Ulric WinesburghRed Bank will have new faces directing its baseball and wrestling programs for the 2016-2017 school year.
Ulric Winesburgh is stepping up to replace Shane Turner and Jason Henderson is moving from Lookout Valley to take over for Trey Hicks. Turner is headed to Boyd-Buchanan and Hicks to Notre Dame.
"Both coaches come highly recommended," said Red Bank assistant principal Wendell Weathers, who is returning to his alma mater, where he was an outstanding football player and wrestler.
"Ulric served as a volunteer assistant coach last year for Shane, and we're very comfortable and extremely excited about hiring him as head coach for this storied program. We're fortunate to get a baseball coach of Jason's caliber. He comes with high recommendations."
Winesburgh competed for highly touted Soddy-Daisy and won a state championship his senior year before moving on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He wrestled there for Chris Bono for a couple of seasons before devoting all his time to academics and then graduating with an education degree.
"I was initially a little nervous about taking the job, but then I found out Wendell was going to be in the building and it became a golden opportunity," Winesburgh said. "I like having somebody who's been a head coach to guide me."
Weathers served as head wrestling coach for several seasons at Ooltewah before turning those duties over to Bryant Blackmon and stepping into administration as an assistant principal and assistant athletic director.
There are big shoes to fill and holes in the lineup. Winesburgh helped Red Bank to the 2016 Class A/AA state duals championship, but the Lions also had numerous seniors on that team.
"I have good rapport with a lot of the kids. We graduated a lot of seniors, but we have some really tough kids returning," he said. "We want to build on the base that Shane left, and we have some growing to do as a team."
Henderson, valedictorian at Lookout Valley in 2005, has played for and coached under some quality baseball people, including Joel Johnson for three seasons when he was at Bryan College. He also played for David Dinger and coached with Wes Caldwell and Lance Rorex at Lookout Valley.
"Joel understood his players, especially the incoming freshmen, and he was good at getting guys on the same page," Henderson said of Johnson, now the head coach at Chattanooga Christian.
"Coach Dinger - one thing for sure that I learned from him was organization. It was a daily priority for him just as much as the hard work he put in and demanded from his players. Coach Caldwell was knowledgeable, but he was also very enthusiastic and energetic. If you want guys to catch on to what you're doing, you have to have that energy. Lance also is a hard-working guy that was always prepared. He pushed guys to be better than they thought they could be."
While Red Bank's baseball program is only a handful of seasons removed from a Class AA state tournament appearance, Henderson has work to do if he wants to return the Lions to their highly competitive glory years.
"When I think about Red Bank, I think about their traditions," he said. "Regardless of the sport, they have been very successful. Also, they have the facilities whether I'm looking for a place to store something or a place to practice if we can't get outside. And the support from parents and the community is already in evidence."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.