Kell to North Murray

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(Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen) North Murray’s football team will have several new faces on the sidelines this fall when the Mountaineers hit the field on Friday nights. Coach Larry Cornelius recently added former Southeast Whitfield head coach and University of Tennessee football legend Chip Kell to his staff as the defensive coordinator.

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July 18, 2011

Hall of Famer joins Mountaineer staff

By Chris Whitfield chriswhitfield@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Mon Jul 18, 2011, 10:33 PM EDT

When he was the football coach at Southeast Whitfield, Chip Kell had a lot of respect for the coaches and administration in Murray County. When he retired from Whitfield County Schools after the 2009-10 school year, he started doing some subbing in Murray County while serving as an assistant football coach at Gordon Central.

So when he was approached this past spring about the possibility of joining the staff at North Murray, that respect from years ago — along with a very favorable impression of the county’s newest school — made the decision an easy one.

“(Athletic director) Roger Rainey called me and asked if I wanted to coach over there,” said Kell, a former two-time All-American at the University of Tennessee and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. “I went over and watched the spring game and toured the school and it looked like a great situation. I was very impressed with the school. It is state of the art. The facilities and the weight room and the stadium are all top notch. It is very impressive.”

Kell will be one of three new additions to coach Larry Cornelius’ staff this fall. A coaching veteran since his professional football career ended in 1973, the 62-year-old Kell will definitely be the old-school blood of the new coaches. Also joining the Mountaineers as community coaches are Dalton State College seniors Patton Hunt and Zach Poole and first-year coach David Redmond. Hunt and Poole — both Northwest Whitfield graduates — will be doing their student teaching at North Murray in the fall, while Redmond was teaching at Murray County’s Mountain Creek Academy before taking his first coaching position.

Kell will step in as the team’s defensive coordinator, Redmond will coach varsity wide receivers and Hunt and Poole will work with the junior varsity.

A three-time All-SEC guard at Tennessee, Kell was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the 1971 NFL draft and ended up playing two seasons with the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos. He started coaching at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1973 and took his first head coaching job at Calhoun High in 1975. He also coached for two seasons at Union County in the mid-1990s before leading Southeast from 2001-05, where he compiled an 8-42 record with the Raiders.

But outside of those two years at Union County in Northeast Georgia, Kell has called this area home for the past 28 years. To be able to keep coaching close to home was important, and his love of coaching is still very strong.

“I never thought I would be here this long, but I love the community,” he said. “I have lived here longer than anywhere else. It is comfortable to have gone through the wars and have some people recognize that you still have plenty to offer. They saw where my experience could help. I feel like I can help, and I see the value in the experience that I have.”

Cornelius saw that value as well.

“He’s been around and has had great success as a player at Tennessee, and he is an old-school coach, and I love that,” Cornelius said. “We are not a flashy team, and he adds to that mentality.”

Cornelius and the rest of his staff are relatively young. Kell will raise the average age of the staff, but it was also part of the appeal for him.

“I was really impressed with coach Cornelius and all of the assistant coaches and it lit a fire under me,” he said. “I want to give back to the sport what I have gotten out of it. It is the reason that I have tried to be involved in helping kids reach their potential and staying involved. I do have a lot of experience, and I would hope that the kids and the younger coaches on the staff would be able to learn from that experience.”

Redmond is a 1993 graduate of Murray County, where he lettered in baseball, basketball and football. After more than a decade working at Carpets of Dalton, Redmond recently entered education and will teach math at the high school. He will also be an assistant baseball coach.

A triathlete who was in an Ironman competition in Florida, Redmond brought that competitive drive to the football field in the spring.

“We have had him since spring practice and when we are out on the field, it is like he has been coaching for 10 years,” Cornelius said. “He is a rookie, but he is a seasoned rookie.”

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