In the continuing game of musical chairs, coach’s edition, DeKalb County High School announced its new boys’ basketball coaches for the 2022-23 season. The announcement comes after longtime Tiger basketball Coach John Sanders announced he would be moving to assist the Trousdale team, while Assistant Coach Logan Vance is taking on coaching duties at Smith County Middle School.

The new head Tiger coach is a familiar face to DeKalb students with Joey Agee taking on the job. Agee served as the Assistant DeKalb West School Principal for the past several years, and is the former DeKalb Middle School boys coach.

Cody Randolph will join Agee as assistant coach, moving from the head DeKalb Middle School Saints’ coaching position, which he has held for the past eight years.

Both Agee and Randolph will teach wellness and physical education at DCHS.

On Friday, July 15, DCHS Principal Bruce Curtis made the announcement saying, “We were fortunate enough to find our new boys basketball coach and assistant coach here within the system. Both had been the DMS coaches over the years. Coach Agee knows the people here, and the kids here. He’s been in our system for 20 years,” said Principal Curtis.

“Cody Randolph is coming over from the Middle School where he was the head coach for eight years, and he was the assistant high school coach before that. So, we’ve got a lot of basketball knowledge coming in and I’m looking for big things,” Curtis concluded.

“I am excited,” said Coach Agee. “I have been wanting to get back into coaching for a while now. God has seen fit that it be now, and that I’ll do it with a good friend of mine. His grandfather and my grandfather are actually brothers so we have known each other for most of our lives. I’ve always had a good relationship with Cody. He took over at the middle school when I went to the West School as assistant principal, and he did a good job.”

“I know a lot of the kids and have watched them grow up,” Coach Agee continued. “I have a daughter in high school, so I’ve seen these kids from the time that they were little. I’m looking forward to working with them.”

Agee served as a physical education teacher and boys’ basketball coach for 11 years, then served as assistant principal at DeKalb West School for eight years. He and his wife, Casey, live in Alexandria with their two daughters, Avery, a sophomore and star basketball player for the Lady Tigers, and Jordyn who will soon be a seventh grader at DeKalb West School.

Agee graduated from DCHS in 1999, then continued to Tennessee Tech where he majored in health and physical education. In 2003 he became PE teacher at DMS and started his head boys basketball coaching career, and earned his Master’s in Instructional Leadership degree in 2010. Eight years ago, Agee left DeKalb Middle School to become Assistant Principal at DeKalb West School.

Joining Agee is Coach Randolph who is also a familiar face to DCHS students. “In 2012, I helped Coach Lynus Martin, then I moved to DMS when Coach Agee was moving to Assistant Principal at the West School, and I coached for eight years. I’m just excited about the opportunity to get to work with Coach Agee. To fill the spot that he left, and for now the opportunity for us to coach together. I’ve known him my whole life.”

“I was actually getting out of coaching,” Randolph explained. “I had resigned from middle school coaching. I felt like the Lord was leading me away from coaching, but within just a couple of months this opened up and he called me. I have coached a lot of these boys here at the high school at the middle school and it’s going to be exciting to be able to reconnect with those kids at the high school level, and help them out as much as I can.”

Randolph and his wife, Amelia, have three boys, four-year-old Dawson, two-year-old Corbin, and six-month old McCoy. He graduated from DCHS in 2006 and went on to Tennessee Tech where he earned a Physical Education Degree in 2011. In 2012, Randolph taught wellness at DCHS and assisted former Boys Basketball Coach Martin. In 2014 Randolph moved to DeKalb Middle School as PE teacher and the Saints Head Basketball Coach.

With Randolph’s departure from DMS, Saints Assistant Coach Ethan Vanhook will assume the role as head coach. Lady Saints Head Coach Loree Hall has also recently resigned her position, with that role yet to be filled.