Scotts Hill gains former Riverside head football coach
REAGAN – Jeff Robertson made a hard decision at the end of the 2015 high school football season.
Then the head coach at Riverside, he decided then was the time to step down from leading the Panthers as he and his wife, Andrea, dealt with her bipolar disorder.
A year-and-a-half later, Robertson has weathered dealt with different types of adversity, mainly with his wife’s death, and has returned to coaching football at Scotts Hill.
“This will be my 30th season coaching football,” Robertson said. “Even if I hadn’t stepped down the year before, I don’t see how I would’ve been able to be a coach and be effective and do everything a coach needs to do while dealing with that.”
Double stress
Bipolar was something the Robertsons dealt with on more than one occasion. When Jeff was the head coach at Liberty in that school’s infancy, Andrea had a couple of instances where she needed help.
“We got her some help and on medication and had 10 good years, but the thing about medication with what she had is the medication only works so long before you need to change it,” Robertson said. “I think after that long, plus other things going on in our lives and with me at Riverside, she started having problems again in that football season and it was a lot to deal with plus getting through football season.”
Jeff stepped down as coach and planned to remain the school’s athletic director before the school administration went in a different direction. Robertson said he was told he’d become an assistant principal before he was informed he’d remain as a teacher.
“All of that was going on, and she wasn’t getting any better,” Jeff Robertson said.
Then things took a tragic turn on May 19, 2016 when Andrea committed suicide.
Dealing with tragedy
“It’s a choice,” Jeff said. “Dealing with that is like football or life, really.
“I could lay around and feel sorry for myself, or I could get up and take one step at a time and push through it. It was hard. There were some days I didn’t think I could do it, but I wasn’t going to let what was going on beat me.”
Getting through the summer was a tough time, but it was also good he didn’t have classes to teach or a football program to lead through the summer and prepare for the season.
Because of the timing of what happened with the school system and the apparent job in administration that didn’t happen, a job Robertson was prepared to take at Scotts Hill didn’t happen. He returned to Riverside and taught this past school year.
“The kids and the people in the school are good people that I enjoyed working with every day,” Robertson said. “But I was ready to get somewhere else.”
Starting over at Scotts Hill
Robertson officially accepted the assistant coaching position at Scotts Hill in April just before former coach Michael Stroup left for University School of Jackson.
He was set to meet with Stroup planning for spring practice when Stroup let him know he was leaving. Robertson said he has no aspirations now to return to being a head coach.
“There are benefits to being a head coach, but leading an entire program has its headaches too,” Robertson said. “I think getting back into it where I’m getting back into it is a good situation for me.”
The situation is coaching offensive and defensive line at Scotts Hill under new head coach Daniel Duncan. Robertson is the only coach on the staff that’s older than 35 years, so he’s also become the mentor for the group.
“I’m glad he’s here with us because he’s a former head coach that can help with the administrative part about all this,” Duncan said. “But his 30 years of experience coaching means he’s got a lot more experience than the rest of us.
“And his attitude is great. He’ll ask me about doing different things with the line, and I know he’s got it covered no matter what he does.”
Robertson said the new position is the perfect fit for him at this time.
“It’s what I needed,” Robertson said. “I appreciate Coach Duncan and (Scotts Hill principal Beverly Ivy) and everyone here for giving me this opportunity.
“It feels good to be needed. It’s been a while since I felt like that. I think there’s some good kids here in this program, and I’m glad to work with them and the coaches here. I’m glad to be here.”
Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at jacksonsunsports.