Underwood to lead Lady Wildcats soccer
TRENNA UNDERWOOD (photo:ORHS Sports Media )
Trenna Underwood has been tapped to replace Donnie Green as the Oak Ridge coach.
\ Green coached the Lady Wildcats for the last four seasons. Underwood served as his assistant,
Together, Green, who is now the coach at Roane State Community College, and Underwood began the process of restoring the Lady Wildcats’ program back to its past glory.
Oak Ridge made a return to the Region 2-AAA Tournament in 2023, before falling to eventual state champion Bearden in the tournament semifinals.
Underwood said the decision to become head coach at Oak Ridge was easy. In addition to serving as Green’s assistant, she has also coached club soccer.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Underwood said. “If it wasn’t at Oak Ridge, I wouldn’t be coaching in high school.
“It was great working with Donnie, and he began to bring Oak Ridge back.”
For Underwood, the quest to restore the Lady Wildcats back to their past glory is personal. She graduated from ORHS in 2008 and played soccer for longtime Coach O.J. Sheppard.
“I went to Oak Ridge and ... I played soccer,” she said. “When I played, we went to the state tournament every year.”
After high school, Underwood played collegiately at Carson-Newman University.
But Oak Ridge has always been special for her, she said.
“Oak Ridge is a great place and a special place,” she said. “We have one high school, and the kids all play there and you have great support from the community for all the sports.
“I’m very excited just to be back. It’s going to be a new addition of girls soccer at Oak Ridge, a new beginning.”
Upon taking the job, she went to work right away in preparation for the coming 2024 campaign.
“Our school calendar at Oak Ridge is a little different, and so we’ve worked a little and we’ve had 90 percent turnout for our preseason workouts,” she said. “These girls have a great work ethic.”
Over the next two weeks, all high school teams and athletes are under the annual TSSAA-mandated dead period.
Teams can resume workouts on July 8, and Oak Ridge City Schools begins the school year in late July, so the Lady Wildcats will begin preparing for the 2024 campaign.
Underwood and her husband, Marcus, will take some family time over the next several days.
Marcus Underwood played football for the Wildcats and for Carson-Newman.
The couple has four children. Marcus Jr. is 12, Taylor is 8, Millie is 4 and Tatum is 2.
“We’re a sports family and we’re Vols fans, so our whole life revolves around sports,” she said. “Our two older kids are playing at Soccer Club of Oak Ridge.
“It’s football and soccer first, but we like all the sports, and we’re Vols fans,” she said. “We’re going to an MLS game in Nashville soon.