Sequatchie County head coach Adam Caine watches his men during a pre-season scrimmage at Gordon Lee on August 11, 2015.DUNLAP, Tenn. - Regardless of age or occupation, most of us never outgrow the desire to earn our father's respect, or to simply hear "I'm proud of you."
Adam Caine, Sequatchie County's first-year head football coach, is no different. That's why the youngest of three sons born to the late Dr. Winston Caine and wife Priscilla wrestled with more emotions than simple first-game jitters last Friday night.
As the players lined up to run through the paper sign and onto the field, a packed Beene Stadium at South Pittsburg awaiting the start of another prep football season, Caine felt something was missing as he paused to take in the scene. Later that night, after his team had battled back late to claim a 12-7 victory, Caine again was overcome by emotion as he addressed the players.
"It just hit me before the game how much I wish my dad could see me get to be a head coach," Caine said. "I had always been an assistant wherever I had coached, so I think he would've been excited for me.
"And I believe he would have loved the old-school way that game was played. This October will be three years since he passed away, and I still get people come up to me and tell me stories about him. He was just such a huge influence for me and my brothers. I always looked up to him, and still do."
It's been a winding road for Adam Caine to become a head coach. His father attended Vanderbilt on a football scholarship, and from an early age the three Caine brothers understood the toughness the game required was one way to earn their father's respect.
"He never pushed it on us, but he always took us to college and high school games and we knew it was important to him," said Caine, a 1989 McCallie graduate who played for the late Pete Potter. "A lot of people knew him because of his career, but for us, knowing he played SEC football made him even more larger than life."
A list of toilsome summer jobs during his teenage years, set up by his dad to help teach the value of earning one's own way, only helped Adam recognize how miserable work can make your everyday life if you choose the wrong career. Four years away from the game while in college only made him realize how much he missed it.
His oldest brother, Stephen, became a minister in Cincinnati, and middle brother Matt works in the financial world in Atlanta. But Adam knew the only career that interested him involved a coach's whistle and countless days when the biggest payoff was the simple satisfaction of doing what he loved, and something his dad would be proud of.
Starting out as a volunteer video coordinator, he spent 10 years as an assistant at the mid-major and Division III levels, moving around from Washington & Lee, Austin Peay, Samford and Sewanee and also several more years as a high school assistant, picking up tidbits of dos and don'ts along the way for the day when he would have the chance to run a program of his own.
"We really got close after college, when he would come watch the games where I was coaching." Caine said. "There isn't much money to be made as an assistant at small college programs, but he helped me chase my dream. He always encouraged me and even helped me financially along the way. He knew how important it was to me."
And that's why, moments after last week's dramatic win as he instructed his players to go hug their parents and thank them for being there to support them, Coach Caine felt a lump in his throat before he could finish his speech.
"I lost my dad a few years ago, and I just wish more than anything that he could've been here to see how you guys played," Caine told the team of kneeling players on the field.
Later, after soaking in the gratifying first win of his career, Caine recalled the moment that cemented his career path.
"One of the coolest moments I ever had was as quarterbacks coach at Austin Peay," Caine said. "We had beat Butler University and my dad and one of my brothers were there watching, and it just so happened that I was the assistant they had asked to come on the postgame radio show. My dad was listening on the way home, and about an hour later, after I got off the air, I called him and asked if it sounded like I knew what I was talking about. He said, 'You're damn right it did.'
"My dad wasn't one to hand out compliments easily, so for him to say that, I knew he was proud. I still get choked up even now just thinking about it. It finally hit me again once I got home and laid down that he missed seeing me get my first win. But I believe he would be proud."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.