Riverdale's Randy Coffman named Tennessean girls basketball coach of year
Randy Coffman never sought out an undefeated season when he began to piece together Riverdale’s girls basketball schedule a year ago.
The goal for the second-year coach was simply to have the 2016 Class AAA state champions ready to defend their title.
The Lady Warriors did that successfully and capped it with a perfect season.
“(The undefeated season) just snuck up on us,” said Coffman, who is The Tennessean Girls Basketball Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. “We were thinking about the journey and the next step.
“We tried to schedule in a way that we could win a state title. We weren’t ever thinking about an undefeated season. But as the season went along the girls said, ‘We’re just going to get them all.’”
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Riverdale finished its season ranked No. 1 in the nation by both USA TODAY and MaxPreps. Coffman also named the Naismith High School Girls Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
Riverdale (34-0) defeated Memphis Central 66-59 in the Class AAA championship game.
Riverdale’s nondistrict wins included Hoover, the Alabama Class 7A state champion, and Norcross, the Georgia Class 7A state runner-up. The Lady Warriors also planned on competing in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona in December but didn’t go due to canceled flights because of the weather.
Coffman is Riverdale’s first coach to win two girls basketball titles at the school. The program has won four other times.
“There is a rich tradition at Riverdale,” Coffman said. “It’s nothing that Randy Coffman did. We had to embrace our identity. Last year it was us against the world and we thrived on that. This year we were the measuring stick. We had to know how to win and how to deal with winning.”
Reach Tom Kreager at tkreager @tennessean.com or 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @Kreager.