With recent hurdle cleared, KCS considers football, joining TSSAA
While TSSAA-member schools will be allowed to play Knoxville Christian School athletic teams following a two-season ban ending in May 2019, the big picture of KCS athletics involves serious consideration in two areas: joining TSSAA and beginning a football program.
According to Joey Brandenburg, KCS first-year athletic director, the two-season ban was imposed beginning with the 2017-18 season due to having “some coaches here who were recruiting from other local schools for the sole purpose of sports, and that’s against the rules.
“I don’t know exactly what took place,” he added.
While receiving a favorable ruling from TSSAA, which voted to lift the ban during its business meeting Thursday, Jan. 10, “I think it’s big from the standpoint of us being allowed to play the local schools that belong to the TSSAA,” Brandenburg said.
“I wrote up a letter and sent them a policy book that we put in place,” he added about approaching TSSAA in the matter.
Moreover, “When you can’t play local teams it affects your enrollment,” he said. “... We’ve had a hard time scheduling games.”
Brandenburg praised Rick Komistek, former KCS board chair, “who did a really good job of managing things and getting us in a position to where we could actually go back and make this happen.”
To keep from making future compliance mistakes, “We’ve actually hired, on a part-time basis, somebody to keep us in TSSAA compliance,” Brandenburg said about David Dawson, who was hired Aug. 1.
The athletic director said he has not contacted any TSSAA schools concerning future scheduling, waiting on confirmation from TSSAA “exactly when I can get in touch with these schools.”
Brandenburg said KCS “is strongly considering” filing an application to join TSSAA by the early 2020s while also considering adding football as an eventual varsity sport by the early 2020s.
