, almost all of who ran these kind of “crazy workouts” and high mileage.

Bobby Holcombe is another recent winner with two Footlocker guys (Long and Coughlin). You are correct that the state is currently filled with quality coaching and has been for a couple of decades.

Another fun fact about Gibson is that he coached pole vault. An apocryphal story had him making everyone in his wellness classes at least try it, identifying new vaulters that way.

Sam Roberts at Knox West and Oak Ridge—footlocker girl, state champions in track and XC at West and as an assistant at Oak Ridge.

Not only did Van produce some of the best individual talent in the state year after year, but he also energized the sport in the Chattanooga area. He really was an icon in the state during his short life.

In addition to the above:

Bill Matthews

Jamie Bach

Brad Wharton

Cameron Bean who went on to excel post collegiately and run for ZAP

Oliver Townsend ( his son )

The program has really fallen off the map since his death: evidence of how integral he was to its success

Van Townsend, then the rest. Not only did he coach his guys up, he also coached the coaches and spread the best ideas about training through the state. Van was also one of the original letsrun contributors!

Lance Winders head XC & T&F coach at Henry County High School. It's a small school in Paris, TN. Has had a lot of recent success over the past 5-6 years. Hasn't had a lot of team success due to the small numbers that participate. Has produced some State champions and in 2018 two team members went 1 and 2 in the state 3200 final. Has had state champions in XC as well.

Why?

Those other coaches are great, though.

Left handed or right handed? Be specific. i want to narrow down the best of the best in all coaching categories from Tennessee. Girl's left handed coaches from East Central Tennessee is a different animal than right handed Boys coaches near Cookeville.

The last 5 years of results in Memphis should leave no doubt, Bartlett has gone from occasional state appearances to a consistently top 5 team in the large school state meet. This while moving from the weaker region of Cordova, Bartlett, Arlington, and Bolton to a super-region of Houston, Collierville, White Station, Arlington, Bartlett, among others and only the top 3 qualify still. 3-4 CONSECUTIVE years Bartlett is competing for the state title. No one takes 22 minute freshman to 16:30 seniors like Bartlett does. Can’t name another school in Memphis area that has those kind of improvements year on year. Frank Horton Race this past weekend was another great showing that would have resulted in victory even if a couple of the other big name schools were at full strength