DAN ANDERSON stepped down as head football coach at Ridgefield High School. Anderson guided the Spudders to an 8-2 record and a playoff appearance this past season.
RIDGEFIELD – Dan Anderson loved coaching the Ridgefield High School football team. Unfortunately, he didn’t love everything that went with it.
Anderson recently announced his resignation after seven years coaching at the school, the last four as head coach. In those four years, the Spudders went 19-19 including this past season when the team was second in the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League, advanced to the playoffs and finished with an 8-2 overall record.
Anderson confirmed the reason for his resignation was what he termed as “attacks’’ from members of the community on both he and his family.
“I love coaching and I love coaching those boys,’’ Anderson said. “If it was just me, the boys and the coaches, life would be perfect. But, we just have people in this community who are relentless and that’s unfortunate.’’
Anderson wouldn’t elaborate on what he has endured personally in his tenure as Ridgefield’s head football coach. Ridgefield High School Athletic Director Debbie Bentler confirmed that the decision to resign was solely Anderson’s and there was no pressure from the district.
“I think he did a great job with our program and our kids,’’ Bentler said. “He was a great coach and a really good role model for them. It was his decision to make. We enjoyed having him here. He thought it was time to hand it over to someone else.’’
In Anderson’s first season as head coach, the Spudders finished with a 6-4 overall record and advanced to the playoffs. The next season a very young Ridgefield team went 0-9, followed by seasons of 5-4 and 8-2.
“Most of Ridgefield’s football history has been in the 1A classification,’’ Anderson said. “The best records I can find for the school show that Ridgefield had never had a winning record in 2A. So, it’s quite an accomplishment for our boys that they had winning records in Class 2A competition in three of the past four years.’’
Anderson also credited his players for changing the way other teams viewed the Ridgefield program.
“The one thing our coaching staff is proud of through those four years we were together is that the program changed the mentality of being viewed as a little bit of a soft school into that as an extremely physical team that teams did not look forward to facing,’’ Anderson said. “We got lots of comments in recent years that we were the most physical team that teams had faced that year. We wanted to change that mentality of being a soft school to being a really physical school. The boys did that.’’
Anderson, who owns Three Brothers Vineyard and Winery in Ridgefield, said he is open to the idea of coaching again in the right situation.
“I may be interested in coaching again in the future, probably not as a head coach but as an assistant,’’ Anderson said. “We will see what the future brings. If coaching is done for me, I’m OK with that.’’
