Josh Roberts hired as Signal Mountain football coach

Josh Roberts
Josh Roberts

It came as a surprise, both in the community and out, but Josh Roberts, once Signal Mountain's middle school football coach, has been hired as the high school head coach.

The first question Roberts asked Tuesday morning was, "Are you shocked?"

photo Josh Roberts

After more than two months of seeking a replacement for Ty Wise, who resigned at the end of the 2016 season, Signal Mountain administrators decided they didn't have to leave the campus to find the school's third football head coach.

"The person we were looking for had to be both a motivator on the football field and a strong academic leader in the classroom. We have found all of these things and more in Coach Roberts," principal Todd Stinson said. "We have confidence that Josh will make a smooth transition into the head coaching position, and we know he will be a great fit for Signal Mountain High School."

The 32-year-old Roberts, a former Soddy-Daisy quarterback, was among the first of more than 100 coaches from as far away as Iowa and Texas to submit resumes. He also was the first candidate Stinson and athletic director Bumper Reese interviewed.

"There was a considerable amount of interest in the job, which is exciting, but it left us with the task of going through those resumes and talking to a lot of people and then talking to references," Stinson said. "We wanted to get it right. We wanted to make sure we got the right person and the right fit. Signal Mountain is a unique situation. It's not only a coaching position but a teaching position in a very rigorous academic setting."

Roberts wasn't offered the job until Monday.

"I appreciate the administration's trust and faith in me," he said. "I like the fit here, and I already know the students and parents and the faculty. I love it up here. You can't ask for anything better as a teacher. The students are motivated."

His first task is clearly defined. He has to rebuild a program that finished each of the past two seasons with around two dozen players and finished 2016 with a 3-7 record that could've been much better with more players.

"It's a process, but the guys on the team have to be ambassadors for the team," he said of recruiting the halls for athletes who bypassed football the past two seasons. "Coach (Bill) Price had built this program and there was a lot of pride, and that pride brought success. We're going to follow that process."

The Eagles' offensive coordinator last season, Roberts made it clear that football would be fun again, indicating that the 20-hour summer-week workouts were history and that athletes whose primary sport was not football would have time to pursue those interests, especially on long weekends in the summer.

"We want football to be fun and enjoyable and practices will be something they get to do rather than have to do," he said. "When I was at Soddy-Daisy we had talked with some college coaches, and one of the things they kept saying was that kids were trying to make it through workouts. We made workouts and practices shorter but more efficient.

"They'll be up-tempo, but we realize too that all of us - kids and coaches - have lives away from football."

Roberts and fellow staff members Josh Payne and Barry Loyal had begun recruiting the halls as early as the first week in November, so they've already got a leg up on bolstering numbers. Too, many of the older athletes in the school are familiar with Roberts from having played for him at the middle school.

"It wouldn't surprise me if we have somewhere around 60 on the sidelines, which is a good number for a 3A school, this fall," Reese said.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.

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