Assistant Coach Walker Replaces Daniel Curtis

July 28, 2020 Evensville, TN --  John Walker was recently hired as boys basketball head coach at Rhea County High School.  John replaces Daniel Curtis, who left to be head coach at McMinn Central High School in Englewood, Tennessee at the end of June.  John served on the staff of boys basketball teams since 2014 and also helped with girls program in 2017-2018.  John taught US and World History at Rhea County High School since 2014.  John is married to former Maggie Walker and they have two sons, Ace and Hayes.   Mr. Walker was boys assistant coach at South Doyle, and Chestatee High School before being the head coach at Stone Memorial High School. John graduated from Carter High School in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee in 2003 and later graduated from Carson Newman University in 2008.    During his time at Carter High School, John was three sport athlete, participating in golf, basketball and baseball.   After graduation from Carson Newman, John worked at South Doyle High School(2009/2010), Chestatee High School(2010-2012) and Stone Memorial High School(2012-2014) and taught history at all three schools. John answered a few questions about the new position at Rhea County. When did you decide that you were interested in the head coach job? John said, "I have been a head coach before, and I knew it was something eventually I wanted to do again.  The timing seemed right this time and the administration was gracious enough to hire me." What are the biggest differences you have found between being an assistant and a head coach? "There are major adjustments going from the assistant’s seat to the head coach’s seat.  I will have to be more concerned with the overall program than I was previously as the assistant coach where I was able to focus on solely on my role.  I have head coaching experience in the past so it will be an adjustment for me coming from my current role but I know what to expect and the amount of work that goes into building a program." How would you describe your coaching philosophy? "My philosophy is grounded in fundamentals.  We want to teach offensive skills: ball handling, shooting, and strength with the ball in our hands. Scheme wise we are going to fit our personnel with an emphasis on playing together.  Defensively we will try to be great on ball defenders and great help defenders who are willing to sacrifice to protect the rim.  Again, we will fit our defensive scheme to our personnel as well.  We want to highlight the toughness that our community exhibits on a daily basis and fit our scheme to that toughness." What are the practice restrictions related to COVID-19 safety? "It has been a very weird year.  We are late to the game as far as tryouts and summer practice.  We will adapt though with tryouts being Wednesday July 29th and a possibility of a future tryout (when practice starts) for players that were either out of town the week of tryouts or may not have gotten the information about tryouts.  Obviously, the situation in our community and country is very fluid and changes day to day so we have to adhere to strict guidelines.  Basketball is an indoor sport so we are limited to nine players and one coach per gym at tryouts. Hopefully those guidelines will lessen as we progress and the situation improves." Working and Education details: Working history South Doyle High School 2009-2010, Knoxville, Tn US History Teacher Chestatee High School 2010-2012, Gainesville, Ga US History Teacher/World History Teacher Stone Memorial High School 2012-2014, Crossville, Tn US History Teacher Rhea County High School 2014-Present, Evensville, Tn US History and World History Teacher Basketball coaching history" South Doyle High School 2009-2010 Boys Basketball Assistant Coach Chestatee High School 2010-2012 Boys Basketball Assistant Coach Stone Memorial High School 2012-2014 Head Girls Basketball Coach Rhea County High School 2014-Present 2014-Present Boys Basketball Assistant Coach 2017-2018 Girls Basketball Assistant Coach