When Tennessee Temple Academy recently announced it was closing its doors for good, it brought a sad end to one of the biggest little programs in local history.
The combination of its location, the economic downturn and several newer church-based schools opening led Temple’s board of directors to vote to cease operations for the K-12 academy. It was an inevitable move that most people in the community knew was coming for about two years as enrollment dropped dramatically.
The sadly ironic part was that the announcement came during the week of the boys’ state basketball tournament, a time of year that often had kept the school in the headlines for much more positive reasons. During a 10-year span from 1998 to 2007, Temple overcame its grades 9-12 enrollment that hovered just above 100 to aptly play the role of David to the rest of the state’s Goliath programs. In fact, after four different coaches guided the Crusaders to the state tournament and three to titles during that time, that biblical analogy had become played-out.
My own experience with Temple’s athletic program allowed me to develop lasting friendships with godly men such as Kevin Templeton, Dan Wadley and Pastor David Snow as I covered Crusaders basketball games in the early 1990s.
Some of the best prep basketball in the area took place during the District 4-A tournaments. That district, which used to include 8-10 of the area’s small schools, often played its tournament at Temple’s crackerjack-box Vance Gym, which was filled past capacity on a nightly basis.