Chastain Temple’s new coach

By Ron Bush Deputy Sports Editor - tfponline.com

Tennessee Temple Academy moved quickly to fill its high school football head-coaching vacancy.

Dr. Connie Pearson, the headmaster, announced Thursday night at the school’s football banquet that Scott Chastain would be the head coach in 2007. He was the defensive coordinator for the 2006 team that won Region 3-1A and reached the state quarterfinals.

Also, former Tennessee All-America lineman Chip Kell will be more involved. Kell, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this past Tuesday night in New York City, helped the Crusaders some this year, especially in the postseason, Chastain noted.

Chastain, a 1986 Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe graduate who played collegiately at West Georgia and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was an assistant for Kell at Southeast Whitfield High School in Dalton in 2004 and ’05. "Coach Kell will be a head assistant coach," said Chastain, 39, a 13-year Baptist pastor who will be joining the Temple faculty in 2007. "I have to travel quite a bit, but I’ll do anything I can do to help the kids and Scott," said Kell, who still teaches in Georgia. "Scott did an outstanding job for me, and I’m really happy for him."

Chastain, who ran Kell’s weight program at Southeast, said Temple will be adding a weight-training class that will include the school’s athletes.

While it has been noted that the Crusaders will be losing 12 seniors and two talented underclassmen from this year’s 12-1 team coached by Kevin Skogen and Steve Beard, Chastain said he has counted 21 remaining players, including eighth-graders. One of those is his son Ryan.

"I’m very much looking forward to coaching this team," he said. "For one thing, I enjoy coaching at a Christian school, where you’re not handcuffed in showing your faith. As far as our youth, I’m excited about it. I feel our future is very bright."

Pearson noted that "Scott has the credentials, playing and coaching, to lead our program, and he gives us continuity. He has proven this year that he understands the game and understands our kids, and I know he’s looking forward to the new challenge."

Athletic director Bob Hall said he and Pearson felt they needed to move quickly to name a head coach after the announced resignations of Beard and Skogen, in light of persistent rumors that Temple would not be able to field a football team next year. They further agreed that they had an ideal successor already on the staff.

"Scott is going to bring a lot of energy and passion to this position," Hall said. "We’re going to be young the next couple of years, but we feel he’s going to be able to keep us going forward. And Coach Kell was a big help this year and will be even more so next year."

Said Rob Eldridge, Temple’s director of development: "We owe a great deal to Coach Skogen, Coach Beard and the other assistants and parent volunteers who have brought us this far. In order for us to go forward and develop a football program, we needed to hire a full-time coach."

E-mail Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com