April 6, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County High School has a new boys basketball coach.
John Sanders has been hired to succeed Lynus Martin, who recently resigned after serving sixteen years as head coach of the Tiger Basketball program.
A native of Smith County, Coach Sanders comes to DeKalb County after having served as an assistant boys basketball coach at Murfreesboro Oakland High School. He and his wife Kristen Oldham Sanders reside in Carthage. He is also expected to teach physical education at DCHS.
Principal Randy Jennings said Coach Sanders seemed to standout among the 35-40 applicants for the job. “There was a lot of interest in the job but John just kept coming back to the top for us. He has coached at the junior high and high school level and has had success. He went to Oakland this past year as an assistant to learn and grow as a coach. He just checked a lot of those boxes we were looking for but more importantly he is a guy of very high character. He came highly recommended from everybody I talked to. They had nothing but great things to say about him. When he was at Smith County his players were really involved in the community. They would serve food to families during the holidays and participated in Operation Christmas Child. He would take his players to junior high basketball games to the feeder programs and things like that and really that is the type of guy we were looking for. We wanted somebody who was more than just a good basketball coach. We wanted a good role model for our young men,” said Principal Jennings.
Coach Sanders met with his team for the first time Friday morning. “The meeting went really well. I was impressed with how respectful the guys were. I was very excited and pleased to meet them and I am ready to get going,” he said.
“My vision for this program is to compete every night and to carry on the success and tradition that Coach Martin helped establish here and Coach Danny Bond before him. Those are the two coaches I know. They both did excellent jobs. Coach Martin is a friend of mine. I think he did a great job and left the program in great shape. My goal is to continue on and build on the success he left us,” said Coach Sanders.
“I like to play fast and get up and down the floor and get in a lot of possessions but you always have to tailor your game plan and the way you play to your personnel. If you have a bigger team you might play a little bit slower. We’ll see once I get to start working with the guys and see what we have and then we’ll do the best we can from there,” Coach Sanders continued.
After graduating from Smith County High School in 2005, Sanders furthered his education at Tennessee Tech where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in 2009 in Exercise Science, Physical Education and Wellness. In 2015, Sanders earned his Master’s Degree in Sport Management.
As for his coaching career, Sanders has served as assistant coach at Gordonsville Junior High School. Gordonsville High School, Smith County High School, Trousdale County High School, and at Murfreesboro Oakland High School.
His head coaching stints have been at Jim Satterfield Middle School at Hartsville from 2010-12, Smith County Middle School from 2012-14, and Smith County High School from 2014-17.
Coach Sanders has also spent many summers working individual basketball camps at Duke University under Coach Mike Kryzewski.
Among his coaching highlights, in 2013-14 Coach Sanders’ Smith County Middle School team went 34-1 and won the James C. Haile AA State Tournament in Murfreesboro and finished in the final 4 in the T-N-T State Tournament in Springfield.
In 2015-16, his Smith County High School team finished 22-11 and were the District 8AA regular season champions and advanced to the semi-finals of the Region 4AA tournament. He was named District 8AA Coach of the Year in 2015-16.
Coach Sanders’ teams made the region semi-finals in 2 of the 3 years he served as head coach at Smith County High School.