Hamilton moves from referee to coach
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The announcement came Tuesday afternoon from athletic director Andy Jacobs and high school principal James Bennett.
Hamilton becomes the first non-faculty head coach at Warren County but will have to have an assistant coach who is a faculty member.
“I’ve known him for a long time, and he comes highly recommended,” Jacobs said. “I told (Director of Schools) Dr. (Jerry) Hale and the board that it’s going to come to hiring non-faculty coaches, and we’re very fortunate that we’ve got someone of his caliber who wants to be a coach at Warren County High School.”
Hamilton is no stranger to soccer, he has been a TSSAA soccer official for many years and has coached at the middle school level and has had great success with traveling teams.
“My history with soccer goes all the way back to 1965, when I first started playing myself. I played all through high school, then my own daughters came along and got interested in soccer, and I coached not only their teams but other travel teams and a couple of middle school teams,” said coach Hamilton.
“I got my coaching certification with the state of Tennessee, which is the highest level of certification you can get, and I began coaching the under-18 girls.
We’ve been very successful. The last seven years we’ve made it to the state championship six times, and won the championship five times. We have had several girls from Warren County on the team over the last five years and they have been a big contributing part of all those teams’ success.”
Coach Hamilton has always been interested in coaching at the high school level and feels very fortunate to step into such a successful program.
“This gives me a chance to continue coaching, and the program here is a strong program. I’m following two good coaches who have worked with the ladies in the past. Coach Brownyard and coach Hardee are both excellent coaches. Coach Hardee is probably one of the best tactical coaches that I know of at the high school level, and coach Brownyard had a very good rapport and technical expertise.
It’s going to be tough to follow them, but I believe there are a lot of things I can bring to the program to build on what they’ve already done and help the program continue to grow.”
Hamilton will be holding tryouts this week and is excited about his new position.
“We’re ready to go and I’m looking forward to meeting the girls and their parents and seeing what we’ve got,” he said. “The main things I’m looking for are speed, endurance and the willingness to not be afraid to mix it up physically.”
Hale noted the school system’s gratitude to Hamilton’s fulltime employer — Bridgestone/ Firestone — for their cooperation in helping the new Lady Pioneer coach work with the program.
“We want to offer our thanks for the cooperation of Dennis Ringenberg from Bridgestone/Firestone,” Hale said. “Without his cooperation, I don’t believe Mr. Hamilton can do this as he works in the human resource department. So we definitely want to say a big thank you to him and to Bridgestone/Firestone for allowing Mr. Hamilton to do this.”