Tribute to Tennessee High School Football Coaches

I interviewed for the David Crockett head football job in February of 2018 as a 24 year old assistant college coach. A couple of months later, I officially accepted the job as the youngest head coach in the state.

Fast forward throughout to my first season there. We had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of close games and overtime games. It was a historic season for us at Crockett. Crockett had never really had a lot of post season success. The school had never hosted a playoff game, never won a playoff game and had never won a region championship.

We went 6-0 in the region, 10-0 in the regular season, won a region championship, won our first two playoff games, made a quarterfinal appearance and ended the year 12-1.

But the cool part of this story is how God works things out the way he wants them to work out. Little did I know that when I interviewed for this job in February of 2018, that in 10 short months, I would be marrying my wife who was sitting as a part of the interview committee.

It was so sureal. The interview was done. I accepted the job in April. I really didn’t get to know Lauren that well over the summer. She coaches cross country at our school and teaches chemistry.

One day during the first few weeks of school, I passed her in the hallway and just gave a friendly remark of, “You look nice today.” She thanked me and an hour later she sends me a text that read, “Thank you for your comment.”

About a week later, we go on our first date in mid-September. Another week, we go on another date and start seeing each other every few days there at school. The next thing you know, a month or two goes by and we get engaged and 100 days after our first date, we get married.

God just worked it out. She was single, mature and ready to settle down. I was single, mature and looking for someone that I could settle down with. The Lord just led me to Crockett for more than just being the head football coach. The rest is history. We’re happily married with two kids. I truly found my soul mate at David Crockett High School.

NOTE: Hayden Chandley played football, basketball and baseball at Daniel Boone High School (Class of 2011). He played college football at Virginia-Wise, graduating in 2015). His head coaching career began at David Crockett High School in 2018. He remains the head football coach there.