If you see Brentwood Academy football coach Paul Wade wearing shorts during the TSSAA football championships on Dec. 4 when the Eagles Greg Gaines, a former NFL player and DuPont High School alum in Old Hickory, thought his high school buddy, Paul Wade, was selling himself short by wearing shorts all the time.The two had run into each other at Hermitage Hills Baptist Church way “back in the day.”“I remember him telling me, in his slow, southern drawl, ‘Paul, you will never get a good head coaching job because of those shorts,’ ” Wade told The Tennessean last year.Some thought that when he was hired by Brentwood Academy before the 2024 season that the school might object to his sideline attire. That’s not the case.He won three state championships as the coach at Davidson Academy and another one at Donelson Christian Academy while wearing long shorts and black socks.And so Wade will be wearing his trademark shorts and sneakers and backward hat again when the Eagles try for their 15th state championship face Baylor in the TSSAA Division II-AAA Blue Cross Bowl at 6 p.m. CT on Dec. 4 in Chattanooga.Gaines made amends for his erroneous assumption, though.“He said, ‘I will apologize to you and tell you I am wrong. You just got the best high school head coaching job and you wear shorts,’ ” Wade said.Why does Paul Wade wear shorts when he coaches?Paul Wade began wearing long shorts in 1992, when he began his high school coaching career as an offensive line coach at Donelson Christian Academy.Former Vanderbilt coach George MacIntyre, grandfather of Tennessee’s backup quarterback with the same name, hired him there. “First round of the playoffs, there was snow on the ground,” Wade said. “I decided to wear pants. We got beat. So from ’92 until 2010, I never wore pants.”Did Paul Wade stop wearing shorts in 2010?Wade still wore his shorts when he was hired to be an assistant at Ensworth by legendary coach Ricky Bowers, but not on game nights. The two teamed up to help the program win four consecutive state championships.”As soon as I left there, I went back to shorts,” Wade said.Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why is BA coach Paul Wade wear shorts during TSSAA football state final?