Jason Hill elevated to Lady Irish head coach

Notre Dame coaches, from left, Jason Hill, De Lamb and Wes Moore talk to their team during a timeout.
Notre Dame coaches, from left, Jason Hill, De Lamb and Wes Moore talk to their team during a timeout.
photo Notre Dame coaches, from left, Jason Hill, De Lamb and Wes Moore talk to their team during a timeout.

Notre Dame High School has announced it is promoting Jason Hill from assistant to head coach of the girls' basketball program. Hill and athletic director Matt Pobieglo met with the players Tuesday afternoon.

Hill last year helped Lady Irish coach Wes Moore, who accepted the head coaching position at GPS in early May. Hill previously was the girls' coach at Signal Mountain, beginning with that program's inaugural 2008-09 season.

Hill, the District 7-AA coach of the year in his final season guiding the Lady Eagles, has been a physical education teacher and athletic director at St. Jude School since 2002. But when Robin Popp was hired as principal at Signal Mountain before last school year, she chose not to offer Hill the chance to continue as coach because she wanted all of the coaches to be staff members.

"After you've been a head coach for six years, and you go into an assistant coach's role, it's a transition that takes an adjustment," Hill said. "I wanted to get back into a head coaching position, but I wanted to make sure it was the right fit. I think things led up perfectly for this to be that situation."

Hill played basketball and graduated from Ooltewah in 1992 before going on to play two years each at Cleveland State Community College and the University of West Florida. He played professionally in France for a year before returning to the area. He was a girls' and boys' assistant for a year each at Ringgold.

Hill was head coach of the girls' and boys' middle school teams at St. Jude through 2007. Last season marked his second one-year stint as a Lady Irish assistant with the first being in 2007-08.

Pobieglo said Notre Dame received more than 40 applications for the job.

"We wanted someone who was not just interested in coaching a team but someone also interested in building a program," Pobieglo said. "Jason is a highly respectable coach in this area. He knows the girls, and with his personality it's just a natural fit. Wes did a great job getting this thing established. With the continuity that's there, the girls knowing the system, this is just a natural progression."

Hill is planning to retain assistant coaches De Lamb and Sydni Abbajay. Lamb was an assistant to Hill at Signal Mountain and also the middle school coach. He will take over Notre Dame's junior varsity. Abbajay played for Hill at Signal Mountain, where she also played volleyball.

"I do know there's a big group of young players coming in to coincide with our core group that won the district regular season last year," Hill said. "There's definitely some excitement about next season."

Contact Kelley Smiddie at sports@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.

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