It’s a new year and a new season for the Signal Mountain Eagles.
And a hard-nosed guy from Florida named Ty Wise is the new head coach for their team.
Former coach Bill Price resigned following last season where the Eagles finished with a 9-3 record after losing to Loudon in the second round of the playoffs.
Wise saw the opening on FootballScoop.com and applied for the job. He accepted the offer and stepped on campus for the first time the first week of April.
It could be a big-time challenge for the former Miami Hurricane center, who picked up his family and moved to Chattanooga after spending two years as the head coach and athletic director at Graceville High School, which is located just north of Panama City.
Wise, still a youthful 38, moved with Mary, his wife of 14 years, and their four young children.
The Eagles have annually dressed many more players, but this year’s team only has 32 on the current roster. That fact doesn’t seem to bother Wise, who later played in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears before beginning his coaching career.
“What this team had achieved in only seven years as a program really appealed to me as a coach and that’s one of the reasons I applied,” he said earlier this week while taking a break in the Signal Mountain weight room.
“I applied for the job in March and was hired April 2. I realize that numbers are down, but I run a tough program. The players on our team are 100 percent committed as they’ve invested a lot of time and work with us so far.
“The majority of our kids are from Signal Mountain, but all have gotten bigger and stronger. The numbers in the weight room have gone up and times in the 40 have dropped. We hope to be competitive, but the important thing is to always stay healthy.
“We only have 11 seniors, but they are a strong class. Our goal will always be to win a state championship and just how good we can be by the end of the season. We’ll always shoot for that,” Wise said in a confident tone.
“My program is different from most. These kids have a greater demand on their time, but it’s my job to convince them that all the hard work will pay off and that eventually, it will be the norm.
The Eagles got their first taste of action last Saturday at the Chick-fil-A Jamboree where they dropped a 7-0 decision to Soddy Daisy at Finley Stadium.
It was really a costly experience for Wise and his young team as running back Garrett Hensley suffered a torn ACL on the very first play and is out for the season.
“Saturday night was certainly not our best performance as we didn’t start or finish very well. And it hurt that Garrett got hurt as he was going to be a big contributor for us. He’ll have surgery on Tuesday,” the coach added.
“I’ve been everywhere and have coached in a lot of different places. I just go where God sends me. We only have to have 11 players to play. We have plenty of players who have the potential to be a pretty good football team,” he concluded.
The Eagles open their regular season on Friday night when they host the East Hamilton Hurricanes. Another non-region game follows on Aug.
28 when the Ooltewah Owls pay a visit.
Notre Dame has been picked to win the Region while Signal Mountain is second. Other teams in that group include Red Bank, East Ridge, Howard and Chattanooga Christian.
At this point, there are probably a lot more questions than answers for coach Wise and his Eagles, but it all starts on Friday.
It’s a new beginning for the Eagles and Ty Wise is ready to see how things turn out.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)