When Mike Wood began running competitively in the 10th grade, never did he imagine the sport would have such a monumental impact on his life.
Over the past 33 years, Wood has become the second-most decorated head coach in McCallie history as he led a dozen TSSAA state championship teams in cross country and track and field. He also had 33 athletes win individual state titles in his tenure.
Those memories will last a lifetime for Wood, who announced Wednesday that he will step down from his head coaching duties with the Blue Tornado programs. Both the cross country and track and field teams will now be led Rodney Stoker, who was an assistant to Wood.
As for the 68-year-old Wood, he will transition to being an assistant to Wood with both teams, all while looking forward to spending more time with his first granddaughter, who was born in September.
"McCallie is such an amazing place," said Wood, who has been named a Times Free Press Best of Preps coach of the year more than 20 times. "The support I have received from the school and the kids I have been able to work with has been incredible. These kids came to me already pretty motivated and with a lot of self-discipline. They want to get better, and sometimes they are pretty fast, too."
Of the "thousands" of outstanding young men Wood has coached, one of his brightest stars he worked with was Michael Bingham, a 2004 graduate of McCallie.
Bingham won nine state championships in a span of two seasons for the Blue Tornado and went on to become an Olympian for Great Britain. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Bingham won a bronze medal as part of the 4x400-meter relay team that finished behind the United States and the Bahamas.
Wood took over McCallie's track and field program in 1991 and was able to have a student-athlete break every school record in the sport except for the high jump and the javelin toss, which was last performed at McCallie nearly 50 years ago. The high jump record of 6 feet, 10 inches was nearly broken in the same year by two of Wood's athletes as each jumped 6-9.
Wood went out on top this past fall as the Blue Tornado cross country team blazed to a fifth straight Division II-AA state championship. Wood's top five finishers at the state meet over the past two seasons had an average time of faster than 15 minutes and 47 seconds on the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) course at Hendersonville's Sanders Ferry Park.
He finished his coaching career with a combined 12 state titles and 16 runner-up team finishes in the two sports. The only McCallie coach with more state titles is former wrestling coach Gordon Connell, whose teams won 13 state titles with 67 individual champions.
Jack Bowen, after setting McCallie track records in both the 1600-meter run and the 3200-meter run as a sophomore this past spring, set a school cross country record in the fall with a 5K time of 14:52 as the state runner-up in DII-AA. Bowen recently ran a 4:15 mile indoors, which currently ranks fifth in the country for high school athletes.
Wood also had a pair of standout decathletes in Hakim McMorris, who went on to the University of California, and Michael May (Auburn). May was a part of the 2021 McCallie track team that won the program's first TSSAA state title.
"Our goal every year is to have fun," Wood said. "When I ask them what is fun to them, the answer is always, 'Winning.' The 2021 season was really fun because we were able to win state titles in both sports. There are so many great memories we have made together here. And there are still many more to come for these boys."
Under Stoker, who has been an assistant at McCallie since 2016, the standards will remain sky high.
"I love working with the boys, and I love the culture and tradition that Mike has built with these teams," Stoker said in a McCallie release. "The boys know that we are striving for excellence and shooting for the top.
"These boys want to be the best in everything they do. Whether it's school work, helping in the community or just being good people."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.