Walker ready to guide Ashley Ridge football into AAAA

By David Shelton

Staff Writer

Summerville – Ashley Ridge High School is making the jump from class AA to AAAA this fall as the school begins its third year.

Kenny Walker is taking over the reins of the football program this fall, replacing Doc Davis, who resigned earlier this spring after guiding the team for the first two years. Walker has never been a varsity head football coach but has been a successful wrestling coach.

For five seasons, Walker was the head junior varsity football coach at Summerville, losing only one game in five years. He is eager to try his hand at the varsity level.

“It has always been a goal of mine, to be a AAAA head football coach, and I’m thankful that the people here at Ashley Ridge have given me an opportunity,” said Walker, who assisted on the football staff under Davis. “We’re still starting up and we’ve got a long ways to go, but you can bet I, along with my staff, will do all we can to succeed. Everyone knows we face a tough road moving up to AAAA. It will be a great challenge for us but we won’t stop working. We have a good staff and we’ll stay focused.”

Walker says the biggest job for he and his coaching staff will be in the area of confidence. Ashley Ridge will face more established programs with bigger, faster and stronger athletes in the coming year.

“It’s a cliché but really the goal this year is just try to get better from game to game,” he said. “Obviously we want to win and we’re going to try to win every game. If we can put ourselves in a position to win, we’ll get our share.

“The big thing will be handling adversity. We’re going to have plenty of hard times and it will be a struggle at times. We have to work hard to keep our players working hard and trying to see the future.”

Walker has assembled his coaching staff for the coming year and has brought in a few coaches that assisted him on the junior varsity staff at Summerville. Randall Tucker will coach tight ends and Jimmy Mitchum will coach linebackers. Rob Brady will assist Walker with the defensive linemen.

Tee Newman will be the team’s offensive coordinator, a position he held at Summerville. Newman is the former boy’s basketball coach at Summerville, leading the Green Wave to a state title three years ago.

Ray Wilson is a returning member of the staff and will coach the offensive line. Brian Givens, another returning coach, will coach running backs.

Baseball coach B.J. Bellush coaches wide receivers. Coaching the secondary are Kevin Bellush and Lee Newton.

“We’ll do a lot of the same stuff defensively that coach Davis had in place, except for a few changes in the secondary and coverages,” said Walker. “Offensively we will be similar, operating mostly out of the spread. We have some skill people returning but we’ve got some work to do up front.”