Re-Post of Jamestown News Article

L to R Luke Heavner, DeSean Anderson, Elliott Cobb, Luke Sonricker, Tyler Ritter, Billy Stone, David Ritter, Walt Sparks.

Below is an article from the Jamestown News. I can honestly say that coaching the boys was one of the best experiences of my life. We had good times and made such good friends. It is in the end what brought us back to Jamestown and allowing Tyler to finish his prep football career with his closest friends.


It takes a village to build a football program.

November 4, 2009

by Ogi Overman
(Part two of a two-part series)

If one is searching for first causes, it only makes sense to go back to the beginning. If the search seeks to explain Ragsdale's current football season, which at this juncture is undefeated and one win away from the Piedmont Triad 4A conference championship, the first cause would likely be the formation of the Jamestown YMCA team in 2001. Although only one member of that team, Tyler Ritter, is currently playing for the Tigers, by the second season the team blossomed, producing at least a dozen current high school stars, most of them at Ragsdale.

Last week several of those instrumental in the creation of the youth league shared their recollections. Here are several more.

Dave Ritter, coach of the teams for their first three years

"It looked like it was going to die after that first year, and I went to Kim (McKone) and Terry (Matthews) at the Y and begged them to let me try to keep it going. I promised them we'd do some fundraisers and make this one of the best things they've ever done. The first year it cost the kids $150 for their equipment and $125 registration fee.

I went on a recruiting spree the second year and brought in DeSean Anderson and Walt Sparks and some kids I knew wanted to play. We went 7-0 on the 9/10 league and the 11/12 league did well too. Then the third year we brought in Luke Heavner and Robert Pompey and some other good kids and had it rolling by then.

I have a P.E. degree and had coached middle school football in Boone, but to show you what a good judge of talent I was, remember Tim Romer, who had such a good year as Ragsdale's quarterback last year? I had him playing nose guard.

I loved doing it but there were several others that deserve the credit. Jamie Martin and Mark Leitner were instrumental, and so was our team mom, Mrs. Meredith. We are fortunate in our community to have such good parents that are involved in good, positive ways.

My role these days is to make motivational videos and show them to the kids. We'll take game footage going back to the youth league and through middle school to the present and mix in cool music and end up with kind of a 'Rudy' message.

We've got a lot of good kids here. I dread seeing it come to an end, but hope it ends with a nice championship."

Dr. Kathy Rogers, Ragsdale principal

"This was really a great joint venture among a lot of us, but I imagine it was the brainchild of Billy Ragsdale. Everybody was so cooperative, our football coaches were awesome, the Y was amazing in developing a program that we'd be honored to have as our feeder program.

The Jamestown Youth League was fantastic, too. Men like Jerry Fuqua, Frank Weaver and John Overbeck, you couldn't ask for a better group.

All those who play don't necessarily come here and continue playing, but what's even more important is that they get the chance to be a part of a team and the values the Y instills in them. It's a wonderful way to develop young boys into young men. Further, it's preparing them to be good grown-up men, good fathers, brothers, citizens, that's the best part. Sure, I love it because they can play football, but it's that other part, those intangibles, that makes it all worthwhile."

DeSean Anderson, Ragsdale all-star wide receiver

"We were playing flag football at 7 and 8 but we wanted to play tackle. I was kind of like I am now, I played a little bit of everything, and Coach Norwood pulled some of us out individually in the eighth grade and we started working with the Ragsdale quarterbacks in the summer.

Quite a few of us have been together the whole time. Off these two teams there's Billy Stone, Elliot Cobb, Walt Sparks, Luke Sonnricker, Tyler Ritter, Robert Pompey, Matt Martin, Luke Heavner, Pete Romer and Tim Cates. Plus, Joseph Patterson's playing at Southern Guilford and Brian Hatchell's at Southwest.

The big difference in playing together that long is the trust factor. We all know how to react to each other because we know what they're going to do before they do it. For instance, (linebacker Sparks) Walt knows he can cheat up because he knows Billy's (Stone) got his back. It's a huge advantage.

(Late coach) Ronnie Smith entered the picture when I was born. He was like a second father to me. Truthfully, if not for him I wouldn't still be playing baseball today. The scholarship to South Carolina can all be traced back to him taking me out on weekends teaching me how to hit.

I messed up my knee earlier but I'm healthy now. I'm out here with my boys right now because I want that ring. We all do."

Ogi Overman can be reached at (336) 841-4933 or