Bill Elliott is in his first season as the Chattanooga Football Club’s coach. Yet during last Saturday’s scrimmage against the Nashville Metros, the Hixson native spent the first half in the stands at Finley Stadium watching his new team.
The men’s soccer coach at the University of West Florida, Elliott wasn’t able to join the CFC team until late April, after he wrapped up the school year in Pensacola. The scrimmage — CFC blew out the Metros 6-2 — gave him a chance to evaluate the players who had joined the team.
“It was very valuable, because what I saw is really about all I know,” Elliott said. “The players that I’m more familiar with are the ones that came to our tryouts and excelled at our tryouts. … It was valuable in getting to know the players. Some I knew from the tryout and others it was my first time seeing them play.”
Some of the players — ones he asked to join CFC — Elliott knew from collegiate soccer. One of them was midfielder Carl Reynolds, who scored the first two goals in the scrimmage.
“I was pleased that he made a good impression in the scrimmage,” Elliott said, adding that he was also impressed with the play of Fynn Glover, one of the original CFC players, who did not play last summer.