From a Golden Tiger to a Red Raider...
After six seasons serving as Russellville High School varsity football coach, John Ritter has accepted the same position at Decatur High School.
The move became official Tuesday morning after the Decatur City Schools Board of Education approved the hiring at their January meeting.
Decatur becomes the fourth school whose football program will be led by Ritter, who also had head coaching stints at Red Bay and West Morgan High Schools.
The Russellville City Board of Education met Monday, January 22nd for its monthly business meeting but Ritter was not among the personnel moves approved by the board. Ritter and his wife Lauren, a music teacher at Rusellville Elementary School, will both have teaching positions at Decatur, according to Russellville City Schools Superintendent Heath Grimes.
A Facebook post on the Decatur City Schools page calls Lauren a 'former music teacher at Russellville Elementary School,' so it is expected her resignation will come concurrently with her husband's.
Since he was hired prior to the 2018 football season, Ritter's teams have seen tremendous success in 5A Region play. This year's senior class will graduate with a 24-0 record and four consecutive championships in Region 8 and Ritter's overall region record at RHS is 35-3.
He finishes his Russellville career with a 52-19 overall record, and playoff appearances each of his six seasons. In 2020, the Golden Tigers finished 10-3 and reached the quarterfinals of the 5A state playoffs, Russellville's best season under Ritter.
For Grimes, who is a close friend with Ritter, the news about his football coach leaving is something he's known for a week or so, but it was still a difficult day Tuesday once Decatur's school board made the hire official.
“John is a good friend and a great football coach. He's been successful everywhere he's coached and while we hate to see him leave Russellville, it's a decision he believes best for his family and career and we wish him the best moving forward,” Grimes said.
Grimes said he told the Russellville board about Ritter accepting the Decatur job at the board's January 22nd meeting. But Ritter's resignation was not on the agenda because the job didn't become official until the Decatur BOE approved it Tuesday morning.
RCS Board President Greg Trapp said Ritter let the board know he was 'entertaining the idea' of leaving Russellville.
“It wasn't something he kept a secret. We've known this for a couple weeks and when the Decatur coach left, it opened up a 6A job and what I'm assuming was a better opportunity for him,” Trapp said.
“He wasn't on our radar to get rid of him or anything like that. We had no plan toward making a change and I told him we had not talked about that. I talked with him at length a week and a half ago, and told him we wanted to keep him if that's what he wanted to do, but if he felt there was a better place for him, his family and his place in life, you can't blame anyone for doing that,” Trapp added.
Trapp said the search for Russellville's new varsity football coach will begin immediately and the job will be posted within a few days. The interview process will be handled, as is normal protocol, by the superintendent and the school's principal, Jeremy Madden, who will make a hiring recommendation to the board once the interview process is complete.
As West Morgan head coach, Ritter's three-year record was 17-16. His two years at Red Bay saw his teams post a 16-7 mark, making his overall head coaching record in 11 years 85-42.
Ritter's winning percentage in Region 8 football games was the highest in Russellville High School's history.
Ritter was present for the Decatur City Schools Board of Education meeting Tuesday morning when he was hired.
Ritter is a graduate of the University of Alabama, with a degree in Social Sciences. He holds a Master's Degree in Instructional Leadership from West Alabama.
Ritter was also a three-sport high school letterman and he played quarterback at the University of North Alabama from 2003-2004.
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