The Seymour freshman football team’s co-head coach Chris Smelcer lists five former SHS players that were talented enough to jump from middle school straight to varsity.

 

  • Gary Stinnett—The current Eagles’ varsity running back coach played in the Seymour offensive backfield as a ninth grader. Stinnett, a 1997 SHS graduate, went on to have an outstanding career and went on to star for East Tennessee State University. “He’s one of the best running backs in Seymour history,” Smelcer said of Stinnett, who carried the ball 52 times in a playoff game against Fulton his senior season.
  • Scott Galyon—The most decorated and successful SHS player of all time, Galyon graduated from Seymour High in 1992 after a four-year playing career that began during his freshman season. Galyon, of course, went on to star as a linebacker at the University of Tennessee and later played in the National Football League for the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins.
  • Lynn Miller—A wide receiver who graduated at the turn of the century (2000), Miller was the total package at wide-out with great speed and very good hands, according Smelcer. “He was about 6-foot-3, and about 180 pounds, just one of those kids who don’t come around very often,” Smelcer observed. Miller, like the next two players on the list, was a member of the successful Seymour teams in the late 1990s that made those memorable state playoff runs.
  • Cameron Atchley—A 2001 SHS graduate who made the unlikely move from middle school to varsity ball during the late 90s. Atchley, a physical linebacker and fullback and SHS, went on to earn All-Conference at Carson-Newman.
  • Barney Dalton—Another 2001 graduate, Dalton was also called upon to make an impression at the varsity level as a ninth-grader.

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