another william blount fan converts over to maryville

[JSamson7]

He coached a state champion wrestler at Greenback. His wrestling teams were beating alot of the bigger schools.

Yes, he did coach a state champion & had some good teams. I will give the credit though to Jeremy on his title & his dad for helping get those kids to the level they needed to be to beat those teams. Personally, if Blackmon was still there nobody would be talking about anyone else as the reason Greenback had their run.

[oldgov]

Yes, he did coach a state champion & had some good teams. I will give the credit though to Jeremy on his title & his dad for helping get those kids to the level they needed to be to beat those teams. Personally, if Blackmon was still there nobody would be talking about anyone else as the reason Greenback had their run.

[oldgov]

But doesn't every good head coach surround himself with good people and good asst coaches no matter what the sport is. Just sayin.

[MaryvilleWiseguy]

WB , you guys just don't get it. You get a new coach and you win your first game against Loudon and all of the sudden everybody starts chant we are the world - beaters and we are gonna beat Maryville this year. While all of that may or may not be true lokk at all the undue pressure that you put on the coaches and the boys. Let them celebrate their victory on Friday night and then on Monday get back to business and build on your success. Its the same every year over there and you all will succeed in running off another coach within a year and you will be starting over yet again. You have got to crawl before you can walk , if you start walking early thats great but build it solid on the bottom before you start claiming victories down the road.

[JSamson7]

So using that logic, the same argument could be made that Barry Switzer was a good NFL coach because he won a Super Bowl by surrounding himself with an already stocked roster & coaching staff. In reality, Switzer was nothing more than a decent manager & that's about what I would say Ridge did at Greenback. As long as he showed up for work & didn't do anything to screw it up, he was going to have good wrestling teams during his time at Greenback.

 

As far as his football teams, it's pretty hard not to succeed when you have the Seymour boys & the future head coach of your program calling plays.

[wb85]

Hey, the original poster has a point. Ridge is a good person, but I haven't seen anything over his career at Greenback (football or wrestling) that leads me to believe he's a good coach.

So what's your problem? If Coach Ridge is so bad you should be glad he is gone, right? Troll on.

[jake]

So using that logic, the same argument could be made that Barry Switzer was a good NFL coach because he won a Super Bowl by surrounding himself with an already stocked roster & coaching staff. In reality, Switzer was nothing more than a decent manager & that's about what I would say Ridge did at Greenback. As long as he showed up for work & didn't do anything to screw it up, he was going to have good wrestling teams during his time at Greenback.

 

As far as his football teams, it's pretty hard not to succeed when you have the Seymour boys & the future head coach of your program calling plays.

 

Yeah, whatever you say....who gives a flying flip about wrestling?  I could care less what kind of wrestling coach he was.

[jake]

WB , you guys just don't get it. You get a new coach and you win your first game against Loudon and all of the sudden everybody starts chant we are the world - beaters and we are gonna beat Maryville this year. While all of that may or may not be true lokk at all the undue pressure that you put on the coaches and the boys. Let them celebrate their victory on Friday night and then on Monday get back to business and build on your success. Its the same every year over there and you all will succeed in running off another coach within a year and you will be starting over yet again. You have got to crawl before you can walk , if you start walking early thats great but build it solid on the bottom before you start claiming victories down the road.

 

Wiseguy, if you will look back through the posts, only two posters got ridiculous with their expectations and outlandish predictions.  Don't hold us all responsible for them.  Most everyone I know, were realistic with their expectations coming in....Coach Ridge knows that he has support from the bulk of the fans.

[Governm]

Wiseguy, if you will look back through the posts, only two posters got ridiculous with their expectations and outlandish predictions. Don't hold us all responsible for them. Most everyone I know, were realistic with their expectations coming in....Coach Ridge knows that he has support from the bulk of the fans.

I know you are referring to me but I didn't have unrealistic expectations. I thought this team "could" win 5 + games and make the playoffs. That's hardly unrealistic.

[Governm]

And if you think about it I was right. If this team had been playing the way they are capable of playing they would be 3-0 right now. I made my predictions based on talent and coaching. Nobody could have predicted the team would be playing with zero effort at this point. You assume that kids are gonna want to win if they sign up to play.

[greenbackdad]

For the record.  My son wrestled and played football for Coach Ridge at Greenback.  Even the year he was the assistant at Greenback under coach Blackmon, he was the head coach and he helped my son do very well at state.  He started that program from nothing.  The Millers were a load of tallent, but they would not have been there without Coach Ridge.  Coach Blackmon was a good coach, but he was there because of Coach Ridge.  So was Coach Gossett, Henderson, Demerrit, and many others.  Jamie Miller was a big help to him, because Coach Ridge let him.  Greenback won three region championships and competed for state championships under his leadership in wrestling.  It is easy to forget that Greenback's football team had 3 out of 4 losing seasons before he had 3 out of four winning seasons as head coach.  Hicks is a very good coach.  Ridge knows that too.  He hired him.  Don't forget that the year before Hicks came Greenback was 8-4, not too shabby.  So before you question his coaching ability look at the facts.  As for the Seymours, I don't know any good coach without good players.  The two things I will say about Coach Ridge is as a parent, I know he cared about my son (he is going to watch him play on Saturday in two weeks).  The second thing is that he is obsessed with winning.  I won't stand by and let my son's mentor's coaching ability be questioned.  William Blount is lucky to have him.  I wish we could get him back at Greenback (he is one heck of a math teacher, too).  He is not the answer to everything, but he does surround himself with people that can do well what he doesn't.  He does work hard, and he will do fine at WB if you give him a chance.  And for the Maryville fans, ask the wrestling people about their success against Greenback when he was coaching.

[jake]

For the record.  My son wrestled and played football for Coach Ridge at Greenback.  Even the year he was the assistant at Greenback under coach Blackmon, he was the head coach and he helped my son do very well at state.  He started that program from nothing.  The Millers were a load of tallent, but they would not have been there without Coach Ridge.  Coach Blackmon was a good coach, but he was there because of Coach Ridge.  So was Coach Gossett, Henderson, Demerrit, and many others.  Jamie Miller was a big help to him, because Coach Ridge let him.  Greenback won three region championships and competed for state championships under his leadership in wrestling.  It is easy to forget that Greenback's football team had 3 out of 4 losing seasons before he had 3 out of four winning seasons as head coach.  Hicks is a very good coach.  Ridge knows that too.  He hired him.  Don't forget that the year before Hicks came Greenback was 8-4, not too shabby.  So before you question his coaching ability look at the facts.  As for the Seymours, I don't know any good coach without good players.  The two things I will say about Coach Ridge is as a parent, I know he cared about my son (he is going to watch him play on Saturday in two weeks).  The second thing is that he is obsessed with winning.  I won't stand by and let my son's mentor's coaching ability be questioned.  William Blount is lucky to have him.  I wish we could get him back at Greenback (he is one heck of a math teacher, too).  He is not the answer to everything, but he does surround himself with people that can do well what he doesn't.  He does work hard, and he will do fine at WB if you give him a chance.  And for the Maryville fans, ask the wrestling people about their success against Greenback when he was coaching.

 

Thanks Greenbackdad.....most of us at WB that know Coach Ridge, know what kind of man he is, and you are right, he works so hard trying to help these kids.  He is top notch....there are just some on here trying to stir the pot.  Good luck to your Cherokees this season....I talk to Coach Ridge frequently and he speaks so highly of the Greenback program.