Intertwined roots prevalent in local HS wrestling rivalry
By Ken Lay
The Thanksgiving season is a time for families and friends to reunite. And the wrestling mat served as a reunion spot early last week.
Halls and Powell renewed acquaintances Tuesday afternoon and re-kindled the Emory Road rivalry in an in-school wrestling dual meet at the Jeff Hunter Gymnasium.
Although the rivalry is sometimes heated and divides part of North Knox County, the Halls and Powell wrestling programs are intertwined and they have been for years. Powell coach Caleb Leonard was a state champion for the Red Devils during his high school days.
His coach was Shannon Sayne, who was also a state champion at Halls as a grappler. He’s also a won a dual meet state championship and a traditional state champion as a coach in 2023.
When called upon, Sayne was more than happy to schedule an in-school dual with his former athlete.
“I think Caleb has done a great job over here building his program,” Sayne said after the Red Devils defeated the Panthers, 51-24, before a crowd comprised largely of Powell High Students, faculty and staff. “This was an opportunity for Caleb to help his program and it also was a chance to expose people to the sport who haven’t been exposed to it.
“This was a great recruiting tool for Caleb and we were happy that we were able to come over here and be a part of it.”
Powell and Halls have seen their programs go down different roads over the years. By the time Sayne was named head coach, the Red Devils already had a well-established tradition. And one man, Chris Vandergriff was the central figure in the Halls High wrestling narrative.
Vandergriff was a heavyweight state champion for the Red Devils, and after wrestling for the University of Tennessee, he returned to coach. Together, he and one-time assistant Tim Pittman (who has built Gibbs into a powerhouse program after building the program from scratch in the early 2000s), mentored Sayne at Halls.
Vandergriff coached his son, John, another heavyweight champion, at Halls before retiring after John’s senior season.
Chris Vandergriff remains one of the state’s best ambassadors for the sport of wrestling. If not for him, several schools in Knox County, including Powell, may not field teams. Since his retirement, he’s continued to help the area’s programs and is always just a phone call away for coaches looking for help.
“As strange as it sounds, Shannon and Coach V, they’ve both been a big help for Powell wrestling,” said Leonard, who was named Powell head coach four years ago. “I was an assistant there for four years.
“Shannon was my coach there and Coach V, anytime I need anything from him, all I have to do is pick up the phone.”
John Vandergriff was also once an assistant under Sayne and his primary responsibility was coaching Leonard late in his high school career
The Vandergriffs, Sayne and Leonard are state champions from Halls. Powell’s wrestling history is more erratic. The Panthers have had periods of success under former head coaches Larry Neely, Jimmy Parton and Rusty Partin.
But those days were in the rear-view mirror when Leonard inherited a program upon arriving.
“When I got here, we had three kids,” Leonard said. “I had to get kids out of the hallways.
“They’ve built a program. Shannon won the dual state championship a couple of years ago and they finished second last year. They’re the program that we want to be and now, we both have some younger wrestlers, and now, we pretty much have a full team.”
One Panther wrestler reached a personal milestone Tuesday afternoon as junior Clint Fisher won his 50th career high school match. Fisher, who competes in the 150-pound division, pinned Halls’ Cayden Robinson.
Fisher, the son of Powell girls basketball coach John Fisher, began wrestling as a freshman after playing basketball well into middle school and he remembers the days when there was little interest in wrestling in Powell.
“I kind of approached (Leonard) and told him that I wanted to wrestle,” Fisher said. “When I started, I think we had six kids, and it’s crazy how this has all grown.”
