Best Boys Teams - 2025-26
You know the story by now. When I sat down to put together this list, I kept coming back to the same question I’ve used throughout the Superlatives series: If somebody opens a Warren County sports time capsule in 2050, which teams are they going to remember first?
Yes, you can lean on championships, lofty win totals or judge teams based on whether they met (or didn’t meet) expectations, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut and think about who stood out the most.
We had champions, teams that excelled despite the odds, trendsetters and much more for the Pioneers in 2025-26. Here are the five teams I think did the most to move the needle last year:
WCHS boys soccer
If there was a team that perfectly embodied peaking at the right time, it was the Pioneers.
Warren County entered the postseason knowing it would likely have to go through Shelbyville to accomplish its goals. The problem was the Golden Eagles had already beaten the Pioneers twice during the regular season and had built a reputation as the standard in District 9-AAA.
None of that mattered when the championship was on the line.
The Pioneers stunned Shelbyville 4-2 on the road to capture the district title, turning one of the biggest accomplishments in recent program history into a reality. And though it probably felt supremely petty in the moment, part of the Warren County squad had to relish seeing that Shelbyville scoreboard go blank about two seconds after the clock hit zero.
Winning a championship was nice. Having your rival try to erase its memory instantaneously is priceless.
Warren County got outstanding seasons from Kaito Takahashi, Erik Hernandez, Gabriel Cordova, Turner Griffith and a host of others who helped transform the team into one of the area’s best by season’s end. Their coach, Alex Cordova, walked away with District Coach of the Year honors too.
District championships don’t come around every day and, when it comes to soccer, they may not come around but once in a generation.
The 2026-27 Pioneers may change that because there’s plenty of talent coming back to make another run, but for now, I think they’ve earned the right to bask in their success.
WCHS football
No team changed the conversation around its program more than the Pioneers.
When Eric Belew arrived, he inherited a program that had produced just one winning season in the previous 35 years and was carrying a losing streak that hit 20 games by opening night.
By the time his first season ended, Warren County had doubled the number of winning seasons in the lifetimes of every player on the roster - and Belew too, for that matter.
The victories mattered, but so did the way they happened.
There could’ve been panic when the Pioneers lost to DeKalb County in a bizarre lightning-delayed opener, then got rolled in the second half against Livingston Academy the following week.
Instead, Warren County weathered the storm - quite literally - to beat Hunter’s Lane and start a stretch where the Pioneers won six of their final nine games.
Behind senior leaders like Xavier Simmons, Isaiah Robledo, Raul Manus and Brady Swallows, Warren County developed an identity that had been missing for far too long. They played hard, they hit hard and they celebrated hard when they won. It wasn’t exactly Varsity Blues, but the crowds that packed Nunley Stadium for Homecoming and Senior Night certainly appreciated what they were seeing.
To cap it all off, the Pioneers resurrected the Nurseryman’s Bowl and absolutely smashed Community while Robledo and Swallows rode off into the sunset as record breakers.
There are big shoes to fill in 2026, but for the first time in a long time, Pioneer football feels like it’s building momentum instead of chasing it.
WCHS wrestling
Success has become so common in Warren County wrestling that it’s easy to overlook just how impressive this season really was.
The Pioneers went 20-7 in dual matches, crowned four region champions, advanced seven wrestlers to sectionals and produced another state medalist in Jakoby Odineal. Along the way, both Odineal and Xavier Simmons joined the program’s 100-win club and several younger wrestlers gained valuable postseason experience.
All of that happened after the Pioneers entered the season having to replace Zerek Keel, the program’s all-time wins leader.
The region dual against Blackman may be the ultimate sign of where Warren County wrestling has ascended under coach Josh Harris. The Pioneers battled one of the best programs in Tennessee to a 35-35 tie before ultimately losing on criteria.
That result hurt, but it also revealed something important. The Pioneers aren’t chasing the state’s elite anymore - They’re one of them.
WCHS track and field
Luke Saldana won a state championship in shot put and was in contention for a podium finish in discus too.
That accomplishment alone could carry a team to a pretty lofty ranking.
But this team wasn’t just about Saldana doing things we’ve never seen before in Knoxville.
Saldana was great and set records, but so did his teammates.
Kayden Solomon now holds two individual school records and is part of a record-breaking relay team too. Meet after meet, the Pioneers found new ways to make headlines, whether it was another school record, another postseason qualifier or another standout relay performance. By season’s end, coach Jeremy Wilhelm had overseen one of the most successful years in program history.
And let me repeat myself one more time so everybody remembers it.
THEY ARE DOING THIS WITHOUT A TRACK IN WARREN COUNTY.
Bold it. Underline it. Highlight it. Share it. Circle it.
I don’t care.
Just make sure anybody connected to sports understands it is beyond time that one of the most successful athletic programs of this decade has a home.
WCHS boys basketball
The state-or-bust mantra that followed this team from the moment it hit media day last November may have put a damper on things in February when Warren County didn’t make it out of the district tournament, but I still think there are plenty of people — some who have already let me hear about it — who believe this team and its coach were instrumental in keeping Warren County on the map this winter.
And I can see why.
The Pioneers finished 19-10, won the Smoky Mountain Christmas Classic and featured three future college players in Keyton Reno, Devin Fish and Corban Felton.
Reno capped his career as a District MVP before signing with Motlow State. Fish became the first BCAT All-Star selection of Danny Fish’s coaching tenure before signing with LaGrange College. Felton added another college signee to a roster loaded with experience and leadership.
Joined by Deashawn Adams, Chance Whitlock, Isaiah Robledo and Carter Simpson, this senior class resonated with fans like few others before them at the Dalt. They played hard, won a bunch of games and continued to make sure opponents understood one thing.
If you saw a Pioneer uniform, you better bring your lunch pail.
Because if you wanted to beat the Pioneers, you were going to have to outwork them.
And few teams have managed to do that recently.
As much as everybody loves Nunley Stadium, sometimes it feels like this town truly finds its sporting heartbeat when the Dalt is rocking.
The Pioneers rocked it plenty this winter.
