Satterfield named to
coaching hall of fame
 A
former longtime football coach at Greenback who got his
start in Lenoir City has been named to the Tennessee
Football Coaching Association Hall of Fame.
Bill
Satterfield, who has 40 years of coaching experience,
coached at Greenback for 23 years and was head coach for 20.
His team went 15-0 in 1987 and won the state championship.
He
started coaching as a middle school basketball and football
coach in Lenoir City in 1973, and was back at Lenoir City
High School a few years ago helping the current coach, Jeff
Cortez, as a receivers coach.
In between,
Satterfield coached at other schools, worked as a basketball
coach, athletic director and assistant principal and started
a football program at a private school.
His recent
announcement as one of five going into the Tennessee
Football Coaching Association Hall of Fame Class of 2020
came as a surprise.
“After coaching
this long, it’s never something I really thought about,”
Satterfield said. “It’s a pleasant surprise.”
The five
coaches who are members of this year’s class are
Satterfield, Eddie Courtney of Farragut, Red Roberts of
Franklin County, Don Stewart of Marion County and Eddie
“Jelly” Watson of Cookeville.
The group will
be honored during a Hall of Fame breakfast and induction
ceremony Dec. 4 at Ridgedale Baptist Church in
Chattanooga.
A
tenured coaching career
Satterfield left Lenoir City in 1977 and went to Vonore
High School. There, he was football coach and head boys
basketball coach. He stayed until 1982, when he went to
Greenback to be an assistant coach on the football team.
Three years later he was given the nod as head coach and
remained for a 20-year run until 2005.
Satterfield also
served as head boys basketball coach and athletic
director for several years.
The Cherokees went
undefeated with a 15-0 record in 1987, the year they won
the state championship. At the time, there were just
three football classifications and no separation between
public and private schools.
Greenback had to
play teams like Catholic, Webb and South Pittsburg.
Satterfield said
in his 20 years as coach, Greenback only missed the
post-season twice, and one of those years they played a
bowl game against Rockwood.
“The rest of the
time we were in the playoffs,” he said.
Now a Loudon
County commissioner, Satterfield left Greenback in 2005
and coached private schools for three years. He started
the football program at Grace Christian Academy, where
he stayed two years, and then he served as athletic
director and boys basketball coach at Knoxville
Christian School for one year. He then went to Monroe
County as an athletic director and football coach at
Sequoyah High School where he stayed for seven years
until 2015.
Before he
arrived at Sequoyah, a larger Class 4A school, the
football team had been winning just two games a
year, Satterfield said.
“We were able
to turn them around,” he said. “It was definitely a
challenge.”
Sequoyah
boasted four straight playoff appearances and four
winning seasons, Satterfield said.
Former player
Teddy Jones, who played at Greenback from 1987-91,
believes Satterfield helped contribute to
Greenback’s second state championship in 2017.
Jones started
a youth football league in 1998 in Greenback but
didn’t have a field or equipment. Satterfield helped
the league get equipment and establish a line of
credit and allowed the league to use the football
field and concession stand when necessary, Jones
said. Players from the youth football league would
go on to win the state championship in 2017.
“He’s just
always been a great man,” Jones said. “He was like a
second father to all of us. They don’t make coaches
like him anymore. He didn’t just coach the good
players. He coached everybody. He treated everybody
like he loved them, not just like they were a
number. He’s helped me many times throughout my
life. He was just always there.”
In high
school, Jones played a variety of positions for
Satterfield at Greenback, including tailback,
quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, safety and
punter.
Cortez said
Satterfield has done a great job coaching for
various schools. He first met the longtime coach in
2011 when the Panthers played Sequoyah.
Sattterfield
was gracious, positive, always had something
uplifting to share with the players and helped the
athletes become better people, Cortez said.
“It was
just a lot of fun to coach with him,” Cortez
said. “We were blessed to have him. ... We
benefited greatly from that experience and I
did, too.”
Always
wanted to be a coachSatterfield played high
school football at Lanier in Blount County,
which is now part of William Blount High School.
He played right and left guard on offense and
nose guard on defense.
He said he
has coached all positions but especially likes
working with running backs on offense and
linebackers on defense.
Satterfield went to college to be a teacher and
received an associate degree at Hiwassee
College, a bachelor’s at University of
Tennessee, a master’s at Lincoln Memorial
University and education specialist postgraduate
degree in administration and supervision at
Tennessee Tech.
Ultimately, coaching “is something that I always
felt like I wanted to do,” he said.
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