Dr. Jeremy Qualls and the WCS Sports Conference
1 Conference 1 Goal
We wanted to put a spotlight on the Williamson County Sports Conference and its Athletic Director Dr. Jeremy Qualls. There are quite a few things that are unique about what they do and how it is done. Dr. Qualls has been the Williamson County Athletic Director for the past 4 seasons bring his experience as an educator and coach from several different arenas.
Jeremy Qualls grew up in Hickman County where he played basketball. After graduating in 1996 he went on to play at Austin Peay for Dave Loos. Out of Austin Peay Jeremy went on to test the coaching waters first serving as an assistant at North East High School. Quall’s first head coaching opportunity came at Marshall County High School at the young age of 22. When the opportunity came to coach at Lexington High School in West Tennessee, in what Dr. Qualls calls the “Basketball Haven” of Tennessee, he jumped all over it. “It was a dog fight every night just to win a game” Qualls says while playing teams like Bolivar Central, Jackson South Side and Liberty Tech on a regular basis. As much fun as Qualls was having headed up the coaching ranks, he says his wife grew tired of the coaching lifestyle therefore they started looking into administration roles. After several roles as Principal, Assistant Principal and Athletic Director the opportunity came open for Jeremy to step in as the Athletic Director of Williamson county Schools.
Qualls set out to make the “Williamson County Sports Conference”, as they have branded it, the most unique in the state. His position allows him to focus solely on athletics for the county by not coupling his job with other roles. Applying marketing and branding principles to the program is one of the first things that was on the list. Qualls set out to get all of the county schools on the same page as far as having one goal to make athletics stand out in the county. Many of you may have seen the WCS logo pictured in the center of this page as well as the other logos created in order to brand specific match ups between certain teams such as “Battle of the Woods”, “Border Battle”, “Battle of 840” and so on.
Pictured below are some scenes from “WCS Media” that features the matchup of the week during football season. Imagine if you will a take on ESPN’s College Game Day, just on a local level for high school. We at D1 Highlights have witnessed several of the WCS Game Days in action and love the enviroment that it creates for the students and fans. Qualls tells us that “it’s all for the students”, players and families alike. The WCS definitely stands out. Qualls preaches the message of “we can do more together than we can individually” and all of the schools have bought in. Another unique event that has caught the attention of local media and celebraties as well is the “Willco Awards” that recognizes outstanding athletes within the county. Again, Qualls attributes the success of the ESPY’s and calls it the ESPY’s of high school sports.
Qualls states that his goal is to eventually have at least one big event for every sport in the county. Football in the south of course creates the buzz but there is plenty of love for all other sports to scale the WCS program across multiple sports platforms.
