Shawn Witten

On the other side of the

whistle...

File Photo/Larry N. Souders Elizabethton Cyclone Head Coach Shawn Witten holds the Coaches State Champion plaque after the Cyclones win the 2019 Class 4A Blue Cross Bowl championship game in Cookeville.

Elizabethton’s Witten self-motivated to be successful in life

28 A t the mention of the name Witten, it’s obvious that most people recognize the name instantly especially if they are familiar with the Northeast Tennessee area.

The first name that comes to mind is that of Jason Witten, a pro-bowl and Hall of Fame-bound tight end for the Dallas Cowboys. But quickly after that the name Shawn Witten soon follows.

Shawn, the middle brother of three Wittens — Ryan, Shawn, and Jason — has made a name for himself in Tennessee on the gridiron as the head coach of the Elizabethton Cyclones where he has roamed the sidelines for 13 seasons at the helm of the football program at the school.

With no doubt, he just completed his most memorable season in 2019 when he guided the Cyclones to a perfect 15-0 slate and the 2019 BlueCross Bowl Class 4-A State Championship.

Witten followed that up with regional Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the Tennessee Titans Coach of the Year. He also led his West FCA All-Star team to a 24- 17 victory over the East in the 2019 FCA All-Star game. While most people are familiar with his football accolades including outstanding playing careers at his alma mater Elizabethton and Virginia Tech as part of Frank Beamer’s Hokie * Story by Ivans Sanders and Photos by Ivan Sanders and Larry N. Souders*

team few may know much about the man behind the whistle.

Witten would be the first to tell anyone that he didn’t need too much prodding to reach the success level that he has but he would quickly follow that up by bragging on his grandfather, a local football legend and Hall of Fame coach in Coach Dave Rider.

“I have a lot of characteristics from my grandfather,” said Witten. “I have always been a very organized and detailed person — like an obsessive-compulsive disorder kind of trait.

“I have always been somewhat of a perfectionist that has that internal drive — extremely high self-motivated. A lot of the same characteristics you might say of a military background without having any military experience.”

While most young people, and some older folks, need someone to keep everyday activities and details to be provided by someone else, Witten found that early in life that structure would be the foundation of what makes him tick. And if he seems to do things the same way all the time, it may just lead back to that structured format.

“Growing up I was always a structured person. I liked things to be a certain way — just plain you might say. I liked my clothes to fit a certain way, a very clean and neat kind of person.

Elizabethton head coach Shawn Witten’s storied past and decisions made have made him more than a coach behind a whistle — they have made him a role model that any parent would want their student-athlete to emulate.

“Everything that I am involved with I am kind of a neat freak from the house to the car, locker room, coaches office, I am just over-thetop that way. Those are kind of my characteristics. Like when we put up our equipment at the end of the year, I like my helmets to be a certain way, I like the uniforms to look a certain way. I like my closet to look a certain way and I like my house to look a certain way. A lot of those characteristics come from my grandfather and a lot from my mom as well. She is kind of a neat freak too.”

When Witten was growing up, he didn’t need a lot of prodding and poking to do the things that would make him become successful at an early age. There is a motor underneath the outward exterior that hasn’t slowed down one bit and if anything seems to be increasing with age.

A lot of that mentality is something that Witten tries to instill in young men that come into his program.

“I have been that way my entire life,” Witten stated. “I didn’t need a lot of people to be with me as I went through my process. I like to work out by myself and nobody needed to tell me to go to the weight room to work out.

“I was just kind of always selfdriven to do that. Sometimes I let things bother me longer than they really should. I am a guy that likes to have a plan. I like having a piece of paper down in front of me telling me exactly what I am going to do throughout the day.”

Witten’s youngest brother, Jason, being a highly recognized professional athlete, has been able to shine a lot of light on what the Witten brothers along with their mother, Kim, experienced in their youth that led to Kim’s divorce from Witten’s dad and the moving of the family from Northern Virginia to the hills of Northeast Tennessee where the rest has become history.

Cyclone head coach Shawn Witten is joined by his grandfather, Dave Rider, his brother and assistant coach, Ryan Witten, and Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboy tight end.

With the events that transpired in his youth, Witten over the years has seen some of the same heartbreaking family issues even on his own football team and knows how those kids feel and what they are experiencing.

“If I were growing up in today’s society, from what I grew up in my household to today’s society it’s probably more judged or labeled at-risk, not from the things that I did but the household I grew up in,” Witten commented.

“If you are involved with divorce or domestic violence or just alcohol and drug abuse, coming from that kind of home you are labeled at risk.”

Witten also knows that just because one comes from that type of environment that life doesn’t have to be dictated by those types of experiences. Everyone is captain of their own ship and can make decisions for themselves on how to chart the course of their life.

“I think that we all get a chance to choose our own paths,” Witten added. “For me, I have never once, and it’s hard to believe, but I have never once steered away from that path. You either are going to make excuses and follow down those same footsteps or you can decide you are going to be different.

“Being the middle child, there were probably things that Ryan (Witten-brother) seen more, knows more, and witnessed more. For me, I never wanted to be that person. I wanted to be different than that. I wanted to choose a road less different. A lot of kids grow up in those environments and that’s all they see and all they know but that still doesn’t make things right.

“For me, it’s always been kind of head down with blinders on and stay focused on the task. That’s the way that I have always been. I don’t start a job if I can’t finish it. I always leave a place better than I found it.”

Although they are brothers, the Witten boys all have become different in their own right according to Witten. Even though some similarities exist, there are still a lot of things that are completely different about the three.

Even though that’s the case, Witten said that he wouldn’t go back and change anything in regards to the path that he has chosen for his life and the journey he is on.

“I wouldn’t change the path that I grew up with — not one second of it. It has made me who I am today,” Witten said. “If you are labeled at-risk, you are always stamped that you have to be a certain way and for me, I always wanted to be different.

“I didn’t want to be like anyone else. I don’t want our football program to be like any other program and I think the biggest thing for me is it was always about hard work.” It’s easy for those on the outside looking in to stereotype individuals that come from difficult backgrounds like Witten faced as a youth. Many will even write off anyone coming out of those situations based upon what they have seen from past experience.

To some extent, it’s almost as if outsiders pull for failure rather than success. However, Witten would be the first to tell anyone that the only person that determines your final outcome is yourself and no one else.

“Just be a winner — a lot of times when you grow up in those situations you aren’t supposed to make it,” stated Witten. “You are not supposed to have success stories and things, but for me, I have never fallen away from that path.

“I have been fortunate to have a great group of people around me

with support groups, but when I was in high school and college and even coming back here in 2007, I have never had any desire to steer away and choose a different path. “I try to provide an example for people to look up to and to be the ultimate professional,” continued Witten. “I think that what you look like every day when you come to school from the clothes you wear to the way you dress that you need to set that standard from an early age. I think that was instilled in us at an early age from the way my mom was raised.”

Witten went on to add that in the youngest part of his life that his father was the consummate father who taught his sons how to get off on the right foot.

The Witten brothers participated in multiple city and county leagues in the Boys and Girls Club as well as parks and rec leagues. The boys were super competitive and at times found themselves participating in two basketball leagues at the same time.

Part of that competitiveness came from the area where the Wittens resided in Northern Virginia which was 30 minutes outside of Washington, DC in Fairfax County which is the largest county in the state of Virginia. It may have taken a while but Elizabethton head football coach Shawn Witten found out that it takes a large support staff to be successful and Witten has surrounded himself with men who have like passion as the head menton. These coaches are back (L-R) Team Chaplain Michael Koruschak, Jeff Pierce, Brian Jenkins, Devin Whitehead, Jordy Harrison, Michael Grindstaff, Brock Pittman, and Ryan Witten. Front (L-R) David Campbell, Witten, Terry Moore, and Terrence Turner Jr.

Obviously Interstate 66 was fast and so was the lifestyle according to Witten. With a large population, the school system was very competitive and of course, there was a diverse culture in its students and residents.

So one can imagine, when coming to Elizabethton to live with their grandparents, it was almost like shifting a race car from fourth to first gear as things slowed down considerably.

“The time we spent there was a difference in our childhood,” added Witten. “What we had to compete against daily in the classroom to the practice fields. With Fairfax County being the largest county in Virginia if you were going to make it, you had to survive.

“You couldn’t slow down at all. You had to keep up and I think as we transitioned down here, things slowed down where we could focus on our goals. From day one, I think that was always the plan for our mom to get us back here to play for

our grandfather.

“At the time, we didn’t know that our grandfather was a highly successful and respected football coach. The amount of lives of the people he impacted and the success he had here and the fact he was a Hall of Fame football coach — we didn’t realize that.”

Witten went on to say that to a certain extent, they knew what kind of person their grandfather was and it was proven when they arrived and instead of trying to squash their dreams, he became their number one cheerleader.

Rider constantly provided opportunities for the brothers to dream big and never threw a washpan of negativity on their dreams and goals.

As a matter of fact, Rider desired for his grandchildren to excel to the highest level no matter what field or path they chose.

“He showed us the way and we talked about it and he allowed us to accomplish those goals,” Witten went on to say about his grandfather.

Witten openly admits that the same coach that arrived on campus at Elizabethton High School is not the same coach that directs the team today. A young man that once was full of vim and vigor now realizes that one man doesn’t win a battle — it takes an army.

“As you grow older as a coach, there are a lot of things that I do differently than when I first got

here,” stated Witten. “I think the biggest thing is just to be full of energy. You have to be enthused about what you want to do and be excited about the process it’s going to take to get there.

“Sure you have to be focused and serious at times, but I think that you have to be enthused to go out there and accomplish the day. One of the mottos that I have always liked is ‘Win the Day’. Be the best that you can be every day and be the best version of yourself every day.

“Even if you are having a bad day, just be excited about the opportunity you have.”

After setting the standard for his expectations early on, Witten’s focus has transformed from being someone who could work circles around others to being someone that allows each individual player to each coach to accountability for making sure to keep those standards at a high level and even beyond. “When I started in 2007, I thought that I could just outwork people. I thought my work ethic would be so contagious that I thought I could outwork people. I found out quickly that you just can’t always do that,” Witten commented.

“You have to be surrounded by great people. You have to have a great support staff and players and you have to have those contagious characteristics that just rub off on people.”

Elizabethton head coach Shawn Witten led his West All-Stars to a 24-17 win in the 2019 FCA All-Star game.

As Witten has grown older with the program, he has focused also on making sure to allow those players that have proven themselves the ability to take ownership of the program and given them a platform to have a voice.

If the players work hard and do the right things based on the standards the coach has set, Witten wants the program to be teamcentered as another motto used quit often is ‘One Team, One Family, One Reason’.

“Our kids want to be able to do it together,” said Witten. “Relationships now are the most important part of our foundation. The more they trust you, the more they are going to do.

“It’s not so much how much you know but it’s how much you can get them to do. You just want to maximize every chance that you have with them and just try to build the relationships where it’s more than just football.”

Witten is an example of how someone can take something that looks all wrong on the outside and turn it around and make decisions that will not just impact the future of that individual, but change the lives and paths of young people that meet in the course of life at the right time when it is needed the most.

It’s about setting a course and not deviating to the right or left while eliminating all the noise that surrounds the path.

Shawn Witten runs onto the field with his team.