- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,269,648
- Reaction score
- 59
David Pack hasn’t just missed coaching, he’s missed the little things.
He never stopped thinking about them in 14 years away from Tennessee high school football. He spent most of his Friday nights during that span as a spectator. Some Fridays he’d attend two games.
This fall, he'll finally have his own team again.
Pack, who delivered CPA’s first two TSSAA football state championships in the early 2000s, was introduced as Franklin Christian Academy’s new coach in a Feb. 25 team meeting.
Several years ago, Pack was at the Opry Hotel with family when a Prevost charter bus caught his eye, reminding him of coaching road games.
More: How Lady Vols icon Pat Summitt still inspires her great niece, a young basketball star
More: Overhaul TSSAA basketball state tournament? Nashville coaches talk playoffs
“The door was open, so I walked around to the side and smelled the inside of the bus,” Pack said. “I stepped up on the steps, and I always sat in the same seat, so I eyeballed that seat. I didn’t go in there … but the smell of that diesel fuel, the smell of that bus. I stepped back and imagined 45 guys walking out of the door with pea coats and travel bags to go to a semifinal game somewhere in some foreign county. I was like, ‘Gah, how good would that be?’”
Pack, 63, set the stage for CPA’s modern football success with his Class 1A state champion teams in 2000 and 2002. He also led Ensworth girls basketball to its first state title in 2008 and spent four years as FRA’s football coach and assistant to the head of school.
Pack hasn’t coached or taught in 14 years since resigning from FRA following his 2012 arrest on a misdemeanor charge of patronizing prostitution during a Metro sting operation. Charges against Pack were later dismissed and expunged from his record.
“We are getting the best version of David Pack,” FCA athletic director Darrin Joines said in a release. “His is a story of grace and redemption, a story that we are excited to be part of at FCA.”
Pack was emotional explaining what the FCA opportunity means to him. He went into local business management after leaving football in 2012 and will continue those ventures during his time at FCA.
“The last 14 years, and the 49 years preceding it, all the great things have come out of the unseen,” Pack said. “It's been the mystery in the unknowns and the pursuit of — what's to come that you can't see?”
FCA, a small Division II-A school of 201 students, went 6-5 in its first TSSAA football season last fall just two years removed from playing eight-man football. Falcons coach KJ Jorgensen resigned in February.
The situation is similar to Pack’s start-up job at CPA, where the Lions played games at a public park and practiced in a space adjacent to a retention pond. He went 77-28 in eight seasons there.
Pack joked that his football is "current." He hasn't been completely detached from the sport.
“In some scenarios, you’re inheriting a lot and standing on the shoulders of giants who preceded you. I’ll be coaching the giants here, whose shoulders the future FCA teams will stand on,” Pack said. “And I can’t wait, really.”
Pack went 23-22 in four seasons as FRA’s football coach from (2008-11). Also during his career, he spent five seasons as an Ensworth football assistant while coaching the Tigers’ girls basketball team. He also was a football assistant and girls basketball coach at Brentwood Academy.
“His profound ability as a coach is unmistakable,” FCA Head of School Noah Brink said, “and I have every confidence that all of our programs will see greater success because of his influence.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football championship coach David Pack hired at FCA
Continue reading...
He never stopped thinking about them in 14 years away from Tennessee high school football. He spent most of his Friday nights during that span as a spectator. Some Fridays he’d attend two games.
This fall, he'll finally have his own team again.
Pack, who delivered CPA’s first two TSSAA football state championships in the early 2000s, was introduced as Franklin Christian Academy’s new coach in a Feb. 25 team meeting.
Several years ago, Pack was at the Opry Hotel with family when a Prevost charter bus caught his eye, reminding him of coaching road games.
More: How Lady Vols icon Pat Summitt still inspires her great niece, a young basketball star
More: Overhaul TSSAA basketball state tournament? Nashville coaches talk playoffs
“The door was open, so I walked around to the side and smelled the inside of the bus,” Pack said. “I stepped up on the steps, and I always sat in the same seat, so I eyeballed that seat. I didn’t go in there … but the smell of that diesel fuel, the smell of that bus. I stepped back and imagined 45 guys walking out of the door with pea coats and travel bags to go to a semifinal game somewhere in some foreign county. I was like, ‘Gah, how good would that be?’”
Pack, 63, set the stage for CPA’s modern football success with his Class 1A state champion teams in 2000 and 2002. He also led Ensworth girls basketball to its first state title in 2008 and spent four years as FRA’s football coach and assistant to the head of school.
Pack hasn’t coached or taught in 14 years since resigning from FRA following his 2012 arrest on a misdemeanor charge of patronizing prostitution during a Metro sting operation. Charges against Pack were later dismissed and expunged from his record.
“We are getting the best version of David Pack,” FCA athletic director Darrin Joines said in a release. “His is a story of grace and redemption, a story that we are excited to be part of at FCA.”
Pack was emotional explaining what the FCA opportunity means to him. He went into local business management after leaving football in 2012 and will continue those ventures during his time at FCA.
“The last 14 years, and the 49 years preceding it, all the great things have come out of the unseen,” Pack said. “It's been the mystery in the unknowns and the pursuit of — what's to come that you can't see?”
FCA, a small Division II-A school of 201 students, went 6-5 in its first TSSAA football season last fall just two years removed from playing eight-man football. Falcons coach KJ Jorgensen resigned in February.
The situation is similar to Pack’s start-up job at CPA, where the Lions played games at a public park and practiced in a space adjacent to a retention pond. He went 77-28 in eight seasons there.
Pack joked that his football is "current." He hasn't been completely detached from the sport.
“In some scenarios, you’re inheriting a lot and standing on the shoulders of giants who preceded you. I’ll be coaching the giants here, whose shoulders the future FCA teams will stand on,” Pack said. “And I can’t wait, really.”
Pack went 23-22 in four seasons as FRA’s football coach from (2008-11). Also during his career, he spent five seasons as an Ensworth football assistant while coaching the Tigers’ girls basketball team. He also was a football assistant and girls basketball coach at Brentwood Academy.
“His profound ability as a coach is unmistakable,” FCA Head of School Noah Brink said, “and I have every confidence that all of our programs will see greater success because of his influence.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football championship coach David Pack hired at FCA
Continue reading...
