The person who had been mentored to eventually take over the Tennessee Temple High School boys basketball program will be coaching the Crusaders next year.
Greg Brown, who had a tremendous season coaching the Temple girls this past season, was hired Friday morning to succeed Dan Wadley as head coach of the Temple boys.
"When Greg came here three years ago, it was my intention to mentor him to take over the program,'' said Wadley, who recently was hired as the McCallie basketball coach. "I had really planned to move on after my son (Seth) graduated.
"We had a lot of great resumes come in, but I recommended Greg. He will be a great fit. If I didn't have a lot of confidence in him, I wouldn't be leaving Seth here for him to coach. He has my blessing. Now, the pressure is on him.''
Brown, age 22, will graduate this summer from Tennessee Temple University. He graduated from Dade County High School in Trenton, Ga.
After serving as an assistant under Wadley with the Temple boys for two years, Brown took over the Lady Crusaders last year. Temple went 23-9 and won the regoin championship.
"I loved coaching the girls and got good head coaching experience,'' Brown said. "But I always wanted to coach the boys team at Temple. I just didn't expect it to happen this quickly.
"It's a great situation and I'm glad they had enough confidence to hire me.''
Temple returns all its key players next season.
"The cupboard is not bare, and we've got a couple more transfers who will help us,'' Brown said. "I don't look at it as pressure, but as an opportunity.
"I know others will look at it as pressure because of following Dan and because of my age.''
Wadley, who will serve as Temple's athletic director until the end of the school year, said a search committee will now begin looking for a successor to Brown with the girls.
"We don't want to leave the girls hanging,'' Wadley said. "It's an up-and-coming program, and they also have everybody coming back.''
Said Scotty Markum, senior associate pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church who headed the search ccommittee for the new boys coach, "I've watched Greg coach basketball and football. He has a great work ethic and has earned the respect of all the boys.
"He's also a young man beyond his years. I think we have made a great choice.''
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)