It wasn't easy for Scott Cummings to leave a state championship program at Knoxville West High School to assume the same position at Cleveland High. But, it was the right decision.
photo by Dennis Norwood
The man who created the head football coaching vacancy at Cleveland High School set the wheels in motion for the man that would wind up filling the position.
When Knox West coach Scott Cummings got word that Blue Raiders coach Ron Crawford had resigned on Dec. 16 for a return to Brentwood High School, Cummings called to check on his buddy.
“We had played Cleveland three times in the last two years, so Ron told me why he was leaving and that it had nothing to do with Cleveland,” Cummings said.
“He was thinking he’d probably retire at Cleveland.”
A couple of days later Crawford texted Cummings, inquiring if the Rebels’ head man had any interest in the Cleveland job.
“He gave me a phone number,” Cummings recalled. “I texted the number on, I think, a Friday or Saturday – and didn’t know who I was texting – with this message: ‘This is Scott Cummings up at Knox West. Give me a call on Monday at your convenience.’ ”
However, the call-back came within 10 minutes of the text being sent. Eric Phillips, the Cleveland athletic director, was on the phone.
Why wait until Monday, right?
Two days later Phillips was in Knoxville and spent time with Cummings and his wife, Amy. Before the week was over, Cummings and Amy were in Cleveland visiting with Phillips and his wife, Cleveland principal Autumn O’Bryan and her husband.
“It wasn’t an interview,” Cummings said. “We just talked. They said, ‘We want you and won’t entertain anyone else unless you say no.’ I have to say that was flattering.”
The following week, the Cummings and their two children, were back in Cleveland meeting with school administrators and one other important person – Dr. Martin Ringstaff, the director of Cleveland City Schools.
“They made an offer, we mulled it over a while and that was it,” Cummings said. “I appreciated their aggressiveness and the ideas they wanted and how they wanted to get it right. They’ve done everything they said they would.”
OK, the deal was done.
Next was the difficult part of the process.
Cummings had to tell the Knox West folks he was leaving.
“Two of the hardest things I’ve done in my life were telling the coaches at Knox West I was leaving because we were so close,” said Cummings, who a couple of months earlier had led West to a Class 5A state championship. “That was very difficult. Then the players were called into the auditorium just before school let out for the day. I was torn up. I had a hard time telling them about it. I cried so hard; I just couldn’t contain it. We had put a lot of years changing the culture there, building facilities, all the things we were able to do.”
After getting through that emotional mine field, Cummings knew the day was far from over.
He hopped in his car and drove straight to Cleveland for “a social” with coaches and school administrators. Cummings was introduced to a “couple thousand” fans as the school’s new coach that night at a wrestling match with bitter rival Bradley Central.
The following day he had a meeting with Cleveland players.
“That was interesting,” Cummings said.
A lot of football players also play other sports at Cleveland, which is the case at many other schools of similar size.
“A lot of those guys didn’t come to the meeting,” Cummings said. “I thought, ‘What have I got myself into.’ Coming off such an gut-wrenching meeting at Knox West my emotions – even my son was taking the move hard – were about spent. I just said, ‘Yeah, here I am.’ ”
The past few months have been spent getting a young Cleveland squad ready for the 2015 season. However, there was one hiccup in April when the football program was slapped with a two-year probation by the Tennessee Secondary School Association for a recruiting violation and fined $500 for each year of the sanctions.
The penalties also included a ban on team vs. team scrimmages, including 7-on-7 competitions, and preseason jamborees this year.
After the sanctions came down, Cummings quickly tried to move on to the task of upgrading the football facilities.
The field house underwent extensive renovations and Cummings also began developing a Cleveland youth football program and modified the middle school program. The sixth grade was taken out of the model and place in the recreation league program, leaving middle school coaches to work with seventh- and eighth-grade players.
Cummings was then down to simply coaching.
There’s no question that he can do some coaching.
The 44-year-old Cummings, who played at Knox West and coached there for 22 years, the last 13 as head coach, and posted a 101-58 record. He went 58-12 since 2010 and made back-to-back semifinal appearances in 2010-11 and was state runner-up two years later. This past season the Rebels beat Hillsboro, 23-6, to capture their first state championship.
West defeated Cleveland twice in 2013 and whipped the Blue Raiders, 49-14, in the semifinals en route to the state title last season.
The coach takes over a team that returns only two seniors on offense and feels at ease talking about Cleveland’s football future. For the short term, however, he’s working with a lot of players so young they normally would be back-ups challenging starters. However, many of those players short on experience are starters this year.
Seniors make up the team’s smallest class.
“The first part of the season we’re going to be babies,” Cummings said. “We will make mistakes, but hopefully by the end of the year, if we can stay healthy, we’ve got a chance to get into the playoffs and be a much better football team than we are right now.
“In the spring, we were a really bad football team – that was a little depressing – and the transition has been tough, but we’re making strides. For whatever reason, we’ve had some attrition and that made us even younger. In reality, we’re probably more talented.”
Cummings will utilize a split-back veer offense and 3-4 defense. The Blue Raiders, who finished second in District 5-3A to earn a 2014 playoff berth, open the season at home on Aug. 21 against Sevier County.
(Tuesday: Four key players in Ooltewah’s rib-rocking defense)
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)