Dr. Foster Chason was back Friday in the Chattanooga State gymnasium, where he spent many, many hours during the 30-year bulk of his career in higher education.
Chason, who left Chattanooga State in 2006 to become the vice president of student affairs and the athletic director at Walters State in Morristown, is back in town this weekend as commissioner of the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association.
He's also the women's director for Region VII of the National Junior College Athletic Association, and the TCCAA/region basketball tournament is being held at Chattanooga State through Tuesday.
Chason accepted the commissioner's job from the TCCAA presidents in August 2016, a couple of months after he retired at Walters. Still youthful-looking at age 65, he lives in Newport, Tenn., with his wife of 44 years, Carol, who taught for three decades at Chickamauga (Ga.) Elementary School.
"I think we can still get a few more years out of him, even though he's not as young as he looks," joked Volunteer State athletic director Bobby Hudson, the region men's director.
Overseeing the league's "policies and procedures," heading the process for award selections and other recognitions and handling eligibility issues and other problems - all part of the commissioner's job - don't seem as fun as playing and coaching sports, so why did Chason pass up a chance for full retirement to stay neck deep in the TCCAA?
"It's the camaraderie, the collegiality and the shared competition," he said. "I've got so many friends throughout this conference. It has been so much a part of my life for over 40 years, both professionally and personally."
And of his wife's. If not keeping a scorebook at the scorers table for his games, Carol was involved from the stands, unofficially helping him coach. And true to form, she's at the tournament with him this weekend, as they enjoy another trip back to Chattanooga.
The TCCAA was the TJCAA when Chason joined the Tigers' fledgling athletic department in 1976, as an assistant baseball coach. It later became the TJCCAA, recognizing the "Community" aspect of most of its members. The "J" was dropped when no schools were left that went by "Junior College."
Chason knows all that more than almost everyone. He's written a history of the conference.
Primarily a sociology teacher, he taught 26 different courses during his 30 years at Chatt State, where he succeeded his mentor, Don Green, as the school's second men's basketball coach. He also was the second women's coach and second AD, and he was briefly the interim baseball coach.
He was a department head, later an assistant vice president. His last job at the local school was assistant to the president.
Apart from Chattanooga State, he officiated high school football in northwest Georgia for three years and worked with The Center for Sports Medicine as a certified athletic trainer. He worked for 20 years with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department as a DUI school instructor.
At the two community colleges he served, Chason led 28 educational tours to foreign countries, and the Walters State International Lyceum was named after him in 2016.
During his decade as Walters' AD, Senators and Lady Senators teams won 41 TCCAA championships, and the 2006 baseball team and 2014 golfers won national titles. He was an assistant golf coach.
Chason was a 2012-13 inductee of the TCCAA Hall of Fame.
Vol State teams out
Volunteer State lost 94-88 in overtime to the Jackson State men and 56-49 to the Motlow women in play-in games Friday. Columbia State beat the Dyersburg men 94-76, and Roane State defeated Jackson State 67-45 in the late women's game.
Victor Lacey and Tyler Taylor scored 30 and 27 points for Jackson, countering 31 by George Stanberry, the reigning national player of the week, and 21 by Byron Dean for Vol State. Stanberry scored 99 points in two games last week, including 60 in a 108-103 win over Jackson.
Isaiah Crawley had 31 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Columbia, and Keldrick Lesure added 20 points. Myron McKinney scored 23 for Dyersburg.
Janna Lewis had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Motlow. Shalaya Armstead had 18 rebounds with 13 points for Vol State.