Cheryl McClendon, an assistant girls’ basketball coach at Rhea County the past eight years, has been hired for a similar job at Soddy-Daisy High School, head coach Drew Lyness said Friday afternoon.
McClendon has taught at Soddy-Daisy for the last 13 years and served as one of Rhea County coach Shane Johnston’s assistants for almost a decade. Johnston has resigned at Rhea County to spend more time with his family.
Johnston underwent heart surgery shortly after the 2013-14 basketball season.
“Shane and I have had several discussions about stepping down at the same time,” McClendon said.
“That’s just something we wanted to do.
“It was not my intent at the end of this last season to coach right away. I just decided to step out on a limb and step away from coaching.”
But Lyness persuaded McClendon to not be away from coaching basketball for too long.
“Drew has been a thorn in my side for several years about coaching with him,” said McClendon, who attended Rhea County High School, Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee Tech University. “So, I just decided to go for it.”
McClendon said that while she’s taught at Soddy-Daisy for more than a decade, she has not been that close to the girls’ basketball program, other than coaching against the Lady Trojans while at Rhea County.
“I’ve not been around the girls a lot,” she said. “They know me from my teaching at Soddy-Daisy. Drew and I are close friends and we have talked about the basketball players for years. Yet, I’ve been on the outside looking in as just Drew’s friend. I don’t think the transition will be hard at all.”
Lyness, who just completed his second season as the Lady Trojans’ head coach, never gave up on trying to get McClendon to join him on the sideline bench.
“When I got the job here,” Lyness said, “I tried to hire her. We have finally been able to convince her to join the staff and I think it’s going to be a huge pickup for us. She’s going to work with our post players that return next season and she will help those girls.
“And we’re a relatively young coaching staff and Cheryl’s experience will help us in the long run.”
McClendon joins a Lyness staff that also includes Hal Kearney and Heather Giddens.
The 52-year-old McClendon is a special education teacher at Soddy-Daisy, but still lives on the family farm in Rhea County.
When McClendon graduated from MTSU she had no desire to become a teacher. She spent 18 months working for the state of Tennessee and decided then to return to college at TTU and earn her teaching certification.
Her first job was at Rhea County High. She now has 13 years teaching in the Rhea County system and is about to finish her 14th season at Soddy-Daisy.
Had the Soddy-Daisy position not been open, McClendon was asked if she would have been satisfied to continue as a teacher.
“I don’t know,” she said. “My family says I wouldn’t be happy just teaching. I do like to stay busy.”
Lyness can help McClendon with that.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)