farragutpress

47 years, but still winning: Courtney

Faith, family, football, Farragut, Fulton

October 19, 2022 by Alan Sloan

Getting excellent grades with an “F.”

If a few words could begin to describe someone’s life, the five F’s would be a good way to summarize Eddie Courtney: faith, family, football, Farragut and Fulton.

A devout Christian whose fatherly influence helped lead his son into the same profession, Courtney is serving his 27th season as Admirals varsity football head coach — having spent 43 of his last 45 years as a Farragut coach.

As for two of his football life highlights, there’s the Fulton in maroon — his days as a star linebacker/offensive lineman with the Fulton Falcons (Class of 1971) — and the Fulton in Navy blue and gray, as former FHS star quarterback Adam Fulton’s talents and leadership helped Courtney realize the ultimate high

school coaching dream: winning the 2016 Class 5A state championship.

How good is Eddie Courtney as a high school football coach? He earned a place in Tennessee Football Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame in 2021, while also an inductee in the FHS Sports Hall of Fame.

Fellow coaches’ praise

“A class act — I don’t know if I’ve run across a better person in my 48 years of coaching,” said Joe Gaddis, a former FHS Assistant in the 1980s with Courtney long-time football head coach at Oak Ridge whose Wildcats won the 1991 TSSAA Class AAA title.

“He’s one heck of a coach — I think he’s every bit as good a coach as he is a person,” added Gaddis, now athletic director at ORHS. “Any success he has is well deserved. He runs a top-notch program over there, and he’s done it for a while.

“Always well, prepared; they do things right over there.”

“Coach Courtney is a great man, and I really respect him,” said Ben Lyle, Courtney’s former offensive coordinator and assistant coach from 1996 to 2017. “He treated his assistants, including

me, fairly, and trusted us to

do our job.”

Coaching path

“To be good at this, you’ve got to dedicate yourself and be sure your family understands what you’re doing,” said Courtney, whose football career extended to Mars Hill University as a standout linebacker before a serious car accident, just before his senior season, ended his football career.

“I think that’s what got

me into coaching,” he said about the accident’s affect.

“I love the game so much;

and when I couldn’t play anymore, it was just my way to stay connected.

“I got a chance to be a graduate assistant at East Tennessee State; two years after that I had a chance to do it at Tennessee” helping coach linebackers, Courtney added.

In 1978 “when coach (Ken) Sparks (was head coach) at Farragut, he kind of sold me on the vision he had,” said Courtney, hired as linebackers coach before becoming defensive coordinator under former Admirals skipper Buddy Fisher prior to taking over the program in 1996.

Other highlights

On top of his 2016 state crown (15-1 record), a number of Courtney’s teams have reached the TSSAA state quarterfinal round (no career record was available).

While losing seasons have been few, Courtney has won 13 of his last 17 meetings versus perennial power and rival Oak Ridge, and has a 22-7 career record against rival Bearden, having won 20 of his last 23 meetings versus the Bulldogs.

Role models

As for role models, “my dad was No. 1 (Paul Courtney); coach Bob Black was my high school coach; and Bill Mitchell (linebackers coach at Mars Hill) and Hoot Gibson (head coach) in college,” Courtney said. “And coach Sparks was another mentor to me, and was an influence on me.”

Fathers-sons on staff

Courtney’s son, in fact, makes for a pair of father-son coaching combos on the Admirals staff — with the sons being former FHS players.

Along with defensive line coach Tom Doucette and his son, former Admirals offensive line standout Patrick Doucette, now offensive line coach, Courtney’s son, Geoff Courtney, is a former standout receiver/defensive back in Navy blue and gray (Class of 2006) who serves as offensive coordinator.

“My experiences as a kid, first seeing him on Friday nights and getting to enjoy those experiences together,” said Geoff, who became a preferred walk — on as a Tennessee Vols holder/wide receiver about being a ballboy for the Admirals.

“With that lifestyle, there was an interest from my perspective that I would enjoy doing a similar type of thing,” added Geoff, a business teacher in his 12th season as an Admirals assistant coach — also having coached outside linebackers, receivers and secondary/safeties — and his sixth season as offensive coordinator.

“I think any coach on our staff would say that he allows us to coach our positions — he doesn’t try to micromanage — and he allows us to develop our style for how we connect with our players,” the junior Courtney added.

As a result, “I think there’s a good chemistry on our staff of guys who relate really well to players and coaches who hold the entire program, and everybody in the program, accountable,” he said.

Star player perspective

“His No. 1 goal was to make sure we were well-rounded young men after playing at Farragut,” said Fulton (Class of 2017), an operation-room nurse who went on to quarterback at Concord University in Athens, West Virginia. “He always prioritized us having the grades, us being polite when we were in school, showing respect to everybody.”

As for Courtney being on top of every little detail, but still letting his assistant coaches coach, “having played in college and seen how other coaches did it, I think he was very focused on special teams,” Fulton said while praising the Admirals top special team play year-in, year-old.

“He preached it every week: ‘we’ve got to be good on special teams,’” he added. “… Devoting time in the off-season for holders, snappers, kickers to get that snap-to-kick down pat like the back of their hand.

“And I felt like he was good at keeping things — not simple, but — simple enough to where we could go out there and play fast.”

Play fast, be fair to players and staff alike and finish first — perhaps you could add those to Eddie Courtney’s long list of F’s.

A great ride

“It’s just been a great ride all these years, it really has,” the senior Courtney said.