STRAWBERRY PLAINS, Tenn. — Todd Helton is set to begin his first season as Carter High School's football head coach, but it's not the first Todd Helton that comes to mind. The other Todd Helton is a baseball player from Knoxville.
"I always say, 'Same name, different bank accounts,'" Helton said. "He's got a few more zeroes in his than I do."
The Carter head coach is also a Knoxville native and five years younger than the Baseball Hall of Famer. He said he has been asked for his autograph plenty of times.
"I politely tell them that I'd be more than happy to sign anything you would like, but it's not worth the piece of paper it's written on," Helton said.
When former MLB player Todd Helton was inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame, the Carter coach got an unexpected gift delivered to his doorstep.
"They actually brought him cookies to my house and this young man knocked on the door and the kid was peeking around, and I went to the door, and I opened the card and I was like, 'What in the world?'" Helton said. "It was signed by coach Philip Fulmer, John Currie and I'm like, 'Oh goodness.' I chased the kid down, and my wife was like, 'He was enamored to try and meet you.' I said, 'I went to the curb and vastly disappointed his day.'"
Other times, it has worked out where the Carter head coach got a bit of recognition from a local establishment, whether it was intended for him or not.
"Litton's put on their board, 'Congratulations Todd Helton.' That was literally a week or two after I had been announced as the new head coach here," Helton said. "People were taking pictures and being like, 'At least everybody at Litton's is ticked.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I don't think they're talking about me.'"
The shared name, and occasional mix-up, is something the Carter head coach has learned to have fun with. When it comes down to it, he's fine with taking a back seat to the Hall of Famer.
"If I've got to be the second-most famous Todd Helton in Straw Plains, well I'm tickled with that," Helton said.