Hunter Gremore, most recently at Arlington High School in West Tennessee, has been hired to coach East Hamilton girls' basketball.
Gremore succeeds Tony Williams, who resigned to accept a similar position at Cleveland.
"He comes to us with a lot of experience and we're excited to have him," East Hamilton principal Gail Chuy said. "He has a lot of really good ideas about moving a girls' program forward, and some of his ideas match with those of the (schoolwide) coaching staff. We have a great staff in this building, and we were looking for someone to build on that."
Gremore has coached boys' and girls' basketball at Cordova and Arlington and helped establish those programs from their beginning. His Arlington girls' teams have posted at least 25 wins each of the last five years, including a 31-4 record one season.
It was more than just the record of success that Chuy found attractive. She liked the fact he had experience coaching both genders.
"Sure, basketball is basketball and I understand that, but there's a different approach with girls," said Chuy, who played high school basketball for legendary Hutch Lewis at Red Bank. "Moving from boys' sports to girls' is not easy, and I looked for that when interviewing. I was looking too for dedication, and not just to winning but dedication to developing athletes into good citizens."
Gremore obviously struck a chord during his interview.
"The game is the same and players still do the same things, but the speed of the game and playing above the rim are differences," he said. "My coaching style, I like to think, is we spend a lot of time on fundamentals. That's easier to do in girls' basketball. I want to focus on the basics of the game."
Gremore hopes to return to Chattanooga next week to meet with the players and assistant coaches and hopes to get things rolling in June.
"One of the things that was different this time for us (in the interview process) was that we have a program where people see potential. We had a lot more experienced and qualified applicants than we did last time," Chuy said. "Tony did a good job here and we hate to lose him but understand his reasons for leaving. But I think we have found somebody who can take us to the next level."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.