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Gaddis gets 300th coaching win

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Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis talks to the Wildcats football team after a 42-6 win over Clinton on Blankenship Field on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. It was Gaddis' 300th coaching win. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis talks to the Wildcats football team after a 42-6 win over Clinton on Blankenship Field on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. It was Gaddis’ 300th coaching win. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 11 a.m.

Oak Ridge Coach Joe Gaddis got his 300th win as a football coach during a 42-6 win over Clinton on Friday.

Gaddis is only the seventh football coach in Tennessee to get 300 career wins, and he is one of only two active coaches with 300 wins, Oak Ridge school officials said. Gary Rankin of Alcoa is the other. Rankin was the first in Tennessee to win 400 games, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported in September.

Fans and players, parents and coaches, and students and school officials celebrated Gaddis’ milestone 300th win with a brief ceremony on Blankenship Field on Friday that included fireworks and photos, and signs and a football painted with the number 300 that was presented to Gaddis.

More than half of Gaddis’ wins have been at Oak Ridge, where he is 162-36. Gaddis first coached at Oak Ridge for 11 seasons, from 1988 to 1998, and he is in his fifth season back, after returning in 2013.

“I’m coaching at the best place there is to coach,” Gaddis said. “This is just a special place.” [Read more…]

CHS football: Kerr under fire; Parrott responds

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Information from WYSH Radio

After a disappointing start to the 2016 season, some fans of Clinton High School football have seemingly run out of patience. Anderson County Director of Schools Tim Parrott sent a letter Friday afternoon to local media outlets, county commissioners, school board members, administrators at Clinton High, and some parents urging people to stop spreading what he called “untruths” about Clinton football coach Josh Kerr.

Parrott said in the letter that he has met with parents of one football player and three community members that he said had concerns about the Dragon football program and Kerr. Parrott said he has met with Kerr supporters as well. In the letter, Parrott writes, “I have listened to their comments, been present at football practice and games over the past six years, and I have never witnessed Coach Kerr belittling players, being unsafe, or not playing to win.”

Parrott said that all coaches are also teachers and operate on one-year contracts that are evaluated at the end of each school year. [Read more…]

Fired football coach files $1.1 million lawsuit

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Don Colquitt

Don Colquitt

A former football coach and teaching assistant has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against Oak Ridge school officials alleging that his firing in February was based upon a single “false complaint” from a student who alleged inappropriate contact—and he never had a chance to respond to the charges.

Coach Donald Colquitt suggested his reputation has been sullied by the unspecified complaint of “inappropriate contact with an Oak Ridge High School student,” and his local football career has been ruined. He filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in Anderson County Circuit Court on August 4.

“The ‘unanswered’ cloud of secrecy over the vague complaint allegedly filed against the plaintiff by an Oak Ridge High School student has caused him to effectively lose his career as a football coach in the Oak Ridge community, where he has engaged in that activity for some 19 years, and has further affected his reputation and character as a civic leader and football coach in the Oak Ridge school system,” the lawsuit said. “He will be unable to engage in such activity in the future and has sustained damages for loss of his career and future as a football coach, with damages resulting from the adverse imputation to his name, as well as his reputation in the community.”

The defendants are Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers and the Oak Ridge Board of Education.

Colquitt said he has never acted inappropriately or made any inappropriate contact with an ORHS student while employed by Oak Ridge Schools, but both the superintendent and school board have denied his right to be heard, including through a grievance hearing before the board. [Read more…]

No guarantees, but Gaddis plans to win every game

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Meet and Greet for Joe Gaddis

Several hundred people listen to Joe Gaddis during a Thursday evening reception for the returning Oak Ridge Wildcats football coach.

He can’t guarantee that the Oak Ridge Wildcats will win every game this fall, but returning football coach Joe Gaddis said he plans to.

Gaddis said he and his staff will revitalize fan support and increase the number of players. They will also rebuild confidence and excitement in the football program, Gaddis said during a Thursday evening reception at Oak Ridge High School Wildcat Arena.

We’re bringing it back, Gaddis told a few hundred people at the reception. Some of them wore T-shirts that said Gaddis’ Gang.

[Read more…]

Former football coach Joe Gaddis coming back to Oak Ridge

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Note: This story was last updated at 3:31 p.m.

Former Oak Ridge High School football coach Joe Gaddis is returning to Oak Ridge, school officials announced Monday.

Gaddis will be a teacher and head football coach at Oak Ridge High School. He will replace Scott Blade, who resigned to accept a position in Williamson County.

Gaddis has an overall 258-112 record in his 30 years as head coach. Almost half of those wins—or 119 of them—came while he served as head coach at Oak Ridge High School, where he coached from 1988 until 1998, an Oak Ridge Schools press release said.

[Read more…]

Oak Ridge football coach moving back to Middle Tennessee

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Oak Ridge High School football coach Scott Blade has resigned and is moving back to Middle Tennessee, where he will coach at Independence High School south of Nashville.

Blade has coached the Oak Ridge Wildcats since 2009, compiling a 35-15 record. He resigned Thursday, ORHS Athletic Director Mike Mullins said.

Mullins said Blade’s parents live in Franklin in Middle Tennessee, and Blade came to Oak Ridge from Hillsboro High School in Nashville. In addition, his wife received a job promotion in the medical field, and Independence quickly hired Blade.

“It was a job opportunity that he just couldn’t turn down,” Mullins said.

[Read more…]

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