By Mark Nagi
When you talk about HS football in East Tennessee, the name George Quarles often comes to mind. One of the most successful coaches in the state, Quarles won 94% of his games during his 18 years as the head coach at Maryville. The Rebels also won 11 state titles during that memorable run.
Since 2017, Quarles has been on the coaching staffs at Furman, ETSU and Austin Peay. His love of East Tennessee never wavered, and back in December, Quarles was back in the area, hired by Webb School to be the Spartans’ new head coach.
The Knoxville Focus recently caught up with Quarles to find out how this went down and about his future football plans off Dutchtown Road in west Knoxville.
Knoxville Focus: George, how did you end up back in HS football at Webb?
George Quarles: I got a call from Ricky Norris (Webb School), whom I’ve known for a little while. At first, I was like, I just don’t think I can do this. You know, I need to finish my state retirement. But knowing all along that we wanted to move back to East Tennessee. We had just lost my mom back in September. My Dad was by himself, and, you know, knowing that I needed to kind of get back closer and help out, help my sister with him. Plus, we just wanted to live back in the Maryville area. That’s where our friends are. They called back, and four or five days later, I was like, all right, I’ll talk to you and came over here at Thanksgiving and got a great feel from Ricky and Dan Gill, the athletic director. We just got a great feel for their commitment to getting things rolling here. We really like the people. They felt like people we wanted to be around. We’re excited.
KF: What are your thoughts on the current state of the Webb program?
GQ: I don’t know how quick a fix it’s going to be. Numbers were low. I think they finished the year because of injuries and other things, with like 20-something kids on the team. That’s not a really good recipe for a football team. So, we are trying to build it and build it the right way that’s sustainable, hopefully from the ground up with your middle school and all those things. That’s kind of the goal here.
KF: What will your staff look like, and do you anticipate any turnover?
GQ: Some assistant coaches are coming back, some aren’t. We are trying to get more guys who are in the building. I think that was one of the tough things for Don (Mahoney, former HC). I think he was the only teacher or the only coach who had a job in the building. It’s just hard when you don’t have your staff there. They’re either in other schools or have other jobs outside of education. It’s just hard getting a staff together that way. I’ve been pretty slow about hiring staff. But Don is going to come back and coach the offensive line.
KF: I remember when you coached in Maryville, there was a lot of stuff that you were doing offensively that was more spread-based. Over the years, everybody kind of now does that in a way. Is that still your main philosophy? Would you like to see Webb in a different direction?
GQ: I want to see what we can do. What best fits our personnel? Do we have a quarterback? I don’t know. I’ve kind of dabbled in about everything, believe it or not. I went to Furman, and we messed around with some option stuff, so I’ve been good and bad about a lot of these offenses. So, just trying to figure out what best fits our personnel. I think it will be key, and that’s what the spring practice will be for. There’s just not a ton of players, and some of them I hadn’t seen really because they’re in basketball, they’re in wrestling, or they’re already in baseball. I’ve seen them in the hallways, but I’ve not gotten to, you know, work out with them or any of that stuff. So, there’ll be some unknown for a while. And I think that happens in a smaller school.
KF: What message do you have for Webb parents, boosters and fans?
GQ: We’re excited, and when I say we, it’s our family. We’re excited to be here and excited for the opportunity. We’re excited for the challenge and can’t wait to see what the future holds. It’s a process. It may take a little while to get to where everybody wants it. But you’re getting my full efforts. I’m all in. Hopefully, we can get it flipped around as quickly as possible.
