One Friday, Two Milestones: Trey Perry Reaches 100 at Mt. Juliet as Chuck Gentry Becomes Lebanon’s Winningest Coach
Wilson County football crossed two lines on the same Friday night, in two different cities, and neither of the men who crossed them was standing on his own home field.
In Clarksville, Mt. Juliet beat Clarksville Northeast 34-12 on Sept. 25, handing Trey Perry the 100th win of his tenure as the Golden Bears' head coach. A little farther down the road in Green Hills, Lebanon beat Hillsboro 28-7, and Chuck Gentry became the winningest coach the Blue Devils have ever had.
A job handed down, then earned
Perry's milestone carries a family story inside it. His father, Roger Perry, was one of the best-known names in Middle Tennessee high school football, a coach who went 266-93 across three decades at Westmoreland, Portland and Mt. Juliet. His last two Golden Bear teams, in 2011 and 2012, went a combined 25-3.
Then, in the spring of 2013, the elder Perry went into major heart surgery. By that June he had stepped aside as head coach, and the program passed to his son. It was a handoff that could easily have been read as a family courtesy. Fourteen seasons later, nobody reads it that way.
One hundred wins at a large-classification school is not something a coach stumbles into. It takes years of region schedules that never let up, playoff nights in November, and the steady work of rebuilding a roster every August. Perry has done it long enough that a good share of the players who helped him get to 100 were not born when he took the job.
This season also shows how the number got earned. Mt. Juliet opened 0-2, found its footing, and has now won three of four to reach .500 heading into the back half of the year.
Lebanon's record falls after more than a century
Gentry's mark reaches back even further. Lebanon High School has played football since 1919, and until Friday the program's career wins record belonged to Mark Medley. Gentry went into the week tied with him at 64. The win at Hillsboro made it 65.
He arrived in December 2016, leaving an offensive coordinator job at Cookeville to take his first shot at running a program. It was a bet on himself, and it has aged well. He was already the longest-tenured head coach in Lebanon history and had coached more games than anyone before him. Now he owns the wins record, too.
The Blue Devils did it the way they have been doing it all month. Running back Gyan Ezeta scored three touchdowns, and Lebanon improved to 5-1 with its fifth straight win since a season-opening loss.
What comes next
Both programs head into October with something to play for. Lebanon has momentum and a fresh piece of history. Mt. Juliet has climbed out of an early hole and has a coach whose name is now written into the program alongside his father's.
It has been a good week for Lebanon athletics in general. Just days earlier the Blue Devils' boys golf team punched its first-ever ticket to the state tournament as a team. Read that story here, and keep following Friday nights in Mt. Juliet and Wilson County on MtJuliet.com Sports.
