Best boys coaches - 2025-26
This is part of the Simmons superlatives - a recap of the top high school athletes in warren county chosen by Jeff Simmons.
I've always thought coaches are the hardest people to rank in sports.
Players are the ones getting the stats and creating the highlights. They’re the ones almost always getting the credit for success. And when records are broke, their names go up in the banners.
Coaches? They get the blame. And I think that’s how most of them would want it anyway. I’d be willing to bet 99 precent of all coaches live by the same creed: Players win, Coaches lose.
The win-loss record will define them, even if it’s ultimately not what they’re there for. Most coaches, especially in Warren County, want to build culture. They want to show the Pioneer way, create belief in the young men they coach and have them understand that the best times in life are when you’re part of something bigger than yourself.
Usually when that happens, those athletes - or really, those teams - produce wins we’ll remember forever. And we’ll remember the kids for it - exactly like coaches want.
That said, I like giving the coaches a shoutout too.
There were plenty of deserving candidates this year - district champions, leaders of state qualifiers and overseers of record-breaking performances and guys who, despite expectations always being through the roof, always seem to represent Warren County in a way that the fans and former athletes would want.
These are the five who stood out most.
Jeremy Wilhelm, WCHS track
There were times this spring where it felt like every track meet ended the same way: somebody from Warren County was coming home with a school record.
Sometimes it was Luke Saldana. Sometimes it was Kayden Solomon. Kealey Simpson made it a habit too, as did a few of the relay teams. By the end of the season, it felt like the entire program was rewriting history.
The headliner was obvious: Saldana became the first boys individual state champion in school track and field history, delivering one of the greatest accomplishments Warren County athletics has ever seen.
Wilhelm’s impact on that alone would be enough to get him on this list, but what stood out to me throughout the spring was the depth of success.
The boys and girls teams consistently challenged some of the strongest programs in Tennessee as records fell.
For the second straight year, over 20 athletes qualified for sectionals. And again this year, Wilhelm was able to go unearth some new, amazing performers, showing he has a keen eye for talent and a knack for developing it.
Oh, and did I mention, WE STILL HAVE NO TRACK. Seriously, one of the most successful programs in the school - the one that has produced a state champion in three of the last five years (Beneke in high jump in 2022-23, Saldana this year) doesn’t have meets in Warren County and barely has any way to practice.
Alex Cordova, WCHS soccer
I don't think anybody would've blamed coach Cordova if he spent a little time after the district championship simply soaking it all in.
The Pioneers had just beaten Shelbyville, a program that had dominated the district for years and one that had already beaten Warren County twice during the regular season. The victory delivered a district championship, a home region game and one of the biggest moments the soccer program has enjoyed since a state run in 2001.
What makes the accomplishment even more impressive is that it didn't happen overnight. Cordova has spent years helping build the program, steadily raising expectations and developing players who believed they could compete with anybody in the district. This spring was the payoff.
By season's end, Warren County wasn't hoping it could compete with the best teams - the Pioneers had become one of them. That's a credit to the players, but it's also a credit to the coach who continued to push them forward after early setbacks and had them playing their best soccer when the games mattered most.
Eric Belew, WCHS football
Let’s be honest: In a lot of years Belew’s 6-5 record on the gridiron would’ve easily been enough to win this category. Heck, I’ve seen some years where the football team just winning a game was the top story of the year.
Maybe I just got distracted by the recency of the soccer championship or the allure of the state medals and forgot about the energy and excitement that was buzzing around town last fall when the Belew era kicked off. Homecoming may have been when it hit its height.
There was a tremendous picture floating around - I think Brent Carden may have used it as his background photo on Facebook for a while - of the whole football team, all the cheerleaders and Pioneerettes, much of the students and I think a lot of the band in the bleachers after Warren County knocked off Hixson on homecoming.
And in that moment, Belew - a relative stranger in a town almost predisposed to pick its own native sons as coaches - became THE head football coach of the Pioneers. Sure, he had the title before, but after that night, there was no disputing who would be the leader of the program moving forward.
Belew deserves a ton of credit for navigating the Pioneers through new territory. There were a handful of brand-new opponents mixed in with some old rivals, an almost scary amount of weird endings (I mean how can you forget the lightning delay before fourth down against DeKalb or the lights going out in Woodbury or us almost losing Jeff and Jay in a downpour at Hunter’s Lane) and a return of the Nurseryman’s Bowl.
Belew showed the poise of a veteran in his first year in Warren County. I’m really looking forward to Year 2 of the Belew era.
Josh Harris, WCHS wrestling
Did the Facebook page influence this ranking? Maybe. Look, I know we’re talking a lot about AI lately, but at least Harris used it for the good of the people. The promos he posted in the winter were amazing - top-shelf entertainment that did exactly what he hoped: Get more people noticing WCHS wrestling.
Honestly though, he belongs on here because he’s establishing a level of success in Warren County on the mat that could carry on for years. It’s almost so impressive that I’m worried it’ll get to be its own obstacle because people eventually start taking it for granted.
But let’s bask in it while we can.
The Pioneers finished 20-7 in dual matches, crowned four region champions, advanced seven wrestlers to sectionals and produced another state medalist in Jakoby Odineal. Those accomplishments would've been celebrated as historic not that long ago - and, yes, we celebrated them plenty this year too.
It won’t be long before they feel almost expected because of the standard Harris has established. And he won’t mind - That's what strong programs look like, and Harris deserves a ton of credit for building one.
Phillip King, WCHS baseball
The easiest thing to remember, right now since it’s relatively fresh, about the baseball season is how it ended. The better thing to remember is everything that happened before it.
Warren County opened the season with 12 straight victories, finished 21-10 overall and spent much of the spring looking like one of the best teams in the area. The Pioneers blended experienced veterans with younger contributors and managed to stay competitive from opening day until the final out of the postseason.
And yeah, there’s going to be detractors who say, “what happened in district?” King, undoubtedly, would love different results too, and there’s a really good chance he’s already started putting in all the work he can to rectify the 0-fer next year.
But 12-game winning streaks - against really any level of competition - rarely happen in baseball. It’s a game of failure. Odds are, you’re just going to run into a pitcher you can’t hit or have a night where the gloves seems like they have holes or the bats go cold. Warren County didn’t have that for nearly a month.
King has built a program where 20-win seasons are no longer surprises - They’re expectations. Sustaining that level of success year after year is one of the hardest things to do in high school sports, and it's a big reason why he rounds out this year's list.
