When the administration at Forrest High School began their search to fill the head boys basketball coaching void, they didn't have to look much farther than their own backyard to find their guy.

Forrest has hired Marshall County native Shane Chapman to lead the Rockets in the upcoming school year.

Chapman is no stranger to area basketball and has spent the past several seasons just down the road from Chapel Hill.

“Prior to me being here in Chapel Hill, I coached girls basketball in Eagleville and was there for five years. We had a great run and had some great teams over there. I learned a lot from that staff. One of the former head coaches is the boys head coach over there,” Chapman said.

Chapman has Marshall County basketball in his blood and is extremely familiar with the history of the sport within the county.

“I live in Chapel Hill and I'm a Marshall County born and bred guy. I've been here my whole life. I played basketball at Marshall County High School on the first boys team to ever go to the state tournament,” he said.

“I've been to the state tournament as a player. From a coach's standpoint, I've helped on a few teams that went to the state tournament.”

It's been a quick turnaround since Chapman was officially introduced as the Rockets' head coach.

“When this job opened up, I applied and fortunately was able to get the job and land a good spot with a good group of kids and a good administration,” he said.

After summer workouts and camps were canceled last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chapman says taking over the program early in the summer is only beneficial for the program and the foundation he hopes to build in the coming weeks and months.

“There's definitely some perks to having a team early in the year. The previous coach coached the boys and the girls, so he was spread pretty thin as far as coaching and doing stuff like that. He had already lined up camps for this summer, so we just fell right in and tried to honor what he had lined up,” he said.

Even with the short turnaround, Chapman says his team is benefiting from every minute of floor time they're getting in the early summer weeks.

“We went to Shelbyville for a couple of days last week and we're part of Eagleville's camp this week.

We're getting a lot of games in and a lot of floor time for the guys who haven't had a lot in the last couple of years,” Chapman said.

“They graduated some big kids from here last year. With reclassification and us going to a smaller district and going to metro Nashville in the region, it is going to be all new stuff for them. It's kind of a good time to step in and take over for a team that has a lot of potential.”

It's been a whirlwind of a transition period, having established practice and stepping into the summer camp slate within a week's time of being hired.

“They hired me on a Friday, we had tryouts on a Monday, practice on a Tuesday and Wednesday then we were off to camp. I spent the first day of camp still learning kids names. I'm excited and I think the kids are excited,” he said.

While certain coaches base their philosophy on a certain play style or game scheme, Chapman says his squad will have to play to the strengths of the returning lineup.

“With this bunch right here, we're going to have to push a lot of tempo because we're not blessed with a whole lot of size. We're going to push tempo and get the ball up and down the floor a lot. We're going to try and be as fundamentally sound as possible,” he said.

As far as fitting in at Forrest, he says his program is ready to embrace the three “F's” athletics as a whole embrace.

“Forrest is all about the “F” and we are too. We're about faith, family and fun. We're going to be faithful to one another, treat each other as family, and we're going to work hard and have fun,” he said.

At the end of the day, Chapman says it's equal parts excitement on his behalf, as well as his players.

“I'm looking forward to working with the kids. They're hungry. They have potential to grow into a pretty special basketball team. I'm excited to be part of it. They've bought into what we're talking about in the last week or so that I've had them. We're going to grow as a team and grow together,” he said.