Jon Massey has resigned as the Lady Owls' coach after five seasons. Massey went 180-45 and took Ooltewah to three state tournaments, finishing third twice. Massey has also coached baseball and freshman football.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo
Jon Massey, the highly successful girls’ softball coach at Ooltewah High School, has resigned his position after five years.
Massey informed school administrators last Thursday of his decision and planned to tell his players at Tuesday night’s softball banquet.
However, outgoing athletic director Brad Jackson sent an email to Chattanoogan.com Tuesday afternoon and in it said Stacey Wong is considering becoming the Lady Owls’ new softball coach for the 2019 season.
There was no mention of Massey’s resignation, though.
Wong served as pitching coach on Massey’s staff in 2016-17 and was a member of the school’s faculty this past school year. Heidi Moses, the Lady Owls’ veteran assistant coach, is now an assistant principal at Ooltewah and won’t coach next season and Alicia Raymond, the 2018 pitching coach, is currently looking for another position. So, the new coach will likely have to pick new assistants.
“It’s time to move on,” Massey said. “We’ve had five good years and felt like somebody else could get them over the hump and have the Lady Owls playing even better than we have been. I was fortunate to have a lot of talented players and I’m sure that if Stacey takes the job she’ll do just fine.
"I’m still going to teach (special education) at Ooltewah and I’m looking forward to that. I’ve coached something for 17 straight years and softball is a long season, starting with conditioning, running and throwing in January and ending in May.”
Jackson also did not note that Jensen Morgan has been named as the new athletic director, having stepped down as girls’ basketball coach following the 2017-18 season.
The school announced that David Fleming is the new cross country coach, Lester Galyon will coach the girls' basketball team, James "Goose" Manning has taken over the wrestling program -- Jackson says he will be "helping" Manning with the wrestling program -- and Les Boyum will coach the boys’ track team.
The school previously announced that Scott Chandler had taken over as the Owls' football coach, replacing Mac Bryan who left for a similar job in North Carolina.
Massey guided the Lady Owls to three state tournament appearances in the past four years and finished third in 2015 and 2018 at the TSSAA Spring Fling in Murfreesboro.
In those four seasons, Ooltewah had a 152-34 record and won three District 5-3A tournament titles, three Region 3-3A titles and posted three sectionals wins, each a springboard to the state tournament.
In Massey’s first year as head softball coach, the Lady Owls went 28-11, giving him a 180-45 overall record – and was the only year Ooltewah failed to get out of the district tournament.
Massey was handed the reins of the softball program in the spring of 2013 after long-time coach Norma Nelson was unceremoniously fired after winning three state championships in 1990, 1992 and 2008, a season in which the Lady Owls went 46-3-1.
Nelson succeeded Jim Lovell – the softball field at Ooltewah is named after him – and took the Lady Owls to runner-up finishes in 1994, 1995 and 1997 in her first four years. She left after coaching 25 years, the last 20 as head coach, and won more than 600 games. Nelson now coaches softball at East Hamilton.
Massey attended Ooltewah High School and signed with Tennessee to play baseball under coach John Whited. He played two seasons with the Vols and finished his college athletic career at Birmingham-Southern. He coached for two years on coach Steve Longley’s baseball staff at Cleveland State and eventually graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
After one year in private business, Massey joined the faculty at Ooltewah in 2001 and was an assistant on Joe Wingate’s baseball staff for four years.
When Wingate resigned to take a job at Arkansas State, Massey took his place and remained in that position from 2006-08.
Massey amassed a 79-46 as the Owls’ baseball coach, including a 35-9 record in 2006 when the team finished sixth in the state tournament. That season’s 35 wins are a school record.
As a freshman football coach, Massey went 92-28 in 13 years with undefeated seasons in 2006, 2008 and 2015.
“In those days, we used to play a region schedule and played Farragut and William Blount and others and we won six region titles in a row, and that was hard to do. I have to say we had gobs of talent in those days as well.”
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)