Oak Ridge coach Joe Gaddis and legendary Knoxville coach/athletics director Bob Polston will be inducted in the Tennessee Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame on Dec. 1 in Cookeville.
Gaddis is in his 44th season of coaching high school football and owns a record of 304-125 (266-84 in Tennessee). He’s also been a head coach in Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina. He won a state title in Oak Ridge in 1991. He’s currently in his second stint with the Wildcats, entering his sixth season.
Polston was a head football coach and baseball coach for 21 years (1958-1979) in and around Knoxville and also served as the Knox County School System’s athletics director from 1978-2004. He won 156 games as a football coach at Knoxville East, Austin-East and Knoxville Rule. And his baseball record was 173-42.
Polston is already a member of the TSSAA Hall of Fame, the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame and the East Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Gaddis and Polston are a part of the fifth induction class, which also includes Bobby Alston (MUS), Jim Heinz (ECS), Hershel Moore (Cumberland University), Dave Rider (Elizabethton) and Stump Martin (journalist).
Lakeway Christian Academy hires former Lady Vol
Ellen Renfro Reed, a two-time NFCA All-American and three-time Top 25 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year while at Tennessee, has been hired as the new softball coach for Lakeway Christian Academy in Morristown.
Renfro Reed finished with a 1.65 ERA and 102-25 record for Tennessee on the mound but then go into coaching — with stops at Louisiana (assistant), Bethel College (head coach) and Memphis (assistant).
Splash hires have become the norm for LCA as its prepares to debut its athletics department, having already lured in former Vanderbilt football assistant Bruce Fowler as athletics director and football coach, Randy Coffman (Riverdale girls’ basketball) as a head coach, Justin Combs (Grainger girls basketball) as an assistant, former Virginia sharp-shooter Curtis Staples as basketball coach and former Vol football player Troy Fleming (Concord Christian) as an assistant.
Two local golfers transfer to Tennessee men’s golf program
Former Farragut High School golf standouts Tyler Johnson and Chip Thomas have transferred from Middle Tennessee State to play for Brennan Webb at Tennessee.
Webb recruited and coached Johnson and Thomas to play for him at MTSU. Webb accepted the job at Tennessee in June. His three incoming freshman – Jake Thomas (Knoxville Halls), Bryce Lewis and Michael Barnard — announced last week that they have been released of their national letters of intent with MTSU to enroll at Tennessee.
This week, on Wednesday, Tennessee announced the transfers of Johnson and Thomas. Johnson was a redshirt freshman at MTSU last season and earned Conference USA Freshman of the Year honors, finishing second on the team in stroke average (72.1). Thomas was a redshirt sophomore last season and finished third on the team in stroke average (72.4).