We wanted to recognize a few of the coaches in the mid-state that made huge strides with within their team’s program and the community. We realize that there are several stats and metrics that we could measure this by, however we decided to poll a few of our fellow friends of the media and to ultimately just go with our gut feeling. Congrats Top 10 of 2017. We will talk about all 10 during our podcast
#1 Gerard Randolph
Gerard Randolph is our top pick! Coach Randolph led the Cornersville Bulldogs to their first home playoff appearance, first state title appearance and has the support and team coming back next year to do it all over again.
#2 Eddie Woods
Eddie Woods is building a power house! His Ravens fell short in the 6A title game but not before dominating the mid-state and knocking off teams like Brentwood and Ravenwood in the playoffs.
#3 Brain Coleman
Brian Coleman and his Summit Spartans went from zero to hero in just 6 short years of the program being in existence. Literally, they won zero games in 2011 to making a quarter final round appearance finishing with a record of 10-3 for 2017.
#4 John McNeal
The Commanders under John McNeal capped off their 2017 campaign with a D2 1A Blue Cross Bowl victory over division rival DCA. One of 2 mid-state teams to do so.
#5 Arcentae Broome
Coach Broome is so close that even we can taste it! Bound to return Maplewood to that deep run playoff threat they were in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Consistency is what Broome brings to the Panthers. We believe a trip to Cookeville is in their near future.
#6 Will Hester
Everyone in the state knows Coach Hester’s capabilities at the helm of a team and knew that at some point he would make the Knights into contenders. Little did we know that it would be in his first year. The Knights not had a shot at the region title but also advanced to the playoffs, and managed a win over Livingston Academy and barely lost to Maplewood in Round 2.
#7 Charlie Lansdell
Hard nosed football is what the Columbia Academy Bulldogs played under Head coach Lansdell this season before falling to the eventual 2A state champion Union City Tornadoes in the semi-final round. In addition to the great season that coach Lansdell had he was also selected to be on the West All star teams coaching staff along with Bulldogs Blake Kleinke and Dalton Bennett.
#8 Chad Watson
Clarksville NE first year head coach Chad Watson took his Eagles from a 5-5 middle of the road team in 2016 to a 7-4 contender for 2017. According to his players, Watson has brought a “Team 1st” attitude back to the program. We expect to see the Eagles in deeper rounds of the playoffs in the following years.
#9 Dustin Wilson
Coach Wilson took his Yellowjackets all the way to Cookeville this season. They are definitely our under dogs of the year! In their region most expected to see top seeded White House in the finals. In the playoffs no one expected them to knock off Lexington and Haywood during their run. Congrats to Coach Wilson and the 2017 Springfield Yellowjackets.
#10 Trey Perry
Coach Trey Perry rounds out our top ten because of the record setting regular season that they had. All anyone could talk about this year was the Golden Bears stellar defense that only allowed 50 points scored all season long. Unfortunately 20 of those points were to Riverdale in round 1 of the playoffs in a game in which they only scored 14. Regardless we are proud of Coach Perry and the Bears.
