Russell County Laker Football Coach Ryan Richardson is hanging up his headset.
The Laker Football Coach commented on his decision to step away as head coach of the program in his postgame comments on WJRS following Friday night’s playoff lost at Allen County-Scottsville.
“I informed the kids earlier this week that after 30 years, it’s time for me to be a family man, a full-time dad and a husband and a son,” Richardson said. “It’s hard to say to be honest. It’s the right decision and I’m at peace with it. I made the decision last summer, and wrote my letter July 1. I didn’t want anyone in our community or in our school district to think this season had anything to do with it. It didn’t. I knew we were going to have an up-and-down season. I’m not crazy. I know these cycles.
That’s the reason I told these kids earlier in the week. It was nothing they’ve done this season that made that decision for me. It was made solely for personal reasons and for family reasons. If you’re out there and you hear anything different, it’s a total lie. I haven’t been fired. I haven’t been run off. It was my decision and it was made last summer. There may have been some things happen that made me think it was the right decision, but you know, people talk and so they can talk.”
Richardson has long been a fixture in the Laker Football program. Richardson played for Russell County from 1986-1989, returning to assist with the program while he was in college in 1991 under then-head coach Rodney Johnson.
Since then, with the exception of a year or two that he took away from football, Richardson has dedicated much of his time to the Laker Football program.
Richardson served in a number of positions within the football program over the last three decades, most recently as the defensive coordinator under former head coach Bill Sharp before being promoted to head coach.
Richardson took over as head coach of the Lakers in January 2019. In his first year, he led the Lakers to a 6-5 record, the program’s first winning season since 2013.
That season, the Lakers finished the regular season 6-4 but fell to Franklin-Simpson in the first round of the playoffs.
He followed that up with a 6-1 record in 2020 but struggled in 2021, going 2-9.
Richardson was named the District Coach of the Year in 2020, in which he led the Lakers to an undefeated regular season and a district championship, but was upset in the first round of the playoffs by Warren East.
In three years at the helm of the program, Richardson finishes with a final record of 14-15.
