Tonight you’ll get to hear from the two men besides my dad who have had the most influence on my life: Jim McNamee, a Hall of Famer with 9 state titles to his resume, who handed me the best athletic program in the history of Oak Ridge High School, who coached me as a teenager and who mentored and inspired me as a track and cross country coach, and who gave me the room to take it where I wanted to go, and Sam Roberts, who I am here to introduce as our 2024 Hall of Fame coach. So rarely do we get the opportunity to publicly acknowledge the people who help make us who we are.

Sam has all the credentials you’d want for this coaching award: 9 times his athletes at West won state xc titles, he won boys and girls state team titles and a state track title. He coached more than 60 state champions, had more than 50 NCAA scholarship athletes, and coached athletes to state records in the 1600 and 3200. He coached the first Tennessee girl to qualify for footlocker and assisted at oak ridge when we became the first tn team to qualify for nxn. He was part of the only coaching staff ever to coach both boys and girls state team champions in AAA, in 2007. He went on to coach national level sprinters, jumpers, and distance runners at TN Wesleyan. All of that says that he’s a really good running coach, and he is. He’s as good as anyone I’ve ever seen anywhere, particularly at teaching athletes how to compete. He’s also the best teacher of technique that I’ve ever known. He sees it and can communicate it really well. More importantly, though, he’s one of the best human beings I’ve ever known: honest, good-humored, humble when he needs to be, aware of his commitment to excellence. It’s really hard for a coach to put his family first, and I was not very good at doing that, but Tammy, Haden, Haley, and Copeland were always the center of his world even more so than his teams and athletes were. His priority was always his family and people over performance. And yet, he’s affected so many people in track and field and cross country and in his church over the last 34-years that any number of people could stand up here and talk about how he’s changed their lives. I happen to be the person who gets to do that. Sam is the greatest friend I’ve had during my lifetime and is one of the best ever to have coached. Congratulations.

by Coach Allen Etheridge