Love named new Lady Hawks head coach
Jason Love’s schedule recently got a little busier.
Love, an assistant coach for the Clinton Middle School boys basketball team, will remain an assistant to Hawks’ head Coach Bobby Williams.
But the self-proclaimed basketball junkie will do double duty on the hardwood at CMS this year as he will be the head coach for the Lady Hawks. He also teaches seventh-grade science at the school.
Love, who is 26, played football and basketball at Knoxville’s Hardin Valley Academy before moving on to play football at Maryville College.
The Lady Hawks have struggled over the past two years on the basketball court, and Love’s first order of business is to change the culture in the girls basketball program.
“Right now, it’s all about being competitive,” he said. “Our boys made it to the sectionals for the first time in eight years.
“We’re going to compete and we’re going to compete hard and we’re going to compete until the end, whether we’re up by 15 (points) or down by 15,” he said.
He said he is already seeing some things pay off. He coached the Lady Hawks this summer, and under his guidance, Clinton played 23 games and came up 11 wins.
“We’ve struggled over the last couple of years around here,” he said. “But this summer, we did a lot better. We were 11-12.
“The No. 1 thing is that we’re going to be competitive until the end,” he said. “And the No. 2 thing is that we have to have discipline, and I’m going to hold girls accountable for their mistakes. And we can never turn the ball over.”
Love has big plans for the Lady Hawks. But he knows that things aren’t going to be easy.
Clinton’s district underwent an expansion, and three teams have joined. And not just any three teams; they are East Tennessee powers.
They include defending state champion Sevier County Junior High School, as well as Maryville and Seymour.
“Our district got bigger,” Love said. “Those are all good teams, but they’re all going to have to work a lot harder to get wins against us this year.”
Outside of middle school basketball, Love (who played high school football for Wes Jones and high school basketball for Keith Galloway at Hardin Valley), is a family man.
“I’m married to my beautiful wife, Maria,” Love said. “My parents are here and my sister plays basketball at Hardin Valley.”
Sports are his passion.
“I’m all about sports and I’m all about the Vols,” Love said. “We just finished watching the Vols (baseball team) win the national championship. We’re Hawks for life, and I just finished my last class and I got my master’s degree from UT, so I’m a Vol for Life.”
He’s also a New England Patriots football fan, and his NBA loyalties lie with the San Antonio Spurs.
“Football was my first love,” he said. “But people told me that I have a good basketball IQ, and as a point guard, I see the floor well, so I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos about different defenses and different zones.”
Love is happy to have a life in basketball and he’s glad to be in Clinton.
“I just want to serve the community in Clinton,” he said. “The community has been welcoming and good to me.”