Halls assistant football coach O'Brien Bennett named coach at Unaka

Halls High School assistant football coach O’Brien Bennett has been hired as coach at Unaka.

Bennett, 33, a graduate of Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett, began his coaching career at Carter as an assistant from 2007-12. He moved to Halls the next year.

Halls went 8-4 in 2016 under coach J.D. Overton and reached the second round of the Class 5A state playoffs before losing to Morristown West, 20-17. In Bennett’s first year at Halls, the Red Devils went 0-10.

Bennett, who will finish out the school year at Halls, faces the task of rebuilding a Unaka program that went 1-10 last season and forfeited its first-round playoff game to Greenback.