Athlete of the Week: Cole Sims

White County High School junior Cole Sims is a multi-sport athlete and has been his entire life, with each sport playing a major role in his life.

Sims has dedicated hours, days, and years into his football and basketball career. Sims has played both football and basketball since he was around 5 years old. Sims was asked what it means to him being a multi-sport athlete.

“The most important part of being a multi-sport athlete is how it helps you grow overall both as a player and as a person,” he said. “Doing multiple sports has helped me build versatility and has taught me ways to adapt to different roles and challenges.”

Sims has started in football and basketball since his freshman year playing a major role on each for White County. Starting his high school football career, Sims started his freshman year in football playing safety and running back for the team. For being a freshman, Sims was still able to put up stats for the team where he scored a total of six points, 21 overall tackles, and had a total of 323 yards for the team as they were trying to rebuild after losing a wide variety of seniors.

Sims also started his freshman year as a starting point guard for White Counties boys’ basketball team. Ending off his freshman season, Sims had 234 points, a total of 107 rebounds, 43 assists, 43 steals, and nine blocks. Once football rolled back around, Sims went into his sophomore season stepping up more scoring for a total of 18 points, 37 overall tackles, and 32 total yards for the 24/25 season.

This football season also meant a lot to Sims, with it being the furthest they’ve made it in football history.

“My favorite moment of the 2024-2025 season was when we beat Loudon, sending us to the state quarterfinals,” he said.

Once football season had ended, he immediately transitioned into his sophomore basketball season. Sims put in work and continued throughout the whole season, scoring 135 points his sophomore season. Sims also had 99 rebounds, 65 assists, and 28 steals.

Improving since last season, Sims said, “I think a big improvement I’ve made is just having more confidence across the board and knowing I have to control the team and play a big leadership role.”

Going into his junior year, Sims was given a big role in both football and basketball as the teams each had continued to lose more seniors who played key roles and had to rebuild. Sims led the team in yards and touchdowns in the 25/26 season having 1,633 yards and 15 touchdowns total.

Once his football season ended, Sims once again made the immediate transition back to basketball, dedicating a majority of his time to it.

Already putting up numbers his junior season, Sims has scored 290 points, having 93 rebounds, 27 steals, 42 assists, and four blocks, with half the season remaining.

Sims gave input on how he thinks this basketball season has been different than previous ones.

“This year has been much different,” he said. “We play at a faster pace, and we all play good together and share the ball.”

Head coach Eric Mitchell has got to see Cole Sims grow the last three years.

“It’s fantastic having Cole on the team.” Coach Mitchell said. “He’s such a super kid, and he plays hard every night. He’s been having a really good season up until this point, and we just hope it continues, cause he’s just a pleasure to coach.”

Mitchell followed it up by talking about Sims currently.

“He’s a year older and stronger, and he’s finishing at the rim now, and he’s shooting the three really well,” the coach said. “I just want to see this performance continue from him.”

Sims currently sits at 659 points in his high school career for basketball

He has also received accolades in the last three years receiving All-Freshman team for basketball, also receiving All-District recognition, and was selected for All-Defensive team in District 7AAA in the 24/25 season.

This season, Sims has received first team All-Region in football and received MVP at Frank’s Classic Shootout where he put up 31 points in one game.

When asked what he looks to improve moving forward, Sims said, “I want to keep improving all of my percentages like free throws and three-pointers. I also wanna just continue working out and putting shots up for basketball season.”

Looking ahead, the future ahead is bright for Cole Sims in his sports career going into his senior season.