Neither Bumper Reese nor Ernie McCarson had been on a high school football field to coach since 2003, yet each was pursued this past spring by Signal Mountain coach Bill Price, whose 7-0 Eagles host Sequoyah tonight.
“I’ve known Bumper a long time,” Price said. “As a matter of fact, he had been a student teacher when I was at Red Bank and took my job there when I left and went to Soddy-Daisy. Ernie was an assistant when I was at Soddy-Daisy, and I had known about him since I was a player at Red Bank and he was the head coach at Tyner.”
Price wanted veterans. He wanted intensity and energy to bolster his own intensity and the energy of the rest of his young staff. In Reese’s case, he also wanted an experienced coach to take his spot as the Eagles’ baseball coach.
McCarson sees things that Price and defensive coordinator Greg Ellis, another former head coach, might miss.
“I haven’t really been away from football,” said McCarson, who retired from the Hamilton County school system after several years as an assistant principal. “I haven’t missed going to a game on Friday night since I got out. Anybody who has coached and watches a game from the sidelines sees things and thinks it might be different. I can tell you watching isn’t nearly as much fun as coaching.”
He and Reese also felt differently physically after layoffs of more than a half-dozen years.
“You get tired. I get tired on Friday nights,” McCarson said. “I feel older, but once coaching is in your blood you can’t get it out. I still get a great deal of pleasure from seeing kids work hard to get better and to come along, and I enjoy coaching with Bill.”
There were nights early in preseason practice when Reese didn’t know if he could drive home or stay awake long enough to eat dinner.
“Those first two or three weeks I was exhausted,” he said. “I go to bed early now. I go home, eat supper and I’m ready to get to bed.”
Both McCarson and Reese have rounded into shape. All of the coaches help with the junior varsity, and Reese, a member of Tom Weathers’ state championship team at Red Bank, also coaches Signal Mountain’s sixth-grade team.
“Ernie has a tremendous amount of knowledge, and he was never really away from the game,” Price said. “Bumper had to get back in the groove with football, but he was already knowledgeable and he had always kept up with it. The energy he brings to the field has helped us tremendously.”
Reese, who coaches the defensive backs and helps with running backs and receivers, had his eyes opened a couple of weeks ago when Chattanooga Christian attempted more than 40 passes.
“Offenses are a lot more open,” Reese said. “Red Bank threw it a lot recently when Jake Ledbetter and Andy Christopher were quarterbacks there. When I was coaching at Red Bank, I thought we threw it a lot, but a ton of teams are throwing it a lot now. Obviously, defenses have had to adjust to that.”
There are other adjustments one might not consider.
“I didn’t think about getting nervous like I used to,” Reese said. “Before the South Pittsburg game I threw up I was so nervous, and before the Hixson game I had to remind myself of the pregame routine and pregame warm-ups.”
McCarson and Reese agreed that Price will listen to his assistants.
“Bill runs the offense but he’s open to suggestions,” McCarson said. “Greg runs the defense and Bill listens to Greg, but we pretty much do on defense what Greg wants.”
“I’ve only questioned Bill once,” Reese said. “I agree with his calls about 99.9 percent of the time, I guess because Bill learned the same way I did from the same person (Weathers). But on the opening drive at Chattanooga Christian it was fourth-and-9 at our own 39 and I said, ‘We’re going to punt, right?’ He looked at me and asked why, called a play and we scored on a 61-yard touchdown pass.”