By Kris Freeman
White House Football

Jeff Porter starts his 20th season at White House in 2006 as the head coach, with a record of 174-63 (.734 winning percentage) over parts of the last three decades at the helm of the Blue Devils.

Porter served as an assistant under head coaches Robert Lassiter and Bill Locke, before taking the reigns of the program in 1987. He is a 1977 graduate of Gallatin High School, a classmate and teammate of offensive coordinator Jim Grantham for the Green Wave. He and Grantham have been together the longest at White House - with this the 21st year - and the current full-time staff has been a part of the Blue Devil program since 1992. A new full-time assistant coach was added for the 2006 season in Mike Hamilton.

Jeff attended Volunteer State in Gallatin and played baseball his sophomore season, receiving his associate degree and transferring to Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in health and education. He received his masters degree in health, physical education, recreation and safety in the fall of 1982, and while attending college, worked under Gallatin head coach Calvin Short as a statistician and also served as a TSSAA referee and umpire.

He accepted his first coaching position at Richborough Junior High in Crestview, Fla., but left to return to Tennessee, where he joined Lassiter's staff at White House as the linebacker/defensive end coach. He was also head coach of the baseball team, a position he held for five years with four straight region tournament appearances. Twice the team shared first place at the end of the season and Coach Porter was named Sumner County's baseball coach of the year in 1987.

He now coaches alongside a former teammate at Gallatin (Grantham), two former Blue Devil players (Honeycutt and Lamberth, with the latter playing under him), and a former West Virginia Mountaineer (Dawson). Coach Short is now a volunteer at White House and coaches the freshmen.

Coach Porter's teams have won two District 10-AA championships, two Region 4-3A championships, two Region 6-4A championships and one Region 5-3A title. They have only missed the playoffs once in 19 years under Coach Porter, a third place finish in the old district when the TSSAA only took two teams.

The Blue Devils won the state championship in 1997, have made 14 straight playoff appearances across two classifications, ended the season as a semifinalist four times (1990, 93, 98 and 2004), ended as a state quarterfinalist five times (1994, 96, 2000-01, 05), and have 14 first round playoff victories under the current head coach. From 1997-98, the Blue Devils won 21 straight regular season games, broken by David Lipscomb in overtime, and won eight straight playoff games, broken by Roane County in the state semifinals.

Q: What is the best part of being at White House?
A: This is a great community and it is a tremendous school, especially working with teachers and administration that care, and the students and players have always been people that are willing to work so hard. I also enjoy being a part of a staff of people you respect so much, you enjoy being around so much and finally, you love so much.

Q: What is your favorite part of coaching?
A: My favorite part is seeing the growth of the kids, after they come in as ninth graders and then grow up and mature. It's really rewarding. Whenever you develop that trust factor with them, it's an incredible feeling.

Q: What's the toughest part of the job?
A: The toughest part is handling disciplinary actions when the kids mess up, and when you have to let one go. You really feel like the game could do a lot for them. It's also hard to see one get hurt. It absolutely rips me inside, but you have to stay strong for the other kids.

Q: What's your favorite memory coaching at White House?
A: The enjoyment of the 2004 football team as people was my favorite memory. They were just a great bunch of kids. Obviously the 1997 Clinic Bowl - and I guess I will always remember the bus ride home. It was so quiet, you would think it would have been rambunctious and exciting, but it was so quiet. The finality of just winning it - the kids realized it had all come to an end. It was a special ride home and I will never forget it. I remember Chad Rogers saying it was sad because "we won't ever get to play again." I also remember the 1989 win at Marshall County, that was really our first big win, they were 10-0 and ranked No. 4 in the state and we scored with a minute to play and won 7-0, and then we lost 14-6 against Brentwood Academy the next week. Those two weeks really put our football program on the map. And when we came on the field in Loudon in 1997 and there were 3,000 White House people already there, it was incredible.