By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Whenever Seth Carlisle finds a need, he does his best to try to address it. Whether it's learning a new position on the gridiron or giving a helping a hand in the community, it's never been a problem for the Tennessee Tech linebacker to step in and do what needs to be done.
That's just the kind of man Seth Carlisle is. And it comes in earnest with a solid background in his family, his faith, his community and his service – the cornerstones of the Tennessee Tech athletic programs -- which made it such a perfect fit.
It's also why Carlisle was a perfect fit for the Ohio Valley Conference's Steve Hamilton Award for 2023 after a vote by the conference's athletic directors and sports information directors. Carlisle is the fourth Golden Eagle to win the award since it began in 1999 and the third from the Tech football program, joining Grant Swallows (2001-02) and teammate Jamaal Thompson (2020-21). Beth Boden from the Tech softball team also won the award in 2007-08.
The Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award is given to an OVC student-athlete of junior or senior standing who best exemplified the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator. Hamilton, a 1958 bachelor's and 1963 master's graduate from Morehead State, earned OVC championships in baseball, men's basketball and track.
He pitched in the Major Leagues between 1961 and 1972 with the Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs, before coaching in the minors and returning to his alma mater in 1976 to become the Eagles' head coach. Over 13 seasons, he put together a 305-275 record with five OVC division titles and two conference championships.
He became Morehead State's Director of Athletics in 1988 and held the post until he passed away in 1997. Hamilton stands as the only individual to play in the NCAA Basketball Championship, the World Series and the NBA Finals.
"It's an awesome thing," Carlisle said. "When Coach (Dewayne) Alexander called me a couple days ago, I was super excited. I looked it up and researched it since then. It's really cool and I don't necessarily think it was anything I did but a product of where I am and Tennessee Tech. To see your name on an award named after Coach Hamilton, it's truly special and something I'm really proud of. After just reading a little bit about him, you can certainly tell what he meant to the OVC and the programs he was a part of."
Accepting the honor with a humble spirit, Carlisle credited everyone around him saying it was as much what his coaches, his instructors, the community provided as much a reason as why he won the award as what he did. Though, there was one thanks he didn't want to let slip by:
"I want to thank God," Carlisle said. "Without Him, none of this would have been possible. That's the most important thing. If you can squeeze it in there, it's all credit to the man upstairs."
The award will be presented to Carlisle next Friday when the OVC hosts its annual honors event.
Carlisle's duty to help others and serve the community is an interesting parallel to his own athletic career. At Macon County High School, Carlisle was a standout quarterback. When he came to Tech, he was shifted from the offense to the defense, finally settling into a linebacker slot – a spot he grew into and proved to be one of the top defenders in program history as he completed his career just a couple tackles short of the Golden Eagle career Top 10.
"That's a really cool way to look at it," Carlisle said. "I never thought of it like that, but you're exactly right. Whatever need it may be – at the time, I didn't know which way it was going to go, but I knew I wanted to play. If it was best for the team, I was going to jump in and give it everything I've got. I'm sure it would have been smoother for Coach (Bruce) Hatfield and Coach (Donnie) Suber if I had played a little more defense in high school. But it was great and they were awesome. It ended up being the most favorite thing I've ever done. I wish I had been playing linebacker as a kid.
"That's just a big part of it – find the need and fill it. I've fallen in love with the process. I really don't know what I would have done if I wasn't a linebacker at Tennessee Tech. It's awesome and definitely a cool way to look at it when you say it like that."
It also meant a lot to Carlisle to follow in the footsteps of his teammate Jamaal Thompson, who won the award two years ago. It proves to be a testament to the Tennessee Tech football program and its effort to shape the lives of young men and set them on the path for success in life.
"It's not really surprising because that's the type of people we have," Carlisle said. "It's special because JT and I played on the same team together. If I were to sit here and go through the list of guys we played with, there's multiple guys that could be in the same position. We all want the same thing, we worked extremely hard and it's truly a testament to the culture and the product of the people Tennessee Tech brings in. When you get us all here and working together, it's a product of what the university can do."
Carlisle finished his final season with the Golden Eagle football team in 2022, recording a team-best 98 tackles, including three for-loss, with five pass breakups and two quarterback hurries. He finished his collegiate career with 330 total tackles – just outside the program's career Top 10 – with two fumble recoveries, five interceptions and 11 pass breakups.
Carlisle had five double-digit tackle games in 2022, including a career-high 16 stops against Kennesaw State.
Most recently, Carlisle was named Tennessee Tech Athletics Man of the Year during the department's annual Golden Wings Awards event. Among his leadership positions, Carlisle has served on the Tech and OVC Student-Athlete Advisory Committees and the Tech Football Leadership Council.
Following the 2022 campaign, Carlisle was selected by the Tech football coaching staff as the recipient of the team's Sonny Allen Leadership Award, named after the TTU Sports Hall of Famer who was a team captain of the Golden Eagles' first two OVC championship teams in 1952 and 1953.
It is a priority for Alexander to play the game the right way and build men of character, compassion and loyalty. It's no surprise that Carlisle personifies that and he's far from the only one on the Golden Eagle rosters across the department.
Carlisle had a chance to help continue the quest to shape the game as he had the opportunity to serve on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee Student-Athlete Connection Group as the OVC's representative. That led Carlisle to see a new side of the sport and gain a greater appreciation of the game he loves.
"That was something that came about as being a part of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee," Carlisle said. "(Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Senior Woman Administrator) Mandy Thatcher had come to me about it. To be honest, I didn't know what I getting into when I said yes. It was cool. You get to see both sides of it as a player. Normally you only see the rules to a smaller degree as a player as you hear from the coaches. Getting to be a part of the committee really let you be a part of the coaching, the legislature, the rule-making, just all those things in football that you really don't get to see. They allowed us to vote on things – particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic – and they were pretty big things. To get to see them work through things and see how much they care about what we actually have to say and see things."
"I've loved Coach Alexander since I've been at Tech, but it really gave me a whole new appreciation, love and respect for him, because not only is he our head coach and with us every day, involved with offense, defense and everything in between, but it gives you the slightest insight into everything else that goes into it that the players don't really know much about. You really couldn't fathom the amount of stuff he has to do outside of football. Not only is he taking care of us day-to-day, but there's so much more to it. That was something that really struck me as really cool."
Academic success is a vital part of a student-athlete's collegiate career and Carlisle excelled in the classroom. In addition to being a fixture on the Tech Athletic Director's and OVC Commissioner's Honor Rolls, he earned the OVC's Scholar-Athlete Award, was twice selected to the Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association's Academic All-Star Team, named a Charles W. Hawkins III Scholar-Athlete by the Middle Tennessee chapter of the National Football Foundation as well as a spot on the NFF's Hampshire Honor Society.
Carlisle was twice named the OVC's candidate for the STATS FCS FedEx Ground Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award and was a finalist for the award both times. He was also a semifinalist this season for the NFF's William V. Campbell Trophy.
He earned his bachelor's degree in biology/health sciences in December 2021, then collected his master's in business administration in December 2022. Carlisle is currently preparing to submit his application for dental school.
"My parents have always pushed me," Carlisle said. "I firmly believe if I didn't perform well in school, my parents wouldn't have let that slide. I'd never have been playing football or basketball if I hadn't been a good student. I come in and I knew I wanted to do something after football. It was easy to get solely focused on football, but I knew there was more I wanted to do. At first, I thought it was pharmacy, but about halfway through, I realized it was dental school and become a dentist. I always had that other motivation to keep my grades up.
"Talking to a lot of people from back home or from other places that don't even get the opportunity to go to college – and I got to come for free – I knew I needed to take advantage of everything Tennessee Tech had to offer. It was such a great opportunity. Once you've been in college, you kind of think the next big thing is to go play professionally, but it kind of makes you lose sight of how lucky you are to be a college athlete and get school paid for. I was lucky to have good influences early and it made me want to be the best student I could be."
For Carlisle, giving back to the community is important and it's something that's always been a part of his life. It gained more emphasis to him because the area means a lot to him.
"It was really neat for me to come to Tennessee Tech in general, because I kind of bordered on the Macon/Clay county lines and we're all part of the Upper Cumberland," Carlisle said. "Even though it's an hour away from where I grew up, it's still home. I was fortunate enough in junior high and high school to have service clubs. I was involved in Interact, which is a part of Rotary.
"Community service was something I really enjoyed doing and have done that for over half my life, probably almost my whole life if I look back into it. It's fun. Some of the things I enjoyed the most in high school was just going out and playing with the younger kids. As an elementary school student, the high school guys playing football and basketball are the idols. They're your Michael Jordans even if they're not."
With the Upper Cumberland area, the opportunities afforded to Carlisle and others like him present itself nearly every day.
"The opportunities in Cookeville and at Tennessee Tech to get out into the community and make an impact is kind of overwhelming," he said. "You can stay busy seven days a week if you wanted to. That's the kind of opportunities they provide. When I got here, I fell in love with the community and the people we were serving. Some people may look at it as something they have to do because we do have a requirement for it, but I certainly never looked at it like that. It was something I fell in love with – I love serving the community and that was one of the big things that got me into wanting to become a dentist. It was an opportunity to go back and serve my community when I get done. It's a big credit for Tennessee Tech and Cookeville to provide those opportunities."
Carlisle was certainly active in the community during his days in Cookeville. In service to the community and the University, Carlisle spent time as a staff member in June and July 2022 for the Governor's School for Technological Innovation and Business Leadership, assisting Dr. Susan Wells with the program.
With the Tennessee Tech football team, Carlisle read to local elementary school kids and volunteered with children from the Elinor Ross CDF Freedom School and Baxter Primary School through CODE (Center of Diversity Education, developed by former teammate and Steve Hamilton Award winner Jamaal Thompson). He also worked with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's effort to support Anna Cooper's Backpack Buddies (started by the late Tech cross country/track and field student-athlete to stave off food insecurity to Upper Cumberland children).
Other community service efforts included work with the Pink Ribbon Charity Gala in Cookeville, Signature HealthCare of Putnam County Wheel Chair Super, Tech football kids' and women's clinics, serving at local food pantries, volunteer work at local schools and tornado clean up after the Cookeville tornado in 2020.
There's one opportunity that became near and dear to Carlisle's heart as he volunteered with the Remote Area Medical clinics in Cookeville the past two years, helping to provide free medical, dental, vision and veterinary care to the Upper Cumberland region.
"If you don't know what it is, you really need to because it is truly a life-changing experience," Carlisle said. "I don't take that lightly. It's for underprivileged people in the community and they do these clinics all over the country. They have one in White County, one in Cookeville, one in Pickett County, just anywhere that they've been contacted. They just go and help underserved people in communities big or small. It's two days worth generally and ours were usually Saturday and Sunday.
"People will come in the day before the event even starts and sleep in their car just to have their spot in line and receive free dental care, medical checkups, eye checkups. You never really understand how some people need that until you see something like that. It's eye-opening. All of those people are so grateful and appreciative of what you're doing while you're there. Truly, it's one of the most favorite things I've done as far as community service ever."
Faith, family, service. Those values are the cornerstone of the Tennessee Tech experience, not only in athletics, but across the campus. Carlisle personifies that and the importance of those values in his life are paramount.
"They take it seriously and don't shy away from it one bit," he said. "Looking back, I feel like it was easy and misleading when you're going through the whole recruiting thing. A lot of people get caught up in 'What's the biggest school recruiting me?' or 'What's this?' or 'What's that?' It takes about a year of college to realize that's not the most important thing. Thankfully, I had a little bit of a relationship with Coach Alexander before, so I knew him. Coach Hatfield, I got to be his first college visit. He made a trip to Macon County High School of all places. I knew that they were great guys, but you get there and spend time with them.
"If I could go back and reevaluate my decision, I'd make it 100 times over. There's not even a thought in my mind after knowing them and playing there for five years because not only of what they taught me as a football player, but helping me grow as a man and in life. I really mean that – especially Coach Hatfield, I can't give him enough credit. That would have made my decision in and of itself."
As his athletic career draws to a close, Carlisle has words of wisdom for student-athletes.
"Never think you have it all figured out when you start," he said. "Always be open-minded. I was a quarterback and, in my mind, that was what I was. I got here and they had that solved. I came in as an athlete actually. That's what Coach (Marcus) Satterfield had recruited me as. As far as they were concerned, I could have played a few different positions. I come in and go to safety, so I adjust to that mindset. And it all just works out. They're not college coaches for no reason – they know exactly what they're doing and what's best for you whether you realize it or not.
"Also make sure you take the time to go out and serve, because they can really change your life and really catapult you into realizing what you want to do with the rest of your life. That's what it did for me anyway. Pick a school where you know your coaches have your best interest. When they start having those opinions and having those good and hard conversations, make sure you listen and think about them."
If Carlisle could sum up his Tennessee Tech experience in a few words, it's this:
"An opportunity of a lifetime," he said, "If I had to give it in a few words, it'd probably be faith, family and service. It really culminated in those three things. It's kind of crazy to think about it that I'm not in Cookeville anymore because that's been my life for the last four or five years. You get so close to everybody. Cookeville and Tennessee Tech is truly a special place. There's so much community support for athletics and the student-athletes support and give back to the community. It's an awesome balance. That's probably the most special thing about my time at Tech. It's how much you pour into them and they come right back and pour into you."
