Morristown East hires Caleb Slover of Cocke County as football coach

Morristown East has hired Cocke County's Caleb Slover as its new football coach,  athletic director Morgane Watkins confirmed.

Watkins said Slover met with the team Tuesday morning. 

Slover, 39, replaces Dewayne Wells, who coached the Hurricanes for the last five seasons but resigned in February to coach at the University of the Cumberlands.

Slover took over as coach at Cocke County in February 2013 and led the Fighting Cocks to their first winning season since 1996 and to the playoffs for the first time in six years. Cocke County lost to Central, the state champions, in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs. 

"Caleb was the first person to reach out to me when we posted the job," said Watkins. "He's very passionate and he has a great work ethic."

Slover spent seven seasons at Tusculum College in Greeneville, serving as the academic recruiting coordinator, wide receivers coach, running backs coach and  director of football operations. 

Slover, who played at Tusculum from 2000-01, went 15-6 as the starting quarterback and has the highest winning percentage in school history. He was inducted in the Tusculum College Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. He played in the Arena Football League from 2002-04. 

Morristown East is scheduled to start spring practice April 29. The date was set by Wells but Slover didn't want to change the dates because Watkins said he, "wanted to keep everything as it is."