PREP BASKETBALL: Greg Watson named new boys basketball coach at Tullahoma High School

Posted on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 12:46 pm

After sifting through 32 applications, Tullahoma High School officials have hired a boys basketball coach to replace Jeff Taylor.

Tullahoma athletic director Jerry Mathis announced Tuesday that Greg Watson, of Florence, Ala., will be the Wildcats’ next coach. Watson, 33, currently coaches at Belgreen High School in Russellville, Ala.

Watson is originally from Hazel Green, Ala., where is lettered in both basketball and baseball. He earned a basketball scholarship to David Lipscomb, where he played four years.

“With him being from Hazel Green, he knew about Tullahoma and he thought that this would be a great opportunity to coach in this area,” said Mathis “He played under (Don) Meyer and Scott Sanderson at Lipscomb and he has very impressive references.

“I called Sanderson and he told me that (Watson) was a people person, who was very productive and very qualified.”

Watson spent six years coaching at Hazel Green, three as an assistant and three as a head coach. He then spent one year as the head basketball coach at Robertsdale (Ala.) High School, before taking over at Belgreen High School in Russellville, Ala.

Along the way he’s accumulated a number of 20-win seasons, including last year, when Belgreen earned a top-five state ranking and finished 26-3 after falling to Decatur-Heritage.

Mathis said that he contacted Watson two weeks ago and interviewed him last week. According to Mathis approximately 75 percent of the 32 applicants were qualified for the coaching position, but only about 30 percent had the necessary certification to teach Health and Physical Education, which is what Taylor taught at Tullahoma.

Mathis said that after he posted the job opening on the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association website, he wasn’t surprised when he received more than 30 inquiries.

“It’s a good place to coach,” added Mathis.

Watson has been at Belgreen since 2009. Along with his coaching duties, he was also a Health and P.E. teacher.

“The first thing they told me at Belgreen when I called was that you can’t have him,” Mathis said. “I think his credentials and his references were very complimentary and I think he will do an outstanding job for us.”

Watson hasn’t met with Tullahoma’s returning players yet. Mathis said that he could do that as early as this week.

 

By ROBERT HOLMAN, Sports Editor (tnsprted@lcs.net)

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