Article written by: Brian Kamer
With Rhea County on the market for a coach for the first time in over a decade, things are much different now than they were then. Gone are the days where a coaching search is kept “hush-hush” or fades into the background of everyday life. On hand are the days where searches and the hires that come from them are highly criticized at every turn, either justified or not, by the fans and community that will be welcoming a new member or celebrating a homecoming of a former one.
This is the conundrum that faces the administrators that will have a hand in this coaching search.
Every hire is risky. Every stone must be unturned, and each could produce a potential candidate or a delay on the road to naming the 9th head coach in Golden Eagle history. The question remains, what are they looking for as resumes undoubtedly begin to pour into their inboxes?
Local Ties
Many of the men who have served as former head coaches have had connections to Rhea County and surrounding counties.
Rhea County’s first coach, John Boynton, came from Bledsoe County.
Jason Fitzgerald, currently at Sale Creek, was one of the highest regarded offensive linemen to graduate from Rhea County before taking his talents to Auburn..
Mark Pemberton was from Rockwood and had been an assistant coach in Evensville during the early 2000s.
Is the next coach going to be someone with local ties?
Outside of Rhea County
A local coach might be the choice, but Rhea County has also had success branching out of its normal footprint in the past.
Golden Eagle legend Bill Horton was not a local. He was from upper East Tennessee with roots in Jefferson County and Greeneville.
Tim Hammontree, a longtime Eagles assistant who had a two year stint as head coach, was a former state championship head coach at Maryville.
Could another coach from the Green Devils, Rebels, Patriots, or another school from that region provide the next leader for the program? Could it be a mixture of someone with local ties that has found success out of the area? Only time will tell.
A Different Time
Speaking of new eras, the next Rhea County head coach will have to take over a program in the midst of a nationwide shift in perceptions and attitudes towards athletics. Mark Pemberton became the top Eagle in April 2013, some 129 months ago.
Just as his first season was underway, Electronic Arts (EA Sports) was sued for including in-game players of their college sports franchises that were identical to real players, but not paying those players to have their image used. In keeping with a spirit of preserving amateurism, the NCAA forced the hand of EA Sports to stop making the game instead of taking EA’s offer to pay the players they used in the game. Even before then and for at least another 8 years afterwards, the NCAA committed itself to penalizing players and programs that profited off of what is now referred to as “Name, Image, and Likeness,” or “NIL” for short.
That all changed in 2021 when the NCAA, followed by the TSSAA in 2022, began allowing players to profit off of their NIL brand.
Players, both at the college and high school levels, can now make money off of the attention they gather from being exceptional at their chosen sport. While schools themselves cannot use this as incentive, there is nothing stopping the businesses of the community from helping players create and cultivate their NIL.
Because of this, top notch players are transferring at higher rates than seen in previous years, making it harder for coaches to keep hometown kids from seeking opportunities elsewhere. The next Rhea County coach will be tasked with keeping current players in Evensville while also creating an environment that attracts players seeking a new football home to Eagle Stadium.
There are many possibilities as to who the next coach will be, but there is one thing that will be true regardless of who is chosen:
The support they will have is quite possibly the best in the entire state. From a committed administration, hard nosed players, top notch assistants, passionate fans, and the community as a whole, there are quite seriously thousands of people ready and waiting to see who is going to lead the Eagles into this new era and embrace the grind that always comes with a coaching change.
Keep with The Rhea County Observer as the search for a new coach continues.
This article was written by Brian Kamer, Contributor to the Rhea County Observer Sports section.
