Tracking TSSAA football coaching changes after 2025 season in Nashville area
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The 2025 TSSAA football playoffs are complete with the conclusion of the BlueCross Bowl state championships.
We’re tracking coaching changes from the Nashville area following the Tennessee high school football season.
Here is our running list of changes in 2025-26.
Centennial
Former coach: Jay Graham
Graham was fired after an October arrest. The former Tennessee football running back was in his first season. The Cougars went 2-4 with Graham as coach; they had a 5-2 record after his departure, and won five straight games under interim coach Taylor Burks to reach the Class 5A state semifinals.
New coach: Centennial is in the search process.
DeKalb County
Former coach: Steve Trapp
Trapp resigned following his 21st season as the DeKalb coach. He finished with a record of 115-116 and is the second-longest tenured football coach in school history behind Wayne Cantrell (28 seasons).
Trapp led the program from an 0-10 record in his first season to a consistent playoff team. He engineered 12 winning seasons and 15 postseason appearances, including the school’s first playoff berth in 2008. He led the school to the Class 4A state quarterfinals in 2019 and won the program’s first region title in 2020. The Tigers went 10-2 in 2012 and reached the Class 4A second round.
New coach: Michael Shaw
Shaw takes over after serving as DeKalb’s defensive coordinator. He played for the Tigers from 1996-99. The 1999 team (6-4) is remembered for breaking the program's eight-year streak without a winning season.
Shaw played at Cumberland University. He left football briefly before working under Trapp as a defensive line and wide receivers coach in 2010, then as defensive coordinator in 2013. Shaw was co-defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator for the next three seasons at Lebanon under Chuck Gentry, before returning to DeKalb as an assistant.
Greenbrier
Former coach: John Elmore
Elmore, a 1985 Greenbrier graduate, went 34-66 with two playoff appearances in 10 seasons with the Bobcats. Greenbrier went 7-4 under Elmore in 2017. He is retiring from teaching in May.
New coach: Greenbrier is in the search process.
Sycamore
Former coach: John Harrison
Harrison resigned in December, finishing 20-35 overall in five seasons. Harrison, who was hired in 2021 after working as a Springfield assistant, led the program from an 0-9 record his first season to back-to-back winning seasons in 2024 and 2025. The War Eagles went 7-5 in 2025, reaching the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.
New coach: Sycamore is in the search process.
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, @tpalmateer83.
He also contributes to The Tennessean's high school sports newsletter, The Bootleg. Subscribe to The Bootleg here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football caching change tracker for 2025-26 season in Nashville
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