Four new coaches -- three are under 30 years of age -- have been added to Ooltewah's football staff guided by Mac Bryan. They are, from left to right, James "Goose" Manning, Ben Braun, William Alderman and Scott Chandler.
photo by Larry Fleming
A distinct youth movement hit Mac Bryan’s Ooltewah High School’s football coaching staff during the spring and summer.
Bryan, who is heading toward his fifth season with the Owls, brought on four new varsity assistants for the 2017 season and three are under 30 years of age.
James “Goose” Manning, the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, is 24 years old.
Manning, an Ooltewah alumnus, was a quarterback/defensive back with the Owls under former coaches Benny Monroe and Shannon Williams.
Manning’s one-time teammate at Carson-Newman University, William Alderman, is also 24. Alderman, originally from Florida, will work with the Owls’ secondary.
Ben Braun, the running backs coach, is 28 and was Bryan’s graduate assistant at UT-Martin.
Then, there is Scott Chandler, a 25-year coaching veteran with six years of college experience, two years in arena football and the rest at the high school level with stops in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
Chandler is a spry 54.
Manning, whose cousin Andrew Manning was the Owls’ starting quarterback in 2016 when they reached the Class 5A state quarterfinals, is not awed being a co-coordinator barely two years out of college.
“I was blessed to play under Benny Monroe and Shannon Williams at Ooltewah and Ken Sparks and Mike Turner at Carson-Newman,” James Manning said. “You can’t get better tutelage than that. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be around coach Bryan and learn from him. He’s been around football a long time and I’ve already learned a lot from him.”
Like Drew Akin and Kenny Woods before him, Manning won’t call offensive plays. Bryan, who was a co-offensive coordinator at UT-Martin prior to arriving at Ooltewah, handles that duty.
“Being a young coach, I would have been fine with just being the quarterback coach,” Manning said. “Coach Bryan has been great with me. I can throw my ideas out there and sometimes he’ll tell me it won’t work, but he’ll tell me why it won’t work. To me, that’s awesome.
“I’m a smart football guy. I understand the Xs and Os. He’s great showing me the big picture. It has been impressive to watch him call plays in 7-on-7 games. As soon as he calls a play, he’s already thinking ahead to the next one. I think I’ll call plays for the JV team, so I’m watching him closely and trying to soak up what he’s doing.”
Manning is joining a program on an impressive roll under Bryan, who succeeded Williams prior to the 2013 season. At that point, the Owls had reached the playoffs in 10 of the past 13 seasons and reached the semifinals in 2001, 2006 and 2008.
In four seasons, Bryan has directed the Owls to 40-10 overall, 21-3 district/region and 6-4 playoff records. He’s never lost more than one district/region game in a season while winning two regular-season titles and sharing two others.
So, is Manning feeling any heat heading into his first season as a varsity coach?
“I do,” he said, candidly. “We’re bumping up to (Class 6A, TSSAA’s largest classification) and we’ve got a lot of returners back on offense. The only kid who hasn’t played a lot is our quarterback, Kyrell Sanford. He’s going to be the first junior to start for us since Brody Binder and that was Shannon Williams’ second year here.
“It’s impressive to me how mature Kyrell is right now. He’s intelligent and his demeanor never changes no matter what’s happening. He’s going to be fun to work with and watch what he can do.”
With staff vacancies, Bryan and defensive coordinator Doug Greene, began searching for replacements. They had already discussed making the leap for younger coaches.
“After last season Mac and I saw we were an older staff,” said Greene, who left a similar position at Rhea County to join Bryan’s first staff five years ago. “We were looking for some young guys, but knew we had to get quality guys. The young guys we now have are solid detail guys and that’s also what we were looking for.”
Along with Greene, J.D. Dunbar rounds out the Owls’ varsity staff. Dunbar is the assistant head coach/strength and conditioning coach and oversees the defensive line. He is also the Owls’ wrestling coach. Steve Knopfke is the ninth-grade football coach.
Alderman was a substitute teacher at Ooltewah in 2016-17 while playing arena football with the Columbus (Georgia) Lions. He began his coaching duties two weeks ago.
He played collegiately at Carson-Newman and was a “locker mate” with Manning.
“Goose had locker 2 and I was in locker 3,” he said. “We were close friends and it’s crazy how we wound up in the same area to start our coaching careers. I certainly didn’t expect to be in Tennessee.”
Alderman hails from Brookville, Florida, and played football, basketball and ran track. After completing his education at Carson-Newman, Alderman returned to his parents’ home in Tampa, Florida. He worked as a valet at a local hotel and played arena football.
“Goose got in touch with me and told me Ooltewah was looking for a coach and I started talking with folks up here and it all worked out. Coach Greene does a great job feeding me coaching nuggets all the time and I’m soaking up everything I can. I could not be in a better situation.”
Braun is from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and attended Wilson Central High School and UT-Martin. He served as a graduate assistant in charge of offensive film coordination for Bryan.
After a year away from football, Braun moved to Longview, Texas, and coached volleyball, basketball and track at Kilgore High School. He and his wife, Rachel, moved back to Tennessee in June after she took a job with Cleveland Utilities.
With his wife’s job question settled, Ben Braun got to work landing work himself.
He called Bryan.
“Coach Bryant said I had good timing because he had an opening and we got the ball rolling,” said Braun, who will be a volunteer coach while waiting for a teaching assignment. “I’m blessed to continue my coaching relationship with Mac, a man I respect and like a lot. The odds of that happening weren’t very good, but it’s amazing how well things worked out. Rachel and I have two girls with one on the way and to get back to our home state and closer to family is gratifying.”
The plan for this season was for Chandler to coach the ninth-grade team, but with a little juggling he’ll guide the linebackers and coordinate special teams.
“Mac and Doug both talked to me and I told them I wanted them to do what is best for the program,” said Chandler, who also has coached at Rhea County.
Chandler said his group has made good strides in preseason workouts, adding they “pay attention and learn every day.”
“I’m hoping it’s going to be a group than can make a lot of difference.
Ooltewah opens the season Friday when the Owls travel to Tyner for a non-region contest.
The Owls have been picked to finish third in media and coaches polls for Region 2-6A behind Maryville and Bradley Central. Cleveland, McMinn County, William Blount and Heritage, two other Maryville schools, finished fourth through seventh in both polls.
No coaches from or media representing the three Maryville schools voted in the polls.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)