PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. – Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones delivered Friday night's keynote speech at the 2015 Carson-Newman Championship Coaching Clinic in nearby Pigeon Forge, Tenn. at Music Road Hotel.
Jones's speech featured the Carson-Newman 2014 football motto of "Faith, Family and Football." He spoke of his involvement of each of his coaches' families' lives in Knoxville and the way each family is impacted by the football culture. The crowd that scattered the Music Road Hotel's Convention Center composed of high school coaches.
And the coaches' wives.
"It's all about 'Faith, family and football' and this will actually be the first clinic my wife Barb has ever been to, so I think it will be an eye-opening experience for her in terms of the football aspect of it, but an opportunity, it is every unique to not only involve football coaches, but their wives as well and what goes into the game," Jones said. "We have three boys, but really, we are raising 105 young men and so, the role the wife plays in this profession, they have to kind of be the caretaker of your family, your immediate family, while you raise other people's children and so much that goes into it, the sacrifices, the many of them, that families make to be in this profession."
Before the Vols' participated and won the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl, Carson-Newman coach Ken Sparks went to a few of the team's practices in Knoxville and spoke with the team. From there, the respect and mutual admiration between the two coaches grew and that led to Jones's participation in the clinic.
"He came and spent some time with us during our bowl preparations and you know we formed a relationship and I have the upmost respect for him as a coach, as a human being and what he means to the coaching profession, so to be a part of this coaching clinic when he asked was something special," Jones said.
Jones will enter his third season at the helm of the Tennessee program in 2015 and nine in his career, while Sparks will be coaching his 36th edition of the Carson-Newman Eagles. The 325 wins are more than Pop Warner of Paul "Bear" Bryant. Jones notes that while Sparks has tallied so many games on the field, it is Sparks's relationship with Christ that has helped him win the game of life.
"It's an honor and a privilege to be here and Coach Sparks is a friend of mine and to be able to come back and give back to our profession. He is very special. He's earned everything that he has received and obviously he is a winner. Not only is he a winner in football, he is a winner in the game of life. Every chance I get a chance to talk to him, I'm trying to take notes and really pick his brain on everything because he is one of those individuals that is very, very special. Ken Sparks don't come around very often."
