RHS looking for senior leadership
WEST LAFAYETTE – The Ridgewood High School Generals have made the playoffs in football three years in a row and 10 of the last 12.
“Our kids make us successful,” said Head Coach John Slusser. “They are very coachable kids.”
One of their main strengths this season will be the team’s senior class.
“They’ve been around the program,” Slusser said. “They’ve seen how it’s supposed to run and they’ve done a really good job so far of being leaders and taking control of things. We are absolutely looking to them for leadership.”
There were 18 seniors on last year’s 9-2 team.
“We are really trying to work kids in (to replace them) and get them reps and more experience,” Slusser said.
There are 10 seniors on the General’s 2017 roster and Slusser added that the coaches also are pretty happy with their sophomores and juniors.
“We like them and think they are going to be big groups for us,” he said.
The Generals play in the Inter-Valley Conference, which Slusser said will look a little different this year.
“They added a bunch of teams,” he said.
New to the conference are: Claymont, Indian Valley, Tuscarawas Valley, Conotton Valley and Buckeye Trail.
“The IVC made a (football) big school (south) and small school (north) division and we are on the big side of it,” Slusser said.
Joining Ridgewood in the south (big school) division are: Claymont, Garaway, Indian Valley, Newcomerstown, and Tusky Valley. The north division will be made up of Buckeye Trail, East Canton, Malvern, Sandy Valley, Strasburg and Tuscarawas Central Catholic. Conotton Valley and Hiland round out the league. Football games against Conotton Valley will not count as league contests and Hiland does not have a football program.
Ridgewood opens its 2017 season with a 7 p.m. home game on Saturday, Aug. 26 against Buckeye Trail.
“Our goals are to win as many games as we can and try to get better each week,” Slusser said.
In addition to Slusser, the coaching staff includes Jason Prater, Mike Masloski, Todd Cabot, Chris Cabot, Jake Lahna, Nate Carpenter, Chad Lahna, Dusty Shroyer, Chad Massie, Ryan Gress, Sam Carpenter and Chad Carroll.
Category: High School, Multimedia, Photo Galleries, Sports
