Scott Murray has been named the new head football coach at Hunters Lane leaving Whites Creek where he has served as the Cobra head man the last two seasons.
Murray replaces William Darnell and will be the fourth Warrior coach in the last five seasons.
The Hunters Lane appointment will be the third head coaching job for Murray who was 8-23 in three seasons at Glencliff (2008-10) and was 5-15 the last two years at Whites Creek.
“They had a really great tradition, not a lot of things have changed such as feeder schools, and I want to coach at a 6A school so I had to jump at it,” Murray said.
“I reviewed over 50 resumes of coaches who applied for this position and Coach Murray quickly distinguished himself as a front runner not only because of his experience and preparation to lead a 6A team to victory, but because of his student centered philosophy that was aligned with our school beliefs of taking care of kids as our number one priority,” Hunters Lane Principal Susan Kessler said
After graduating from Smith County in 1990 and playing at Cumberland University, Murray was an assistant coach at Smith County (1995-98), Riverdale (1999), was the offensive coordinator at Antioch (2000-04), and the defensive coordinator at Beech (2005-07).
“He has a proven track record and we felt like he was the right fit for the program,” Hunters Lane Athletic Director Chip Sullivan.
Murray will have his work cut out for him as the Warriors have a 26 game losing streak and their last win was against Whites Creek in week four of the 2010 season.
Westwood Athlete Nikia Cathey Commits to Bulldogs
Nikia Cathey has become the third Class of 2014 Tennessee player to commit a year early.
Cathey (5-9, 180) committed to Mississippi State and joins Independence Athlete Vic Wharton III (Tennessee) and MBA defensive tackle Jashon Robertson (Vanderbilt) to commit before their junior football season.
Cathey visited Mississippi State during the season and fell hard for the campus which made his decision to commit that much easier.
"Nope, I'm very solid," Cathey told the Commercial Appeal. "It's the school I like and it's the school that's the best fit for me."
"I like everything, the atmosphere, the fan support, everything about it," Cathey told the Commercial Appeal. "I went there for a game and the stadium was completely packed (well before kickoff)."
Cathey did everything for the 8-3 Longhorns in 2012 as he scored a touchdown five different ways and had nine touchdowns on the year.
He was very versatile as he had 1,995 All-purpose yards on the season rushing for 352 yards and scoring three touchdowns, he caught 15 passes for 383 yards and three touchdowns, and had 39 tackles and four interceptions including one for a touchdown.
But Cathey was the most dangerous in the return game as he scored one touchdown on both punt and kickoff return.
Cathey had 565 punt return yards and averaged 40.6 yards per punt return and 536 kickoff return yards and averaged 48.7 per kick return.
They want to use me as an inside slot (receiver) and in the return game," Cathey told the Commercial Appeal. "I just needed to get faster and stronger."
Halls Removing Interim Tag From J.D. Overton
After guiding Knoxville Halls for the 2012 season on an interim basis, J.D. Overton will now lead Halls as the new head coach of the Red Devils.
Halls Principal Mark Duff removed the interim tag from Overton who served as the Offensive Coordinator at Carter for the 2013 season and beyond.
“We believe that we have explored all of the possible alternatives and decided that J.D. remained the best fit for our program,” Duff said. “The aspect of his not being in our building is still problematic but we are committed to getting him in the building for next year.”
Overton took over on an interim basis after Kevin Julian resigned last June and now Julian is at Knoxville Webb.
Halls went 1-9 last season but Duff saw improvement in Overton and his time.
“The situation with Coach Overton and our re-opening the search process was two-fold: the search last June had been very abbreviated and JD was not in our building,” Duff said. “I felt that I owed it to the community to explore all possibilities following this season. J.D. was made aware of that both at the time of his hiring and just prior to our posting the position in November.”
Contact Donovan at donovans1222@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at Examine_Stew.
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