RUSSELLVILLE – Russellville City Schools superintendent Heath Grimes said West Morgan head football coach John Ritter has been selected for recommendation to be the new head football coach for Russellville High School.
Grimes said Ritter will be formally recommended to the Russellville City School Board at their meeting on Thursday at 8 a.m. and, if approved, will begin his position on Monday, March 26.
Grimes said he is excited about the possibility of adding Ritter to the RCS staff and believes he will be a good fit for the high school’s football program.
“Coach Ritter has a decade of experience as a coach, with five of those years being a head coach,” Grimes said. “He has an impressive record, a great work ethic, and has proven to be a good leader who we believe will motivate, encourage and strengthen our student-athletes. During the interview process it was obvious that he is very driven and has a clear plan for success here. We are looking forward to what Coach Ritter can do at Russellville, and we know our community will support him and his efforts as he moves into this position.”
Grimes said Ritter, who is no stranger to Franklin County after serving as Red Bay’s head football coach and athletic director from July of 2012 through July of 2014, expressed a strong desire to be part of the Russellville community where he will raise his family along with his wife, Lauren, who has been the music teacher at Russellville Elementary School for the past 10 years.
“You could tell that Coach Ritter really cares about this community and cares about making sure the football program is not only something our community can be proud of but will also be something our student-athletes can benefit from,” Grimes said. “With he and his wife Lauren both being invested in our school system, we know Coach Ritter will have our students’ best interests in mind.”
RHS principal Jason Goodwin said Ritter’s previous accomplishments give him more than enough reason to believe he will be successful at Russellville as well.
“Coach Ritter was very successful at Red Bay and led the way for a strong turnaround at West Morgan, which was a traditionally strong program before they saw somewhat of a decline prior to Coach Ritter’s tenure,” Goodwin said. “He was able to get their program turned around and back on track, and we believe he will do that at Russellville as well. His motivation and determination will be a great asset to our football program.”
In his five years of experience as a head coach, Ritter amassed a 33-23 career record, was a playoff qualifier four out of five years, won a region championship, and was selected as the AHSAA All-Star Game North Team offensive coordinator in 2013. He was named the 2012 ASWA Class 2A Coach of the Year, the 2016 ASWA Class 3A Coach of the Year, the 2017 3A Region 8 Coach of the Year, the Franklin County Times Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013, and the Decatur Daily 1A-4A Coach of the Year in 2017 and 2017. Ritter also has five years of coordinator experience and overall in his career has had eight playoff appearances, four region titles, one state championship appearance, and an overall record of 76-41. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Secondary Education, Physical Education and Health Education.
As for the athletic director position, Grimes said they would be making changes to this position as well. Instead of one of the head coaches serving as AD, Grimes and Goodwin will serve as athletic directors for the school system moving forward.
“We know that traditionally the athletic director position has been held by the head football coach," Grimes said, "but we decided this would be a good chance to change things up in the hopes that we can add some stability and uniformity to the position."
Goodwin added that having the athletic directors be non-coaches allows for each coach to focus more specifically on their own sport and for the athletic directors to focus on the athletic program as a whole.
“We want to make sure that we are making the best and most fair decisions for all of our sports teams, and we think this is the best way to do this,” Goodwin said. “Having an athletic director that is also the head coach of one specific sport can either come across as an advantage for that sport because of a perceived bias, or it can be seen as a disadvantage since the coach can not focus solely on his or her sport because of the responsibilities of being the athletic director.
"By having Mr. Grimes and myself serve as athletic directors, we can make unbiased decisions that will be best for everyone. We can spread our focus to multiple sports without taking away from the coaching responsibilities of one specific sport. All of our sports teams and student-athletes are important at RHS, and we think we will be able to give the proper attention to each sport and offer a unified vision to serve as the foundation for the athletic program as a whole.”
