Hennigan Named New Cookeville Football Coach

Story by Rusty Ellis

Photos by Kailee Means

The Cookeville Cavaliers have their football coach, as CHS and Tennessee Tech alumnus Taylor Hennigan was named the Cavs’ new coach this afternoon.

“I’m super excited, this is something we’ve looked at doing for years,” Hennigan said. “Obviously my family played a big role in it, but I’m very excited to be back.”

The hiring comes on the heels of a 1-9 season for the Cavaliers, followed by the retirement of former coach Jimmy Maynord. Hennigan was one of five candidates for the job, and was given the official offer on Wednesday.

As far as what happened on the field, Hennigan is motivated to make that a one-year thing by building the Cavalier program back up.

“I’ve looked at all the film from last year, and the record to me is not indicative of the players we have or the coaches that were here,” Hennigan said. “The ability to get back to consistently challenging and winning playoff games and that type of thing can happen quickly, if the work is done…the investment in our youth and investment in our community is going to be the difference in where we go from there.”

Hennigan spent the past two seasons as the Special Teams Coordinator and Cornerbacks coach at Gardner-Webb under fellow TTU alum Tre Lamb. Before that, he worked as an assistant coach to both Watson Brown and Dwayne Alexander at Tennessee Tech in two different stints.

In his most recent two-year run, he worked with special teams and outside linebackers. Hennigan also served as the defensive coordinator for White County in-between his tenures at Tech.

Hennigan was a three-year starter for the Cavaliers as a quarterback among other positions. He graduated in 2009 and continued his career at Tech from 2010-13. Most notably, he was a member of the 2011 team that won the Ohio Valley Conference Championship.

While with the Golden Eagles, Hennigan played as a wide receiver, safety and long-snapper.

When asked what kind of style of ball he wants to play, Hennigan made it clear that immense physicality will play a big role in the on-field product.

“That’s going to be a big part of it, the mental toughness and the physical toughness,” Hennigan said. “Regardless of our scheme, I know that we are going to play hard…the fundamental things, taking care of the ball, blocking and tackling, the things that win regardless of what you do, schematic-wise, (will be a focus).”

Hennigan doesn’t officially begin work at the school until January, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting ahead and putting together plans for what the offseason will look like for the Cavaliers.

“I’ve got the entire calendar year mapped out,” Hennigan said. “I’ve got monthly mapped out for workouts, community service, academic opportunities and some things we’re going to do there, and spring dates. That all has to be finalized with the school’s schedule, but I’ve absolutely thought ahead to our offseason program, and it’ll be here faster than probably anybody realizes.”

One thing Cookeville has struggled with in recent years has been players moving and transferring to other schools in Putnam County and surrounding counties. For Hennigan, he says creating an environment that kids want to play in and building that program all goes back to investing in both kids at a young age, as well as the community around them.

“My main focus is on our team now, but a huge part of our program and our staff is going to be investing in elementary and middle school kids as well,” Hennigan said. “We’re going to get into the schools. We’re going to have camps, we’re going to have game day visits in the Spring. We’re going to do things to try to incorporate those players with our current program, and hopefully when it’s time for them to make a decision on where to go for high school football, they know all of our coaches and players and how we operate…at the end of the day, you’ve got to win, and you’ve got to produce a program that is successful.”

The road won’t be easy, but Hennigan is excited to get things rolling in 2022.

“Regardless of all those other dreams or aspirations, this has always been something that we’ve talked about,” Hennigan said. “Something we’ve prayed about, that we’ve thought about, so just perfect timing and I think the chance to get our family involved and back around our family was a huge part of that.”

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