Football success tops list of year’s local highlights
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But one squad’s performance stood out above the rest, as their efforts during 2005 had excitement peaked, stadiums filled to capacity and tongues wagging all over town.
To use the sentiment overheard from one anonymous fan during the season, ‘Pioneer football is back!”
Yes, the Pioneer varsity football team bounced back from season after season of mediocrity, breaking countless streaks on its way to a postseason trip and a 5-6 campaign that was selected as the Southern Standard’s top local sports story of the year.
Entering the fall riding a 39-game losing streak ‘” the state’s longest ongoing skid ‘” the Pioneers quickly put a notch in the win column, downing Bradley Central 34-12 for a win which caused such celebration, both Nunley Stadium goalposts were left as twisted wreckage.
A week later neighboring DeKalb County came calling, and once again the Pioneers prevailed, winning back-to-back games for the first time since the 1999 season.
An overwhelming ‘caravan” of Pioneer fans made a road trip to Fayetteville for the Pioneers’ next game, and although WCHS came out on the losing end of a nail-biter, their overtime loss to Lincoln County established the Pioneers as a competitive squad for the first time in several seasons.
Losses to White County and eventual region champ Cookeville, as well as a tough 20-17 defeat at Tullahoma, followed, but coach Chris Madewell’s squad got back on the winning track at Crossville, downing the Cumberland County Jets for their first road win since ’99 and their first region victory since 1997.
But one of the biggest broken streaks was still to come.
On Oct. 14, the Pioneers were welcomed back to Nunley Stadium for their Homecoming matchup with Franklin County, and secured their first playoff spot since 1983 when they downed the Rebels 29-10.
They followed that victory with a 39-28 win over Sequatchie County, but missed out on a winning regular season when they were upset by Coffee County, 24-21, on Senior Night.
As the No. 3 seed in Region 3-5A, Warren County traveled to Wilson Central for their first-round playoff matchup, but were handed an early exit from the postseason as the Wildcats ‘” which finished their own regular season at 9-1 ‘” came away with a 48-7 victory.
Following their season, Pioneers Josh Paz, Jon Paz, Jacob Bratcher and Todd Dunn all earned All-Region honors, and sports fans of Warren County were left looking forward to see what the future holds for the revamped and confident Warren County program.
Other top local sports stories from 2005 were:
2. Boys basketball changes
After a tumultuous second season at the helm of the Pioneer boys’ basketball program, head coach Chris Turner turned in his resignation in late March.
The sex scandal and resulting charges against his ex-wife, Pamela Rogers Turner, had brought national media attention to the Pioneers’ head coach ‘” attention he didn’t want to see affect his team negatively as they prepared for the 2005-2006 campaign.
‘It was all based on personal issues,” Turner said at the time. ‘It had nothing to do with the team, the administration or anything like that.
‘It had only to do with the fact I didn’t want my kids to continue to go through a distraction, which is going to happen. With (Pamela’s) trial being in November, it’s just not fair to those kids.”
After several weeks of searching, a Pioneer alum was tapped to take the reins of the program.
Ryan Smith, a former three-sport athlete during his high school career, left his post as an assistant coach under Gallatin’s Bobby Luna, accepting the job at WCHS.
‘I knew eventually I wanted to move back home, and now turned out to be a good time to come,” Smith said at the announcement of his hiring. ‘We’re excited about this opportunity, and we’re going to work hard to bring some excitement back into Warren County basketball.”
Smith completed his staff quickly after arriving, with his brother ‘” Alan ‘” coming to WCHS from Morrison to fill one assistant’s slot and Nathan Davis taking over the freshman squad.
The Pioneers won five of their first six games during Smith’s debut season, and at its halfway point they are currently 6-8 on the year.
3. Maxwell ends coaching career
After 35 years coaching Warren County’s young athletes, the final 22 spent coaching local golfers, Keith Maxwell called it a career in February.
Maxwell, who began as Dibrell’s boys basketball coach in 1970 and worked with football squads as well as golfers, had a career which included reestablishing the junior high school golf programs in the early 1980s before taking the high school varsity girls’ program in 1988.
‘I always said I wanted to retire from coaching on my terms, and this just seemed like the perfect time,” he said after announcing his retirement. ‘I’m getting ready to turn 60 years old, and this seems like the right time to let somebody step in and take over a solid program.”
While coaching high school golfers, Maxwell received such district coach of the year honors eight times, was region coach of the year five times and state coach of the year twice. His girls’ team had eight district titles, seven region wins, and a team state runner-up in 1988, winning state championships in both 1990 and 1992. His boys team had two second-place district finishes to its credit, and placed third in the region five times.
He served as district and region director for eight years, was a member of the Nike high school advisory golf board and was appointed as a state representative to the National Federation of High School Golf Coaches during his illustrious career.
4. Freshmen win tourney title
Coach Stan Jacobs ended a long career heading up the Warren County freshman boys basketball team in 2005, and with the help of a talented ninth-grade squad, he went out as a champion.
The Pioneers entered their district tournament, which was held in Sparta, as the No. 5 seed. But wins over Blackman and Oakland landed them in the title game against the host squad from White County.
Up by a bucket heading into the fourth quarter, Warren County held on with accuracy at the free-throw stripe, surviving even a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from half-court at the contest’s end, to down the Warriors 60-57.
‘Our guys kept their composure and were able to hold on,” Jacobs said after the win. ‘That says a lot about these young men, and their character, but even if we hadn’t won this game, this is still one of the best groups I’ve been able to work with, and I’m proud of all of them. They talked about it all year, and they went out and got it.”
Donta Weir paced the championship effort with 12 points, while Kyle Mullican had 11 and Lane McCoy had nine.
5. Perfect seasons
The county’s elementary basketball leagues always feature talented squads, but in 2005, not just one, but three teams achieved perfection.
In February, Morrison’s seventh- and eighth-grade girls carried an undefeated record into the Warren County Elementary Basketball Association’s championship tournament, and wrapped up a perfect season ‘” and postseason ‘” when they claimed the championship with a 50-33 win over Dibrell’s Lady Wildcats.
The 2005 basketball season began with a new team in town, in the form of Boyd Christian’s fifth- and sixth-grade boys squad.
The Broncos, under the tutelage of head coach Chris Sullens, were tough all year, and wrapped up a perfect 13-0 season in December when they defeated the DeKalb West Bulldogs 39-31.
One night after the Broncos put the finishing touches on their winning season, Warren County Middle School’s fifth- and sixth-grade boys wrapped up their own undefeated campaign, downing Dibrell 39-30 in the finals of the WCMS Invitational Tournament.
6. Wrestlers reach state
The Pioneer wrestling team was a young one during the 2004-2005 season, with just two seniors on the squad.
But those two seniors, as well as a talented young sophomore, represented their school well, earning trips to the TSSAA’s state championship tournament.
Sophomore Aaron Thomas, wrestling in the 160-pound class, reached the state’s highest level of competition for the first time after finishing fourth in the Pioneers’ region tournament.
Senior Jonathan Kelly, the team’s heavyweight, also reached the state for the first time, after going 4-1 in region competition and finishing in third place in his weight class.
The team’s other senior, Donnie Roach, reached the state level for the second straight year, having gone 3-2 and taking fourth place in the region’s 145-pound division.
As a team, the Pioneers finished sixth in their 24-team region tournament.
7. Two huge district wins
Two seasons of struggles against District 7-AAA foes came to a glorious end in early 2006, as the Pioneer basketball team downed Cookeville and Siegel in back-to-back contests.
Against the Cavaliers, with assistant coach Stan Jacobs substituting for head coach Chris Turner, the Pioneers dedicated their efforts to Turner and the team’s senior members as they downed CHS 57-52.
Four nights later, the team still hadn’t let down, as they stunned the district’s first-place squad from Murfreesboro Siegel 72-64.
‘This is a special win tonight,” Turner said of his team’s victory over the No. 7-ranked Stars. ‘They’ve all hung in there through what’s been a roller-coaster year, and I’m just so proud of them.”
The Stars went on to capture the district’s regular-season title, with their loss to the Pioneers one of just three league defeats.
8. Hall of Fame inductions
A pair of local athletes earned accolades from their respective college alma maters in 2005.
During September, ex-Pioneer football great Dennis Mix was named to MTSU’s Blue Raider Hall of Fame for his talent on the gridiron.
Mix, a 1979 Warren County graduate, earned second-team All-America status in 1982, as well as a first-team All-OVC selection in both 1981 and ’82. He was also a runner-up in the conference’s Athlete of the Year balloting.
In early October, the University of Tennessee at Martin honored former Pioneer Greg King by inducting him into their Hall of Fame. A 1987 WCSH graduate, King played baseball for Martin in 1990 and 1991, and served one year as a student assistant coach. He earned two straight All-Gulf South Conference honors for his play on the diamond, as well as back-to-back academic all-league awards.
9. Region drought ends for Pioneer tennis
It had been 10 years since a member of the Warren County High School boys’ tennis team reached the region tournament level of postseason competition.
But in 2005, the Pioneers’ Jacob Wilson snapped that streak.
Wilson entered the District 7-AAA individual tournament as the No. 2 seed in May, and despite a painful bout with tennis elbow, won his semifinal match and earned a spot in the finals ‘” and accompanying trip to the region ‘” with a victory over Cookeville’s Alex Callis.
The Pioneers, who hadn’t sent a player to the region since 1985, just missed an all-WCHS final, as Blake Hitchcock fell in the semis to eventual district champ Kyle Wishing.
10. Eades, Womack honored
The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association’s yearly A.F. Bridges awards were released in the fall of 2005, with two local sports figures among this region’s honorees.
Boyd Christian School president C.N. Womack was named Region 4’s ‘Contributor of the Year,” while Warren County High School girls basketball coach Ann Eades was named ‘Girls Coach of the Year.”
The Bridges awards are voted on by representatives from schools from around the region, and winners are selected on the strength of their character, as well as their contributions to their school’s young athletes.
THE TOP 10
Warren County’s top 10 sports stories of the year:
1. Football success
2. Basketball changes
3. Maxwell retires
4. Freshmen win title
5. Perfect seasons
6. Wrestlers to state
7. Big district wins
8. Hall-of-Famers
9. Boys tennis
10. State awards
PHOTOS INFO:
Scenes from the past year in Warren County sports included, counter-clockwise, from top: Fans of the Pioneer football team bring down the goalpost following Warren County’s streak-breaking victory over Bradley Central; Morrison’s Miki Rogers goes up between a pair of Dibrell defenders during the WCEBA championship game, which wrapped an undefeated season for the Lady Eagles; new Pioneer basketball coach Ryan Smith directs his team in his first game after taking over for former coach Chris Turner; Longtime WCHS golf coach Keith Maxwell, who retired early in 2005, is depicted in a Seth Wright illustration; and the 2004-2005 WCHS freshman basketball team poses with its district tournament championship trophy. (Dale Stubblefield and Rob Nunley photos)