Former West (Tennessee) head football coach speaks out

Just a day after Knox County Schools concluded its full-scale investigation into former West High School head football coach Lamar Brown and the program, he gave his side of the story. What Brown said on Wednesday conflicted with what Knox County Schools has announced in its investigation of the Rebels.

Brown, who was removed on Tuesday as West’s head coach, did a Q&A with 5StarPreps and spoke out for the first time publicly since the investigation ended.

Per the question and answer session, Brown stated that he was not in charge of the hiring process when it came to bringing on coaches at the school, but in more of a recommendation fashion. In how the process worked per Brown, he would recommend a coaching hire to the school’s athletic director or principal, whom then said the recommendation to the district office.

From there, new hires would go through a typical process of a background check, drug testing and fingerprinting.

Knox County superintendent Dr. Jon Rysewyk addressed the findings of the inquiry on Tuesday afternoon, which zeroed in on Brown’s coaching staff hires. What Rysewyk’s investigative team uncovered was what they had deemed as a ‘significant lack of oversight’ of the West football program and pointed specifically at Brown’s hiring of football staff members.

The two former West football staff members identified as Chad Antwan Brooks and Richard Scott Shaver, have been brought up on charges of sexual battery as an authority figure and aggravated statutory rape, per a Knoxville News Sentinel report. At West, Brooks was a nonfaculty football coach and Shaver was a teacher/coach.

The findings of the Knox County Schools’ investigation described that staff members Brown had allegedly hired and managed were accused of criminal activity and reportedly exhibited gross misconduct. Other findings per the aforementioned report included unnamed staff members not following Knox County Schools’ policies, including failing to provide information to the local law enforcement authorities and Department of Children’s Services.

Brown, a 1987 Jefferson County graduate, had been head coach at West since 2017, before Tuesday officially ended his eight-year tenure. One of the aforementioned assistants in question according to Brown had been with the school since the early 2000’s, long before he had ever arrived from Morristown West.

According to Brown via the Q&A, one of the assistants had been with the school for 25 years and the other was a initial recommendation from back in 2017. The assistant that had arrived in 2017 left the school to finish college before returning and then was hired onto teach, with Brown citing Knox County Schools not only had hired the assistant once, but twice.

The Q&A goes on to recall a situation in which Brown wanted to bring on an assistant, who happened to be the brother of the West athletic director. After checking with the principal, Brown was told the recommended assistant couldn’t be hired because he was the brother of the athletic director.

Another piece of information provided by Brown to 5StarPreps was that the former West head coach had taken a lie detector test and passed flawlessly. Brown said he was told the average passing score was between 3-6 and he scored a 13.

Brown, who is not facing any criminal charges, said in the Q&A that he was unsure if he would be able to coach football this upcoming fall.

West, a 2-time Tennessee state champion, has already tabbed Barron Chandler as their next head football coach.

In the final Tennessee 2024 High School Football Composite Rankings, the Rebels finished No. 20 in the state. West’s season ended with a 24-17 loss to Sevier County in the TSSAA Class 5A playoffs.