A coach with two NCAA
Basketball Tournament appearances under his belt will lead the McCallie Blue Tornado
into next season.
Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball
coach John Shulman has accepted an offer to be the next coach for McCallie
School.
Shulman replaces Dan
Wadley, who stepped down from coaching at the end of this past season after 31
years, eight with the Blue Tornado.
He will continue to work and teach at
McCallie.
“I am excited about this
opportunity,” Shulman said. “It is a perfect fit for me. I want to help these
young men achieve their dreams and goals. That is what this is all about,
getting them to reach their fullest potential and be the best that they can be
in life. If we can do that, we will have a successful program.”
McCallie athletic director Bubba
Simmons felt Shulman was an obvious and deserving candidate.
“We had known about
Coach Wadley’s plans to step down since late fall, which gave us plenty of time
to quietly consider our options,” Simmons said. “It was clear from the first
conversations that both sides were equally interested and enthusiastic about
the possibility. Coach Shulman will inherit a young team with real potential,
and we look forward to him serving as a great leader and coach for us.”
In addition to his
duties as head basketball coach, Shulman will serve as Director of Community
Outreach for the school. According to Associate Headmaster Kenny Sholl,
Shulman’s responsibilities in this role will be to oversee the development of,
and to manage the future activities within and around, McCallie’s new Ridgedale
Outreach Center located on the southernmost portion of the campus.
“This new outreach
center has the potential to open new doors for our community service program
and our students, and we also hope to make it available to outside groups and
organizations for meetings and smaller events,” Sholl said.
“My job will be to reach out and
make sure that McCallie is part of our community,” stated Shulman. “It always has
been, but we will be a bigger factor in the Chattanooga community at large. Our
students will become more involved in volunteering roles, and local
organizations will be able to benefit from the school’s resources and
facilities.”
Shulman has more than 25
years of coaching experience, including nine as head coach at Chattanooga. He
led the Mocs to Southern Conference Tournament Championships and NCAA
Tournament berths in 2005 and 2009. His signature win was a 69-68 victory at
Tennessee in 2004.
Before his head-coaching
stint, he held assistant coaching spots at UTC, Tennessee Tech, East Tennessee
State and Wofford College. He was part of a staff at Tennessee Tech that won
back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles, and he helped guide ETSU
to consecutive SoCon Championships and NCAA Tournament trips.
A native of Johnson
City, Shulman has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from ETSU. He is married to
the former Amy Engle of Erwin, Tenn., and the couple has three sons – Max
(McCallie 9th grade), Tanner (McCallie 7th grade) and
John Carter (second grade).