Science Hill High School

Cot Presnell

Cot Presnell

Cot Presnell played for Mule Brown on Elizabethton's 1938 state championship team -- they beat Jackson 26-13 in Jackson -- and played for Steve Lacy at Milligan. Like Kermit Tipton, he ended up getting his degree from Ole Miss.

Presnell came to Science Hill when Brown arrived in '48. He was an assistant for parts of four decades.

Presnell also started Science Hill's golf program in 1952. Led by state runner-up John Abernath, his Hilltoppers won a state title in 1959. He was the athletic director for two years between Sid Smallwood and Elvin Little.

Bob Taylor said Presnell was an excellent football scout. He said he intercepted a pitch and took it for a TD against Elizabethton in 1953 after Presnell predicted he would earlier in the week if he read the key correctly on a certain play-call.

"Cot said, 'They've got this play where I think you can intercept the lateral and score,'" Taylor said. "And I did. I took off and the ball was right there. Cot went crazy when I got that ball."

Most remember Presnell as keeping a lot of young lives from going south.

"Cot Presnell sure helped me," Bob May said. "You could tell he cared about you, he and his brother Zeb."

May and Bo Austin were teammates in the early '50s when Presnell was an assistant.

"Cot thought the world of Bob May and (vice-versa)," Bo Austin said. "Cot meant a lot to all of us. And he was a darn good football coach."