I must first say that I never knew Coach Turner. In fact, I graduated from Powell Valley. However, I truly feel that anyone who ever played in a game vs. a Tom Turner-coached team in a sense "got to know" Coach Turner. His teams, his players, the town that they played for and the people who were their fans were all a personification of Turner. Just tough.

The man instilled a sense of grit, a savvy, a resiliency in his players. I would venture to say that his players carried this trait with them not only out on the field, but also out into real life. Every year we would play Appalachia, I would walk into the Fieldhouse and on the board in large letters would be written, "DAWG WEEK."? The only reason it mattered that it was dawg week, in my opinion, was because of Tom Turner. Tom made Appalachia Football what it was and what it is. You knew, whether it was an athletically "down"? or "up"? year of Appalachia, they were going to bring it.

My senior year, 2004, we played at Appy. We were loaded, senior laden. Raped half the teams we played. We figured we'd have some fun this game. Just pad the stats. I figured I'd get a hundred yards receiving and a couple TD's. We all thought it would be a nice little walk in the park. Hehehe. I'm sure Phil knew better. I could always tell Coach Robbins respected, and probably liked Tom. I feel like Phil respected the discipline he gave his kids, his ingenuity and his sincerity.

It is said, "Don't judge a book by its cover."? The cover-judger might have thought that Tom was not-quite-that-smart-looking, or didn't really have the appearance of a "prototypical good coach."? And about that time was when Coach Turner would have thrown in a double reverse pass and catch the guy with his pants down for a TD.

We went in there in 2004, and talent wise, should've probably won by 30-40pts. It was close to tied at halftime. We ended up winning, by maybe a couple of touchdowns, but they made us play as ugly as hell, and I mean that as a compliment. They played hard and just wouldn't quit. Aside from loosing to Manassas that year, after that game was the maddest I was all year. I felt like we should have dominated, but Tom's darn team just wouldn't quit. We looked like we didn't even deserve to be in the playoffs that night and we looked that way b/c they made us look that way.

Tom Turner made sure his kids never gave up. Never ever. And because of him, that program and the lives of hundreds of kids he coached will have that mentality as well.

God Bless Tom Turner and his family.

Sincerely,
Cagle Juhan