WHEN ASKED to share his favorite quote, lifetime wellness teacher at Tullahoma High School (THS) and offensive coordinator for the football team Caleb Olive fittingly quoted his hero of a dad, Tullahoma Athletics Director John Olive, who said, “Do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
In his fifth year of teaching and eighth year of coaching, Caleb said helping young people realize their full potential motivates him the most. Every day, he strives to make a difference in the lives of his students and players. Olive feels like he kicked the football over the goalposts, beat the buzzer, and won the championship trophy as he watches his students succeed in life. “I try to always emphasize that we all start out differently on this path of life. The destination is up to us. There are bumps along the way. Sometimes the bumps are our fault, and sometimes there are bumps we can’t control. I have two choices: I can sit on the bump in the path and wonder why this would happen to me or why this would happen at all. Or I can decide to find the best way to fix it to get back on the right path. That doesn’t mean you have to do it all by yourself. People are put into your life to help you move in the right direction.”
When students choose the opposite path, Olive said, “The hardest part, whether it’s teaching or coaching, is when I’m trying to help a kid reach their full potential, and they don’t realize it. It happens every year. You watch young people decide to go down the wrong path, and you know how great they can be if they make the right decisions. There are way more success stories where young people choose the right path, but it’s hard to think about the ones who made the wrong choices.”
Olive married his wife, Maranda, four years ago, and together they have a 1-year-old son named J.D. The two met in 2017 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), where he earned a health and physical education degree. “I’ve been fortunate to be living this life to the best of my abilities. I have a great wife; without her, I would be lost, so there isn’t much more I can ask for in this life. I knew I either wanted to be in some type of ministry or a coach. I thought I would become a youth minister or a summer camp director. After talking it over with some of my mentors, they encouraged me to get a college degree in something, and then I would go to seminary if I felt the call to ministry. I ended up deciding on a physical education degree and coaching while I was at UTC. When I saw how much impact I could have on people’s lives on that path, I never looked back. I serve at Kings Cross Church, but my ministry is in my everyday life.”
Olive is grateful to the teachers who helped him along the way. “They all made me who I am today. Sometimes I didn’t always understand the lesson they were trying to share with me at the time, but now I understand what they were doing. One of my favorite quotes is: ‘I want it to matter that I was here.’ I hope I’m making a lasting impact on the people around me. It doesn’t mean that everyone has to like me. If I wanted everyone to like me, I would sell ice cream. I’m sure I would still have people who wouldn’t like me, even in that profession. I hope my students, players, and coworkers know I do everything to the best of my abilities to make this small part of the world a better place.”
Olive’s future plans include successfully balancing family life and his career with the state championship team. As a THS graduate and a former Wildcat, Olive said, “Tullahoma is a unique place. I tell our team all the time, ‘You are the only team in the country wearing Tullahoma on your chest. There are a lot of Franklin and Coffee counties around the country, but only one Tullahoma. Take pride in the fact that you have the honor of representing our community.’ Every year, I want to look back on what I did and how I did it and make it better. I don’t like always doing the same thing just because that’s the only way it’s been done.” GN
