District 3-AAA volleyball realigned

June 25, 2025 by Ken Lay

The TSSAA will begin a new classification this fall, giving District 3-AAA volleyball a major offseason makeover — and raising the stakes in some familiar rivalries.

The restructured district now includes Anderson County, Clinton, Oak Ridge, Halls, Powell, Gibbs, Knox Central and Campbell County.

Each team will face the others twice in the regular season, and Anderson County will host the district tournament.

Anderson County and Gibbs both move up to Class AAA after reaching the Class AA state tournament in 2024.

Clinton is the two-time defending District 3-AAA tournament champion.

As part of the reclassification, longtime member Karns moved to District 4-AAA, while Heritage joined District 2-AAA and Region 1-AAA.

“Anderson County will be in our district this year, and that’s going to be different,” Clinton Coach Lorri Johnson said. “They brought Gibbs in, too. Karns moved over, Heritage moved up there with the Morristown schools, and Oak Ridge is still with us.

“It should be good. Halls and Powell have young coaches who are doing good things with their programs.”

Oak Ridge also enters the season under new leadership, as Meghan Ellis takes the reins of the Lady Wildcats.

A 2003 Oak Ridge High School graduate, Ellis played under longtime Coach Marcia Wade and current Anderson County Coach Jayme Smith.

She previously coached basketball and volleyball at Clinton and was an assistant under Johnson.

“Lorri has done a great job over there, and she’s a great coach,” Ellis said.

“I was with her during her first two years, and I learned more about coaching than I ever thought I could,” she said.

“My first year, I played for Coach Wade, and then I played for Coach Smith for the last three years.

“Between those two and working with Lorri, I learned a lot about coaching,” Ellis said.

Smith said the heightened significance of facing Clinton and Oak Ridge doesn’t change the competitive nature, it just raises the stakes.

“Those are teams we play anyway,” she said.

“I hope we get to see them in the district tournament because that means we’ve moved on,” Smith said.

“We’re friends; we’ve known Lorri and Junior (Johnson) for a long time, and they’ve done a great job with Clinton,” she said.

“Oak Ridge has a new coach who played for me, and they have an assistant who did, too. We’ve spread out — our people are all over the county.”