Lamar Rogers just completed his 50th year coaching basketball at Clarkrange High School.
It has been a legendary career, no doubt, including 26 trips to the state tournament. That includes 11 appearances in the state final and eight state championships.
However, the Clarkrange Lady Buffaloes had one of their most difficult seasons ever in 2025-’26.
Fighting a schedule that included powerhouse teams like Gordonsville, Stone Memorial, Pickett County, Jackson County, Brentwood Academy, Coffee County and Middle Tennessee Christian Academy, winning came a little more difficult to happen.
“We finished 13-20, but we played a lot of very good schools. We always do that so we can get better, but we may have had too tough of a schedule with this team,” Rogers said.
“We had some injuries that we had to worry about this season. We had trouble scoring, and we were a little inconsistent. It is the program’s first losing season in 52 years.”
The Lady Buffaloes were 8-9 through the month of December this past season. CHS participated in several holiday tournaments including stops in Monterey, Coffee County and Watertown.
Clarkrange struggled in the second half of the season, going 5-11 through the postseason.
The Lady Buffaloes finished third in District 7A regular season action with a 3-5 record, and finished fourth in the district tournament.
CHS lost to Gordonsville in the regional opener.
“We had three seniors in Lydia Phillips, Katelyn Cottle and Sophie Sitton,” Rogers said.
“Ellie Gunter is a freshman and she had an outstanding season. We’ve had players transfer in over the years so they could play at Clarkrange, so we’re going to have to see what happens [with the team].”
Rogers is a Hall of Fame coach and is the third winningest girls high school basketball coach in the country. He has an all-time record of 1,364-350. That puts Rogers just 15 wins from catching Joe Lombard at 1,379 and 52 victories from matching Leta Andrews in first with 1,416 wins.
Rogers said he’s taking coaching one year at a time.
“I am working on our schedule right now. We’ve got some time to decide about coming back next year,” Rogers said.
“I still really enjoy it, working with the girls and the competition of trying to win. Everybody is telling me to keep going. So, I am just kind of waiting to decide.”
Rogers has also said he has a granddaughter coming up in the school system that would “like to play for grandpa.”