Inside the success of Clarksville Christian girls basketball and how Trenton Hassell built it
Trenton Hassell had a vision for Clarksville Christian girls basketball when he became the Centurions' coach in June 2020.
Hassell, a former standout at Clarksville High and Austin Peay who played nine seasons in the NBA, saw a place where he could teach the fundamentals of basketball the way he learned them. At CCS, which is not a member of the TSSAA, he could do so without having to deal with the politics of most high school coaching jobs. He could play a national schedule, challenging his players against the best in the country, and maybe one day build his team enough to be mentioned in the same breath as powerhouses like IMG and Montverde Academy.
That vision has come into focus faster than even Hassell thought it would.
Clarksville Christian, which went 47-8 over the last two seasons, is off to a strong start against the toughest competition it's ever faced. The Centurions have already faced defending state champions from Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, and are 8-3 behind a growing roster headlined by Lauren Hassell, Trenton's daughter and a highly touted recruit in the class of 2027, and Marley Spiers, a 6-foot-4 freshman post with offers from Arizona and Mississippi State.
"The program had success before I came, but I wanted the success to be more than just conference and district games." Trenton said. "... I thought it would take more time, but we’ve been blessed."
Hassell, Spiers, Jayla Smith, Maddie Morgan and Mia Muiznieks have all been with the team for at least three seasons, many of them starting out as middle schoolers — Hassell was the Centurions' second-leading scorer as a sixth-grader in 2020-21. That season, CCS went 13-14 with a roster built largely with underclassmen.
"It definitely prepared us for the brutality and the pushing and the pace," Spiers said. "It definitely worked us up to that level to get where we needed to be."
Since that first season, CCS' program has grown to the point where it has a full middle school team for the first time. Trenton Hassell estimates that the Centurions average three newcomers per season. This season, that includes their second- and third-leading scorers, sophomore Nevaeh Brooks and junior Alessia Nesbitt, who transferred from Clarksville Academy and Creek Wood respectively.
"We try to do everything as a family," Hassell said. "We try to invest in the girls, not just on the court. Some of them know each other from playing in the summer, so they have a bond."
The Centurions have won back-to-back TSIAA state titles and National Assocation of Christian Athletes titles. While they have a handful of TSSAA teams, including Rossview, Middle Tennessee Christian and Webb-Bell Buckle, on their schedule this season, they've made the leap to out-of-state powers after playing — and beating — mostly local schools over the last three seasons.
This season, they've already played Grace Christian School and Sarah Strong, who ESPN's HoopGurlz ranks as the No. 1 player in the class of 2024, and Lutheran (Missouri), which has the No. 20 player in the class of 2025 in Jordan Speiser. CCS is scheduled to face reigning state champions Sacred Heart (Kentucky) and Africentric Early College (Ohio) in January, and will face Montverde and 2024 No. 3 Jaloni Cambridge on Dec. 30 at the Music City Hoopfest in Nashville.
"If he didn’t think we were as good as we are and he didn’t think we could do it, he wouldn’t put us up against all these great players," Lauren Hassell said of her father.
Why Trenton Hassell likes Clarksville Christian not being in TSSAA
Hassell hadn't given much thought to being a high school coach at the time he took the CCS job. He's always been more focused on the fundamental, skill-development side of coaching, using his own experiences as a guide. He doesn't see himself any differently now than he did when he started out as a coach.
That's part of why Hassell doesn't see any advantages to Clarksville Christian joining the TSSAA, a possibility which the school has wanted to explore in the future. The program he wants to build, in his mind, wouldn't benefit.
Being outside the TSSAA gives Hassell more freedom to challenge the Centurions against high-profile opponents. He can also coach more of his players year-round through his AAU program, the Tennessee Sol, whereas under TSSAA rules, he'd only be permitted to have 50% of the players required to play a game — in other words, three players — from CCS.
MORE: 20 Clarksville-area girls basketball players to watch during 2023-24 TSSAA season
"I don't got nothing against the TSSAA," Hassell said. "I just think there's too many restrictions: how many games you can play a season, how much time you can spend with kids. That's what our job is supposed to be as coaches, developing kids."
While TSSAA titles may not be in Hassell's vision, a "national respect" for Clarksville Christian certainly is.
"Hopefully one day we can play a national schedule, like a Montverde or somebody like that, and we can maybe have a chance to get invited to a big-time national tournament like (GEICO Nationals)," Hassell said. "That's our dream one day. We're not close yet, but we're getting there."
Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: How Trenton Hassell has built Clarksville Christian girls basketball
