Jeff HaarlowFor the second year in a row, Tennessee Temple University has lost a successful men’s basketball coach after one season.
Jeff Haarlow, who directed the Crusaders to a 22-12 record and a USCAA national runner-up finish and was the co-coach of the year in the NCCAA Mid-East Region, has decided not to return as coach. The former Berry College coach will be relocating with his wife to Pinehurst, N.C., where he grew up and where she has just taken a job as a third-grade teacher.
And he wants to do more with the other sport he played in college — in fact at a higher level than basketball. He was an NAIA golf All-American at Berry.
“I think ultimately I need a new path,” Haarlow said. “I absolutely love the game of basketball, but after 18 years as an assistant and head coach in college basketball, I need to do something new. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went down the career of golf in some way — maybe some sort of teaching or coaching, but somewhere in the golf industry.
“I am sure I will mess with basketball in some capacity — I love the game — but ultimately this is a matter of being able to go home where you grew up.”