Boyd-Buchanan has hired former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant coach Carter Cardwell to join its football staff. Cardwell will take over as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator.
“This was a great opportunity for me professionally to work at a program with so much consistency and respect,” Cardwell said. “It’s also a great fit for my family and will allow me to be around more with them and watch my sons play and grow.
“I really enjoy the atmosphere at Boyd-Buchanan because it’s kind of got a small-town feel. I look forward to working with the kids here, and I believe I can talk to them about what it will take to get to that college level, since I’ve coached there.”
Cardwell was an assistant at UTC in 2009, serving as defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator, and has worked at the collegiate level for 22 years. Besides multiple stints at UTC, Cardwell was an assistant at Sewanee for five years and has spent time on the staffs at Clemson, Auburn, VMI and Maryville College.
He spent the 2003 season as the offensive coordinator at Red Bank High School and also has coached at McMinn County and Loudon, his alma mater.
Boyd-Buchanan was the Class 2A state runner-up last season.
“Carter is a very valuable asset to our program,” Bucs coach Grant Reynolds said. “From the experience he brings and the example he will set as far as character, we’re very happy to have him.”
Hibdon reception
Friends of Baylor School equipment manager Phil Hibdon wanting to pay their respects are invited to a reception Saturday at 4 p.m. at the school’s Harrison Hall.
Hibdon, 44, died Tuesday at his campus residence. He had been diagnosed with diabetes and had been undergoing dialysis. A former UTC basketball manager, he began working at Baylor in 1988 as the equipment manager for all athletic teams. Hibdon had been a dorm parent at Baylor since his arrival.
“Rather than a memorial service, we are asking those who want to remember him to come to the reception at Harrison Hall,” said Baylor basketball coach Austin Clark. “Phil was a huge basketball fan and the Final Four was his favorite event every year, so this is what he would have wanted.
“Phil stands for all the people around our city who work with kids and go unnoticed. He was a teacher outside the classroom and someone who had a tremendous impact on a great number of people’s lives.”
Knoxville Grace appeals
Knoxville’s Grace Christian Academy has been granted a hearing before the three members of the TSSAA Board of Control from the eastern portion of the state. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at Maryville High School with board members Tommy Layne of Sequatchie County High School, Mike Reed of Morristown West and Lynn Brown of Maryville to hear the school’s plea to have its punishment reduced.
Earlier this week the school was found guilty of using an ineligible football and basketball player who received financial aid for tuition from the pastor of the affiliated church. The TSSAA disciplined the Knoxville private school with one of the most severe rulings in the organization’s history — including a fine of more than $24,000, a two-year ban from postseason play for boys’ basketball and football, an immediate one-year ban from postseason play for the entire athletic program and a three-year probation period.
Because the school did not report the violations, it must pay a $100 fine for each game that senior Eric Williams played in since he transferred to the school three years ago. Williams was an all-region two-way starter for the Rams in football who transferred to Grace from Karns before his sophomore season.
The school also must repay the TSSAA for all proceeds from postseason tournaments and playoff games in football and basketball since 2007. In a letter sent to the school, the TSSAA also mandated that Grace vacate any victories in which Williams played and strike any individual or team records achieved during those games.
The football Rams advanced to the Class 1A semifinals last season.
“I’ve gotten more calls from private schools who are mad about it because they don’t like the idea of being included in that group with Knox Grace,” Layne said. “There are a lot of good private schools who are doing what they’re supposed to, including the ones in Chattanooga, but this appears to be a very open-and-shut case of them breaking a very obvious rule.”
Knoxville Grace is not affiliated with Chattanooga’s Grace Baptist Academy, which has been a TSSAA member since 1991 and has never had a major violation. Knoxville Grace is in its sixth year as a TSSAA member and last May was penalized for using an ineligible boys’ basketball player. That ruling resulted in vacating 19 victories, the district and region titles, paying a $250 fine to the TSSAA and repaying more than $700 it made from a state sectional game.