Story by Rusty Ellis
When the Clarkrange Buffaloes take the hardwood this season, they’ll be under new leadership.
After the team went 4-22 last season, Jermaine McElvain was hired on to be the new head coach of the Buffaloes, his first gig at the helm of a high school team.
“I was the head coach at Prescott South Middle the last two years,” McElvain said. “I was also an assistant at Cookeville under Josh Heard last season. I heard of the opportunity that came up here and I wanted to apply for it. One of my goals was to be a high school head coach, so I took advantage of it.”
Under Heard at Cookeville, McElvain says he learned a wealth about the game that he hopes to apply to Clarkrange.
“Intensity, energy and a lot of passion,” McElvain said. “He loves the game of basketball, eats, sleeps and breathes it…he’s like a brother to me, so everything that I am, I contribute to him taking me under his wing. His drive as well, he always gets the most out of his players.”
With all of that in mind, the Buffaloes can be expected to work harder than they have in years. That’s one of McElvain’s goals to help turn the program around.
“We’ve set goals and expectations for ourselves,” McElvain said. “We’re going to work hard…we just want to get better. We have five teams in our district, and we’re looking to place no lower than third-place. We know it’s not going to be easy.”
McElvain mentioned wanting to get the most out of his players, and he’ll have three senior starters coming back from last year’s team to lead the way for the team, among other returners.
“Evan Cantrell, Josh Durham and Connor LaRue, they bring a lot of leadership,” McElvain said. “Case Cordell is a junior that’s going to be an awesome spark for us. Sophomore Kris Beaty and freshman Logan Pannell are two young guys that are energetic…we have two other seniors as well in A.J. Mangrum and Xander Reagan.”
The district presents the biggest challenge that McElvain will encounter in his first season in Fentress County, as it has two teams in it that made the state tournament a year ago, including the defending 1A state champions.
“We know we’re in the same district as the defending state champions,” McElvain said. “Rob Edwards does a great job at Clay County, it speaks for itself. I’ve been coaching against Coach Amonett since middle school basketball, he always has his boys ready and playing hard…we’re kind of the underdogs, and we’re perfectly fine with that. We’re perfectly fine with people not expecting a lot out of us, because that makes us want to work harder.”
The Buffaloes tip off their season on Tuesday night when they host Macon County.