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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

John Therrell has resigned as head coach of the Jemison High School football team following the 2023 season. Therrell resigned earlier in December following a 1-9 season in 2023, and a 4-26 record in three seasons as head coach of the Panthers.

“I am very appreciative of the opportunity that I had to be here (at Jemison), the relationships that I have made, the people who I got to meet and the lives that I was able to affect through football,” Therrell said. “It is one of those deals where I feel very strongly that Jemison was left a better place now than when I got here. The relationships I had with the players, you will never be able to take that away … I am really blessed with the kids I had and was able to coach, and in the end that is really the biggest thing, and being able to affect those young men in a positive light, and I think we did.”

Therrell said he had an end-of-year meeting with Jemison administration where it was decided that the program should move toward a different direction, and he submitted his resignation papers shortly after the meeting. Therrell will continue to teach at Jemison until the next opportunity presents itself to him.

Therrell, who has coached football in multiple states across America, said his love of football is what drives him every day to be a coach, stemming from him growing up with the game with his father. He described football as something that is ingrained into his lifestyle.

However, outside of the intricacies of the game and the competitive side of it, the true reason he got into coaching was the joy he gets when he sees his players grow.

“By being able to shape them into men who are going to take what they learned in football and use it in their life, and knowing you had a positive effect on their future, that is the biggest thing,” Therrell said. “It is being able to really influence those young men to a right path, and that is what I take pride in and our coaching staff, and one of the blessings was I had the opportunity to do that at Jemison.”

Jemison has not finished above .500 since 2013 when they went 7-4, and have not made the state playoffs since 2017.