Ricker steps down from Battle

[Jags52 346]

Interesting late football opening

[50kw 140]

Tough place to coach football.

[ShaneFalco113 8]

Shocking but not that shocking news here. Coach Ricker has served JB well and will continue to in many ways.   It’s a tough school to coach football at indeed but it has hope.  The kids and athletes are there but the challenge is to get the athletes to come out and play at JB.  Losing year end and year out is the current standard.   It’s going to take a new leader and true program mindset to be established by the new incoming head coach. Hit those hallways and get the kids to come out and play.  
In popular opinion whomever takes over the helm needs to prioritize and establish on day 1 a new culture and identity.   The weight room and nutrition needs to become a priority alongside a revamp of the entire offense and defensive schemes. 
There is a severe need to redesign the youth feeder programs- system and oversee the youth programs as the garden of future players . That’s where the love for football starts and the inner connection to the HS program is missing.  

[Union_Fan 2,156]

I hate to hear this. I know that Battle didn't have the numbers, but the effort was there.

I had been expecting them to turn the corner. Not regional contention level, but middle of the road playoff contention maybe.

[SXSW 559]

10 hours ago, Union_Fan said:

I hate to hear this. I know that Battle didn't have the numbers, but the effort was there.

I had been expecting them to turn the corner. Not regional contention level, but middle of the road playoff contention maybe.

Lack of numbers in general and lack of interest in particular is killing football in Southwest Virginia, I can see a day in the near future where a lot of these schools just quit playing football or combine teams! The decline and fall of the economy in SW Va. is in full effect and kids just don't care about football any more. I hope Battle can find someone who wants to be there and can be a serviceable coach for them.