Coaches in Williamson County Want An Athletic Period. Here's Why.

What if in Williamson County, sports practice happened during the day instead of after school?

Page High School football coach Charles Rathbone and Fairview High School football coach Chris Hughes have spoken out about this in Williamson County School Board meetings. They suggest that an athletic period be added into the school schedule.

According to Patrick Whitlock, the athletic director of Williamson County Schools, it’s something coaches have brought up to him often, and have been wanting for a while now. He said he has researched almost every public school system in the state that has high school athletics.

“I got responses from about 80, and about 75 percent of the schools had them, 25 percent didn't,” Whitlock said.

So what are the benefits and challenges?

Rathbone has been the football coach at Page High School for 26 years now. He says the primary benefit is time. With athletics after school, they are on the field stretching at 3:15 p.m., and don’t wrap up until 5:30 p.m. On weight room days, add 40 more minutes, and they are driving home in the dark at 6:15 p.m., Rathbone said.

An athletic period frees up these evenings.

“They can have dinner with the family, get to work on their homework, get their classes done, and get plenty of rest,” Rathbone said.

Whitlock and Rathbone say it’s also helpful for coach retention. Whitlock mentioned that one of their big athletic competitors, Rutherford County, has athletic periods, and their coaches go home earlier each day. He said Williamson County coaches do get a stipend, but the athletic period would be extra incentive for them to stay.

Rathbone said he had two coaches leave to go to Rutherford County last year because they have young kids and that extra hour at home matters.

But the process does have hurdles.

Williamson County is on a seven-period schedule, and most of the schools Whitlock researched use the block schedule. This means finding time for athletic periods might mean students have less time for Advanced Placement classes or study hall.

The other concern Whitlock said might surface is that Williamson County already had 13 high school state championship wins in the 2024-25 school year.

“So some people might look at that and be like, well, you're so successful now, why would you need to change? And my argument to that would be, you know, the goalposts are constantly moving on high school athletics. I think this is a way for us to be proactive without compromising our academic standards, and just an opportunity to make a really good situation even better," he said. 

The athletic committee, which has students, parents and coaches, met for the first time in August. They are currently examining other school districts around the country and how they institute athletic periods. Their goal is to give a recommendation to the superintendent, who will then take it to the school board for review and decision-making.