Saturday, March 01, 2008
Ragsdale resigns at Giles
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
There was no announcement. No farewell tour. Not even a hint to anyone outside of his closest friends.
The winningest active football coach in Timesland and the master of the single-wing offense kept it quiet.
He wasn't even sure himself until he got his intent form from the school this winter. On it, he could check the box to say he was returning for another year of coaching Giles High School football. Or he could check the one that said he wasn't.
And for the first time in three decades, Steve Ragsdale checked the latter.
Quietly, in his own personal way, a legend resigned.
"It's not something I wanted to make a big deal out of or anything like that," Ragsdale said Friday, adding that he's not sure his players even know that he's hanging up his whistle after 30 years. "I just look at it like any other teacher or coach who hands in their resignation."
But how many coaches have won 255 games against just 88 losses and two ties, as Ragsdale has? How many have won state championships in three separate decades? How many have confounded legions of opposing coaches with that old-school offense that doesn't feature a quarterback?
Ragsdale, 56, said his decision was at least five years in the making. A math teacher, he liked the "nice round figure" of 30 years and the sound of 250 wins, which he eclipsed this past October with a victory at Radford en route to a 10-2 season.
But the constant film study required to stay competitive exhausted him and pushed him closer to the exit.
"When I first started, it was fun," Ragsdale said of coaching. "Just plain, outright fun. Over time, it's kind of evolved and become a little more like work and a little less like play."
In recent years, he's quietly considered giving it up. But it wasn't until a few weeks ago that he decided this would be the year he'd check the "other" box.
"I don't know that in any decision you make, you're absolutely sure," he said. "I think probably just about everything you do is along a spectrum.
"But if you're coaching, it requires so much enthusiasm and passion for what you're doing. If you're the least bit considering that you ought not be doing it, maybe by definition you should not be doing it."
Potential replacements for Ragsdale were not immediately known. Giles athletic director Eric Widdoes could not be reached Friday evening.
"That's got to be a shock to the whole community down there," said Floyd County coach Winfred Beale, who's battled Ragsdale on the gridiron since 1981. "He's built something pretty special."
Ragsdale, the son of Narrows coaching legend Harry Ragsdale, took the reins at Giles in 1978. He went 2-8 in his first season. The next year, he went 6-3-1. In 1980, his team went 14-0 and won a Group AA title in an era when there were only three classifications.
"That was like igniting a bomb," he said. "That just really got things going."
Ragsdale led the Spartans to Group A Division 2 titles in 1993 and 2005 and made championship appearances in 1996 and 2006. All the while, he perfected the single-wing offense, a ground-based attack built on backfield deception.
"We've looked at that throughout my tenure as kind of our trademark," Ragsdale said. "We want the single-wing to be synonymous with Spartan football."
Around here, those things are also synonymous with Ragsdale, who plans to keep teaching part-time at least until his eighth-grade daughter, Margee, graduates from high school.
As for what he'll do come Friday nights next fall, he's not sure. But he is sure of one thing.
"It's been a totally enjoyable experience," he said.
