It took a game longer than he would have liked, but Walters State men’s basketball coach Bill Carlyle notched his 800th career coaching victory with the Senators Wednesday night in one of the most unlikely of places.
Walters State overcame a late deficit to score 8 points in the final two minutes of the contest with TCCAA rival Chattanooga State, as the Senators grabbed an 89-86 victory over the Tigers to give Carlyle yet another milestone victory in Navy and Red.
Carlyle is in his 37th year as head basketball coach of the Walters State Senators and his 51st year overall.
Coach Carlyle has led the Senators to 14 Eastern Division Championships and played in 8 state title games, winning 5 championships. His 1996 team was Region VII runners-up. His 2002 team won both the TJCCAA State Championship and the NJCAA Region VII Championship. After a very successful national tournament appearance with the Senators finishing 8th in the nation, the Senators finished 8th in the national rankings. His 2004 and 2005 teams won the TJCCAA Eastern Division, state, and the NJCCAA Region VII Championships earning repeat trips to the national tournament.
In 1999, Coach Carlyle was inducted into both the Cumberland College Athletic Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Junior and Community Hall of Fame. In 2000, he was inducted into the Morristown High School Alumni Hall of Fame. And in 2008, Coach Carlyle was inducted into the National Junior College Hall of Fame during the National Tournament in Hutchinson, KS.
The Senators have averaged winning 20+ games a year over the past 36 years. Carlyle has a record at Walters State of 748 wins and 329 losses. His overall record as a head coach is 991 wins and 429 losses. Coach Carlyle’s record as a head coach and his tenure as an assistant coach combine for a record of 1110 wins and 519 losses.
Before coming to Walters State, he coached high school basketball, baseball, and football. Carlyle was head basketball and baseball coach at Sacramento, Ky., from 1962-1964; assistant coach at Bulls Gap High School 1964-1965; and head boys’ and girls’ basketball coach at Maury High School 1965-1967. He led the girls to the 1966 Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association Girls State Championship and was presented a key to the city of Dandridge upon the team’s return from the state tournament. The record that year was 39-3.
