After a wide-ranging search for its next head football coach, Soddy-Daisy High School has turned the program over to one of its own. Josh Owensby, who was an offensive assistant for the Trojans last season, has been named the school's new head coach.
Owensby — who was selected over nearly 40 other applicants, including nine who were interviewed — joined the Soddy-Daisy staff after stepping down as the head coach at Hixson High in February of 2023. He takes over for Carter Cardwell, who was let go as head coach in early November after two seasons.
"His charisma, personality and ability to build relationships with the kids in the school and the community was a huge factor for us," said Soddy-Daisy athletic director Jared Hensley. "That's what high school athletics is all about, building relationships and molding young men into adults, and Josh has a keen ability to do that. Kids in general tend to gravitate toward him.
"We had a lot of really good candidates, some from the area and some from out of state, so there was a lot to process. But at the end of the day he checks all the boxes we were looking for. I'm glad we were so intentional in the process because we feel better about our hire and everybody was on the same page on who the right choice was."
Owensby, who becomes the school's 18th head coach, and staff will look to rebuild the Trojans program, which has missed the playoffs each of the past two years and has not finished a season with a winning record since going 6-5 in 2019.
"I'm very excited and anxious to get started," Owensby said. "I remember as a kid at Rhea County coming to their games against Soddy-Daisy and seeing cars backed up to get into the stadium. As a player, this was a tough place to play and always had a great atmosphere. Later on, coaching against Soddy-Daisy through the years, you love that community feel on Friday nights and how much support the program has.
"All of that is what drew me to be here, so now we're going to get to work to get things back to where they need to be."
Owensby took over a Hixson program that had gone a combined 2-27 during the three years before he arrived. He helped the team show steady improvement during his tenure, finishing 5-6 in 2022 to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Prior to coaching at Hixson, he worked as the team's offensive coordinator for three seasons and was the head coach at Bledsoe County for two years before that. His overall record as a head coach is 19-34.
A 2004 graduate of Rhea County, he was an assistant at his alma mater under Jason Fitzgerald for two seasons before becoming an assistant at Bledsoe County in 2009. He returned to Rhea in 2012 as offensive coordinator before taking over the Bledsoe County program for the 2015-16 seasons, reaching the playoffs both years.
"I do feel like I've been able to take programs that had struggled and, with help from our other coaches, worked to make them competitive again," Owensby said. "Soddy-Daisy isn't broke. It's a program with a very proud tradition and it wasn't too long ago that they were winning region championships (in 2019). It can be a quick rebuild once we get things going here. We've just got to get back to being that hard-nosed Soddy-Daisy team that they have had in the past."
Owensby's hiring leaves Meigs County as the only Chattanooga area head football coaching job still open. That opening came last week when Tommy Bunch stepped down to accept an offer to become the new coach at Sweetwater.
Other prep football coaching changes since the season ended include Joel Bradford taking over at McCallie after Ralph Potter stepped down, Signal Mountain naming Mark Mariakis as its new head coach and Whitwell promoting defensive coordinator Owen Kilgore to head coach.
In northwest Georgia, LaFayette is in the process of hiring a head coach to replace Andy Scott.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com
Josh Owensby head shot �