There is a community of student athletes and coaches in the Chattanooga area who largely go unnoticed. The funny thing is – those in this community do not ask for the spotlight and, quite frankly, shy away from any accolades that most run towards. I am speaking of the homeschool community, specifically the CSTHEA (Chattanooga Southeast Tennessee Home Education Association) Patriots family.
Over the years homeschoolers have been labeled as “weird,” “sheltered,” and the largely popular term “unsocialized.” However, once Tim Tebow popped onto the scene with the Florida Gators in 2006, he brought recognition to the homeschooling community and proved this group actually could excel in athletics while still schooling from the kitchen table. This success has been hard fought, but it always goes back to the same thing . . . no matter what your background is or where you learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, sports provide the perfect platform for athletes and those who love kids to come together in one place.
We can all probably think of a coach or teacher who has influenced our lives and made such a large impact that they can receive partial, or even a large portion, of the credit of who we are today. Why would the homeschooling community of students be any different? We are an eclectic group for sure, but at the core, we just love our kids and want to provide the best education and experience that we can possibly give, no matter what that may look like. When the pandemic hit, many families were “forced” to provide school from home simply to keep the children engaged in learning and on track in their studies.
Moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas became teachers overnight and were able to experience the benefits and hardships of having everyone under one roof for 24 hours each day. As a result, the numbers of households who were daily carrying out school at home doubled from March 2020 to March 2021, and as of 2022 6.73% of all students in the United States were homeschooled.
Homeschooling is also being called the fastest growing form of education in the US, according to Laurel Davidson in her article entitled, “Homeschooling Statistics in 2024 (Latest U.S. Data).”
Within the homeschooling community, families like ours are unbelievably grateful for the athletic opportunities the great State of Tennessee has to offer. With the proper documentation, we are allowed to try out and potentially play on a sports team located within our public-school zoning boundaries.
My family has benefited from this law, which allows us to school at home and then play on a public school sports team, provided we meet all of the school’s requirements for paperwork, attendance, grades, etc. Under the Tennessee homeschool law, students are allowed to try out for a team just like their public school counterparts and must work at the same level as all of the other athletes in order to earn a playing position on the team. There are no guarantees of making the team or playing time, but the opportunity to be a part of the athletic competition is worth it.
Our son, as a homeschool student athlete in Bradley County, had (and is still having) a successful high school and college baseball career because Travis Adams, the head baseball coach at Bradley Central High School, decided Riley was worth taking a chance on. Riley was able to prove himself to be a good teammate and player over his four years on the varsity Bradley Central baseball team and was then recruited to Lee University where he played three of his four years of eligibility as a catcher. Riley will be finishing up his final year of eligibility at Tennessee Tech this upcoming season, and we all would agree we are truly grateful that Coach Adams and his staff were willing to think outside the box and provide an avenue for Riley to play the game he loves throughout his high school years.
For those homeschoolers who have not chosen to go through the local public school channels, there is another largely successful option gaining momentum in multiple sports across the greater Chattanooga area. This is the CSTHEA Chattanooga Patriots, lovingly called the “homeschool team.”
Our 16-year-old daughter chose this route for pursuing her sports career at the end of her 8th grade year when she decided she wanted to play high school volleyball with the hopes of playing in college someday. After attending a volleyball camp at Cleveland High School under the leadership of Coach Patricia Flowers, Emmi was hooked. She cried at the beginning of the week as I “dragged” her to camp, but by the end of the week, she wanted me to find another volleyball camp she could attend.
The interesting thing that occurred in both of these life events with our children was a COACH who was able to impact their lives in a very short period. We will be forever grateful for the impact Coach Adams and Coach Flowers made immediately in their lives, and their names will always be mentioned in the highest regard in our home. Their encouragement and continual investment of time and energy will always be a source of blessing in our lives. The legacy of amazing coaches doesn’t end there though. There have been so many wonderful, Godly men and women along the way who have invested in our children and other local athletes.
The discussion of coaches brings me back to my original point. Currently, there are two women in my daughter’s life who will likely never receive a local coach’s award; they won’t sit at a banquet and hear the clapping hands of other coaches when their names are called; they won’t receive a plaque from the local school board or have their names hanging on the walls of the school building to be forever memorialized. They are “simply” two moms who love Jesus, love volleyball, and love our girls like their own.
These moms freely give of their time throughout the entire year to coach volleyball in order to teach proper techniques and instill life skills that will reach far beyond the volleyball court. They meet early in the morning to do strength and conditioning workouts with the girls, lead a two-and-a-half-hour practice three times each week, and then go home to teach their own children school, maintain a home, and cook meals for all those who walk through their doors.
They are Supermoms indeed, but not many will ever know all of the titles and deeds they have carried out over the course of a year for free! Just like most every coach out there (public, private, college, etc.) these ladies are counselors, meal providers, encouragers, givers of wisdom, prayer warriors, and even fill-in moms or dads when needed.
They run volleyball camps over the summer, coach a JV and Varsity girls’ volleyball team in the fall, coach a middle school team in the spring, in addition to coaching girls’ club volleyball, and most recently, they have started a high school boys’ volleyball team for 8th-12th graders in the North Georgia and Chattanooga area. Boys’ and girls’ volleyball is now a year-round sport, as well as being one of the fastest growing sports, and these two amazing women are not only coaches, but they are lifelong players of the sport as well!
My hope in writing this article is to bring light to a lesser-known area of sports – those who come from the homeschooling community. Because of coaches like Beth Richardson, Beth Wheatcroft, and former coach Natalie Posey, homeschooled students like my daughter have the opportunity to play the sport they love in middle and high school and then be fully prepared to step right into the college arena upon graduation.
Currently, the CSTHEA Patriots offers athletic opportunities for homeschool students in the following sports: baseball, basketball (boys and girls), volleyball (boys and girls), track and field, cross country, cheerleading, swimming, soccer, football, and tennis. In the 2024 graduating class, CSTHEA, one of several local homeschool groups, saw eleven students receive athletic college scholarships in track and field, cross country, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and swimming.
Although we compete against many of the best teams in our area and experience success, these athletes have never held a state or district title, they have never received recognition at a “Best of Preps” banquet, and most will never see their name or stats in a local newspaper round up.
Many of the CSTHEA players have their stats listed in MaxPreps and rank higher than their public and private school counterparts for their performance, and yet they are not recognized at the state level. However, each year, just like the class of 2024, CSTHEA and other local homeschooling families and groups are sending their student athletes off to college with an athletic and academic scholarship in hand.
This is all a testimony to God providing the athletic ability to these students in addition to coaches from all areas investing and sacrificing their time and energy to pass on a love for the sport and game. As a homeschooling mom, I will be forever grateful to the many coaches in our area who have played a vital role in our children’s lives on and off the field and court. THANK YOU! You may never be “recognized’ in the traditional sense of the word, but please know that you are loved and greatly appreciated!
Source: Davidson, Laurel. “Homeschooling Statistics in 2024 (Latest U.S. Data)” Parentingmode. Accessed on 11 July 2024. Homeschooling Statistics in 2024 (Latest U.S. Data) | Parenting Mode.
(Sara Black can be contacted at sarablack321@gmail.com)