One didn't have to win a state championship this past school term to become a finalist for the Scrappy Moore Coach of the Year award, but it certainly helped. Four of the six finalists led their teams to state titles.
The award winner will be named at tonight's annual Times Free Press Best of Preps banquet.
At the banquet, set to begin at 6 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center, awards will recognize an individual player of the year in all boys' and girls' sports as well as an overall male and female athlete and the coach of the year.
Every athlete and coach named to a Times Free Press Best of Preps first, second or third team for the 2016-17 school year receives one complimentary ticket to the banquet.
The six coach finalists are:
- Adam Caine, Sequatchie County football coach
- Todd Close, Southeast Whitfield soccer
- Chris Cushenbery, McCallie School soccer coach
- Matt Land, Dalton High football coach
- Dana Mull, Gordon Lee softball coach
- Ben Smith, Bradley Central wrestling coach
A former college assistant who had played for Pete Potter at McCallie, Caine took the Sequatchie County football team to new heights. In his second year at the head of the program Caine - coordinating both the offensive and defensive units - directed the Indians to a region championship, an undefeated regular season and a best-in-school-history 13-1 record, including a run to the Class 3A state semifinals. The Dunlap team had finished its third consecutive losing season with a 3-7 record the season immediately before his arrival.
It took Close one season to write the most successful chapter in the history of athletics at Southeast Whitfield. He took over a senior-laden Raiders soccer team that had serious talent and extreme goals and directed it to a 20-win season and the first state championship in school history. Southeast twice had finished as state runner-up before Close, who coached the girls' team to its best-ever season in 2016, guided the Raiders to the Class AAAA title in May.
Cushenbery led McCallie's soccer team to a 14-1-4 record and the program's first Division II-AA state championship since 1999. The Blue Tornado finished the year ranked No. 5 in the nation and defeated Montgomery Bell Academy 3-2 in the state championship match, halting a four-year string of season-ending playoff defeats to the Big Red.
Despite moving up to Georgia's second-largest classification, Dalton football coach Mattt Land led the Catamounts to a 13-1 season that culminated in a Class AAAAAA semifinal showdown at Harmon Field against another state power, Valdosta. A former Dalton player, Land played under the legendary Bill Chappell.
As a veteran of 14 years coaching softball at Gordon Lee, Mull had five new starters in the 2016 lineup, including at pitcher, but finished 32-2, capped by a Georgia Class A public school state championship, the program's seventh title.
Smith's team rallied from two losses to rival Cleveland to repeat as state duals and traditional wrestling champions. Along the way the Bears also won the region traditional championship.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.