Champions Dinner
The date for the 2025 Champions Dinner is TBD.
Champions Dinner 2024
Heath Shuler
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL)
It was a night to remember at the Greeneville - Greene County Boys and Girls Club Champions Dinner on Tuesday.
VFL quarterback and former United States Representative, Heath Shuler, was chosen as the event’s guest speaker. The dinner is one of the main fundraising efforts of the club throughout the year – and it’s a club Shuler supports wholeheartedly.
“It’s just great when a community rallies around an organization like the Boys and Girls Club to be able to provide a safe, great place for kids, to be able to spend time after school and enjoy and have those resources,” he said. “I think it just it’s amazing how many lives that you can change for the good and to be able to provide that service for a community.”
Aside from his speaking duties, the 1993 SEC Player of the Year signed some autographs and mingled with the numerous Vols fans in attendance.
Those fans have had plenty to cheer about in recent days and seasons, and Shuler believes this current run of form is thanks to outstanding leadership from the top down.
“If you look from Randy Boyd to the Chancellor – to Danny White,” he said, “probably as three incredible leaders in the right locations – probably better than we’ve ever had before.”
“And if you look at the coaching staffs, they’re all very similar in the way they do (things),” he continued. “Incredible, high-quality people. They’re great coaches, the recruit extremely well. But I think the most important thing is the impact they’re making on those student athletes’ lives.”
That includes Shuler’s son, Navy, who will be a redshirt-senior quarterback on Rocky Top this season.
Champions Dinner 2022
Mike Smith
Mike Smith Speaks for the Boys & Girls Club Champions Dinner
The Greeneville Sun
Nineteen-year veteran National Football League coach, Mike Smith spoke Thursday night at the Eastview Parks and Recreation Center for the Boys & Girls Club of Greeneville & Greene County’s Champions Dinner.
The Champions Dinner is one of the central fundraisers the Boys & Girl’s Club hosts. Local Greene County residents filled one-half of the gymnasium to listen to Smith speak and to help raise funds for the club. The event provided a dinner sponsored by Greeneville Federal Bank. The speaker was sponsored by Forward Air.
Boys & Girls Club Executive Director Scott Bullington said called Smith “a great role model for not only today’s youth, but adults, too. "Smith coached in the National Football League from 1999 to 2018. He was the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2008 to 2014. Raised in Daytona Beach, Florida, Smith eventually played collegiate football at East Tennessee State University. When Smith took over as head coach for the Falcons in 2008, it was his first opportunity as head coach after multiple assistant coaching positions at the collegiate and professional levels.
Smith owns a home in East Tennessee and spoke about his connection to the area.
“I enjoy spending time here,” Smith said. “It’s dear to my heart.”
Smith began his speech noting that though he is viewed initially just as an NFL head coach, he is more importantly a teacher. He continued, “You are all teachers.”
Smith spoke about the value of teaching and the commonality of being on a team whether as a family, professional or spiritual unit.
“We are all in teams,” Smith said.
Later, he added on to that idea by stating everyone is a coach.
“Everybody is a coach of a team. It’s all about teams and teamwork,” Smith said. “We all coach somebody.”
Smith brought up how he was involved in the Boys & Girls Club when he was growing up in Daytona Beach. He noted how, when he was involved as a youth member of the organization, the club originally was only for boys. Smith gave praise to the coaches and mentors he had during the years he was growing up in Florida.
“I would not have been an NFL coach without those people who cared,” Smith said.
Smith talked about the importance of caring, consistency and communication as a leader.
“If you are not consistent, you lose the trust of a team,” Smith said.
He cautioned against becoming satisfied with success.
“When you are successful,” Smith said, “There’s a disease called complacency.”
He explained to the audience that complacency is the reason he got fired from the Falcons in 2014.
Smith also spoke about the importance of communication but noted the struggles of face-to-face communication due to the modern age and its heavy screen-time.
“We’ve got to be able to communicate and collaborate,” Smith said. “The best communication is to sit and look at you in the eye and talk.”
Finally, Smith brought up how important commitment and humility is to an organization, family, relationship or team. He said that the best leaders are the ones who serve their team before they serve themselves.
"Commitment is greater than anyone in the organization,” Smith said. “You’ve got to lose your ego to be a successful leader.”
After Smith spoke, he opened up the floor to an auction to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club. Smith offered the winner of the auction two seats on his fishing boat.
Smith said he will coordinate the fishing trip, which will include all supplies and even a meal, to fit in accordance with the winner of the auction. The trip will take place on the South Holston or the Watuga River. He said he has done the trip in the past after an auction with the Boys & Girls Club in Elizabethton. Smith said he looks forward to the trip that will help to support the club.
After the auction, Bullington thanked Smith for speaking and applauded the once NFL coach’s efforts and time that he has spent in the Greene County community.
Champions Dinner 2021
Admiral Schofield
