By Ken Lay
Inclement winter weather has hindered preparations for Farragut High School’s girls basketball team. School cancellations in recent days have caused games to be rescheduled.
It has also rendered the Lady Admirals unable to practice together.
Farragut has won its last three games over Lenoir City, Rhea County and Concord Christian School.
But those victories haven’t been easy as the Lady Admirals have had more than their share of struggles, particularly on the offensive end of the floor.
In its most recent victory, Farragut (17-8) managed to score just 41 points against Concord (15-11).
But the Admirals’ defense was clutch as it surrendered just 34 points in a 41-34 victory over the Lady Lions Wednesday night at the Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium. It was a Senior Night victory, but it wouldn’t win too many style points.
“It’s been a struggle, and in our last three games now, we haven’t looked very good,” Farragut coach Jason Mayfield said. “And that’s a reflection of not being able to practice. This is why practice is important.
“When school’s closed, we can’t practice, and I’m not knocking anybody, but it is what it is.”
The coach was not all that happy about how his team has been handling its recent adversity.
“We’ve got to be tough. We’ve just got to be tougher than that,” Mayfield said. “It’s hard, but we have to be able to overcome that.
“For three-and-a-half quarters, this was a tight game.”
Senior KJ McNealy was the only Farragut player to post double figures in the scoring column as she had 12 points. Lilly Mullins added eight points, and Trinity Curry had seven. Reagan Sheridan and Zoe Porter finished with six points each for the Lady Admirals, who trailed, 8-6, at the end of the first quarter. Concord extended its advantage to 21-16 by halftime. The Lady Lions held a narrow 27-26 edge in the third quarter.
“It was one of those games where you had to make some plays at the end and luckily, we did,” Mayfield said.
Kiran Keeton led CCS with nine points on the night.
Jason Mayfield earns milestone victory with Lady Admirals
When Jason Mayfield took the Farragut High School girls basketball head coaching job, he inherited one of the area’s most successful programs, built by former coaches Mike Driver and Wes Edmonds.
Mayfield immediately made his mark on the program as Farragut battled against some of Tennessee’s best players and teams.
Longtime regulars in the state sectional round of the playoffs, the Lady Admirals finally made the state tournament in 2022, where they reached the title game before losing to Kingston Pike rival Bearden.
“We came in here and inherited a successful program, and we built upon that and were able to continue that,” said Mayfield, who won his 300th game recently when Farragut routed Oak Ridge, 55-35, on Friday, Jan. 23, at the Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium. “It’s partially a joke, but it’s also true.
“It means that I’ve been doing this a long time.”
The Lady Admirals have since defeated Lenoir City, Rhea County and Concord Christian School, celebrating Senior Night with a 41-34 victory over the Lady Lions Wednesday night. Mayfield is now sitting on 303 lifetime wins.
“It’s been a great ride for 14 years,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve had a lot of good players too.
“We have good kids here, and this is a testament to their character and to the kind of players they are.”
While his tenure at Farragut has been packed with excitement and some big wins, there have been a few hard times as well.
“The first three years I was here, we lost three (state sectional) games, and we lost two of those on last-second shots, and those were hard to take,” Mayfield said. “But you learn from those, too.”
Mayfield refuses to take credit for his success. Instead, he lauds his players and also a solid group of assistant coaches, including several former Lady Admirals, who have come back to work in Farragut’s program.
The former Lady Admirals who are working or have worked in the program include: Alex Munday (who played before Mayfield was the coach), Madison Maples, Claire Wyatt and Kristen Freeman.
Another former assistant, Jesse Booher, played for Mayfield when he was an assistant coach with the Karns boys. Another former assistant, Jessica Sweat, was a star player at Halls High School, and still another, Andy Arendt, is the head boys coach at Hardin Valley Academy.
“We’ve had a lot of greats, whether it’s Alex, Madison or Jessica (who spent multiple seasons with the program), or Claire and Kristen, who had one year to help before medical school,” Mayfield said. “Jesse is a former player. He played for me at Karns.
“And Andy, he’s the head boys coach at Hardin Valley, and he’s doing great things over there.”
