Meet Battle Creek High's head coaches for first TSSAA school year

Maury County's newest high school, Battle Creek High, is set to open its doors for students in August.

In the 2024-25 school year, Battle Creek will have only freshman and sophomores enrolled, yet every program except football will compete at the varsity level.

"It's really a mindset," said Battle Creek athletic director BreAnna Green, who is also the school's cheer coach. "It's going to be our coaches preaching to our kids; it's going to be hard, you're playing against kids that are bigger. They've had more time. They have more experience.

“To get wins, they're going to have to fight every time and they're not going to win all the time, which can be hard … (but) I think it's only going to make our programs better."

Battle Creek's athletic facilities are in their final stages before completion, with a middle school jamboree set for Aug. 2 in the first athletic event. Battle Creek has fully artificial turf fields for football, baseball and softball, making them the only school in Maury County with all three fields fully turfed. It's also the only school in the Nashville area that has all three fields fully turf.

Here's an update on where things stand with each athletic program at Battle Creek.

Football

Battle Creek begins its inaugural season with a scrimmage against Columbia Central this week. Justin Burum is the school's football coach.

Burum comes to Battle Creek from Hardaway High in Georgia, where he served as offensive coordinator. Prior to that, Burum spent two years as a Shelbyville assistant. He was also an assistant at Valdosta High in Georgia..

The team's first home game will take place on Aug. 26, against Columbia Academy. There are plans to move up to the varsity level next season when it's the first of two-year TSSAA football contracts and a chance to be eligible for the Tennessee playoffs.

Boys and girls basketball

Battle Creek's first coaching hire was Donnie Chambers, who will coach the Grizzlies' boys basketball team. Chambers previously worked as the Battle Creek Middle boys coach and will be joined by his assistant at BCMS, Jason Hull.

Daniel Langeland is the girls basketball coach. Langeland coached girls basketball in Michigan for four years before moving on to an assistant coaching role at Trevecca last school year.

"He's excited to be back at this level and just help build well-rounded young women, you know, academically, athletically, all those things," Green said.

Baseball

Paul Lamm will take charge over Battle Creek baseball , after serving as Spring Hill's coach since 2006.

Lamm took the Raiders to seven TSSAA state tournaments , winning Spring Hill's only baseball state title in 2016 and finishing runner-up in 2010 and 2012.

Lamm comes from a coaching family. His father, Gary, coached Loretto baseball for two decades and won over 400 games, including the program's first state title in 2017.

Additional Battle Creek coaching hires

• Chris Carr will coach the Grizzlies’ softball program.

"He reached out to us, you know, he comes from a winning culture (in New York)," Green said. "He's passionate about softball and I think he's just ready to bring that mindset down here and build a culture of excellence when it comes to softball."

Coaching softball in Georgia, South Carolina and more recently in New York, Carr has led multiple teams to state semifinal appearances and won a state title in 2019 in South Carolina.

• Former Summit boys soccer coach A.J. Smith takes over the Battle Creek boys soccer program. Summit finished 5-11-1 in a tough district last season .
• John Spencer, who is the Columbia Arsenal club team, has been named the girls soccer coach.

"It's kind of funny, John actually played for A.J. at one point," Green said. "So they have similar kind of mindsets, coaching styles, you know? So that's going to be a really good pairing with our soccer programs."

• Josh Trahan will coach the boys and girls track and field programs. Trahan comes with 15 years of coaching experience, most recently as part of the Independence track and field staff.
• Jessica Holtz, who previously was the Battle Creek Middle boys and girls cross country coach the past three years, is now the high school coach.
• Former Columbia Central volleyball assistant coach Jay Bennett will lead the Battle Creek volleyball program. The program will play a junior varsity and varsity season.

Harrison Campbell covers high school sports and more for The Daily Herald. Email him at hcampbell@gannett.com and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @hccamp .

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Meet Battle Creek High's head coaches for first TSSAA school year