Simmons Superlatives - Best Coaches

One of the hardest Simmons Superlatives to write is the Best Coach list for boys and girls sports. None of them like the praise – or, at the very least, they aren’t doing what they’re doing for praise.

If you try to shine light on one, they’ll start pointing to 2-3 more head coaches at their school or their assistants and say, “that’s the real star.” And almost all of them subscribe to Chris Sullens’ favorite motto for coaching success – You don’t win without good players.

Still, I think there’s definitely some coaches who stepped up and showed out during the 2024-25 school year. I did pair down the lists for coaches from five to three, mostly for my own sanity. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to write two 1,000-word stories a day for a week, but at some point you just run out of adjectives for success.

Let’s just get on with the list!

Paul Willis Martin, WCHS Flag Football

Back in April, just a couple weeks into the inaugural flag football season, I wrote a column about coach Martin. It was loaded with praise, including this part:

It doesn’t take more than five seconds being around the Lady Pioneers to feel the good vibes radiating from the program. The coaches, led by Martin, love the kids. The kids, from the stars on offense and defense all the way down to the last sub, love the coaches.

They really seem to love Paul Willis Martin.

I call these the Superlatives and I honestly think if there was a “Most Popular,” vote for all coaches in Warren County – girls or boys – Paul Willis Martin may win in a landslide. You really don’t hear anybody say a bad word on Paul, particularly any of his players.

I said he was a perfect fit for the Lady Pioneer football program when the group was 4-1. It was even easier to see that he was a phenomenal leader when WCHS ended up rattling off 11 victories and finishing second in their division in Year 1 of the program.

Aside from the success, I think the biggest thing that stuck out to me is the ease in which Martin made it look in the first year. There’s supposed to be hiccups; Nobody was going to bat an eye if some things look unorganized or the Lady Pioneers didn’t look completely polished every game.

Instead, I think Warren County showed its poise and how well coached the team was from Game 1. Honestly, I got to see many of the flag football teams up close this year and I don’t know if there were many games where the Lady Pioneers fielded the most athletic team. At the very least, there were more than a few games WCHS won without having the best – or fastest – player on the field.

In high school, that’s tough to do. In flag, when a dominant player can change the game in a single snap, it’s really tough to do. Coach Martin and his staff deserve a lot of praise for keeping the game at a level the Lady Pioneers could always control.

It won’t be easy to replace some of the standouts from last year, but if last week’s tryouts were any indication, coach Martin won’t lack for options next spring. Over 70 kids flocked to tryouts – a number I’m sure coach Eric Belew would like for his football team this fall.

Like I said, young athletes in Warren County love coach Martin.

Tim Page, Boyd basketball

While I’m blown away by the success of coach Martin in Year 1 of his build with the Lady Pioneer flag football team, I’m equally impressed when I step back for a second and see what Page has built at Boyd.

Granted, he took over a program where a few coaches had already shown there was success to be had if you did it right, but Boyd – both the girls program and the school – wasn’t exactly overflowing with talent (or students) when Page showed up in 2020.

By his second year, Page won 36 games in a season. After five years, he’s built the best program in the TSIAA South, having won three titles in the last four years, including back-to-back season and tournament championships the last two seasons.

What Page has really done has turned the Lady Broncos from a last option – the team a lot of people would turn to if they couldn’t get on a roster anywhere else – into, at minimum, a solid second option in the area. And for some kids, blue and orange is beginning to be what they inspire to wear in high school as they suit up in elementary or middle school.

Can Page secure a 3-Peat next year? I wouldn’t put it past him and the Lady Broncos.

Editor’s Note: Yes, I’m an assistant coach for Boyd Lady Bronco basketball.

Hannah Belew, WCHS tennis

Talk about making a splash in Year 1. Belew took over the Lady Pioneer tennis team and instantly pushed them to the top, claiming a District 7-AA regular season championship as Warren County beat Cookeville in an instant classic at home to help seal the title.

My favorite part of getting to know coach Belew was when we started talking about that title. I was ready to do a huge story with huge headlines about winning a championship, only for her to say, “we got two more wins to get.” She was referring to the district tournament, where Warren County did get one victory, but ultimately fell to Cookeville in a rematch with the tourney title on the line.

It let me know really quick there aren’t any moral victories or silver linings in the Belew house. If you want praise, you better win it all. Otherwise, it’s time to get back to work and be better until you can hoist all the hardware at the end of the season.

Something tells me coach Belew will have the Lady Pioneers reloaded and ready to make another charge at a title next spring. And don’t print any title T-shirts until they win it all!