Marion County’s Ricky Ross directed his first game as a football head coach Thursday night but actually is in his second head coaching job, having succeeded Vic Grider at South Pittsburg but resigning two months later. He wound up taking the job at Marion County this spring, succeeding Mac McCurry.
Ross’s wife, Sandy, was a three-sport letter winner at Marion, graduating in 1990. He is the seventh head coach since the Warriors’ last state championship in 1995, the others being Landon Pickett, Tim Taylor, Dale Pruitt, Jason Evans, Troy Boeck and McCurry.
Ross has stressed leadership since he arrived in Jasper and provides a clear definition of leadership.
“You don’t lead by running your mouth,” he said. “Are you the first out to practice? Do you line up correctly? Are you teaching other guys how to do things right? That’s leadership.”
• There definitely is a football flair to South Pittsburg’s hierarchy. Former Pirates assistant Danny Wilson, a head coach previously at Heritage, Cleveland and South Pittsburg, is now the school’s principal. Vic Grider, who succeeded Wilson in 1997 and who had a long and highly successful streak of his own, is now the school’s assistant principal, athletic director and softball coach.