2006-04-05
by John Brice
of The Daily Times Staff
Alcoa High School is replacing a two-time state champion football coach with a four-time winner from Tennessee's largest division.
Gary Rankin, who won a quartet of Class 5A football crowns at Murfreesboro Riverdale, accepted the Tornadoes' head coaching job Tuesday. Alcoa plans to officially welcome Rankin at the school today at 6:30 p.m. The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal also was reporting on Tuesday night that Rankin was expected to leave Riverdale.
``We had a lot of outstanding candidates,'' Alcoa Athletics Director Rob Daugherty, speaking from a state conference in Nashville, told The Daily Times. ``In all fairness to those candidates, this was an opportunity to find a phenomenal football coach.
``We thought this was a perfect opportunity, and we offered him the position after talking with the superintendent of schools (Tom Shamblin) and our school principal (Scott Porter). We felt if we could hire a candidate the caliber of Gary Rankin, we should do so. We could not pass up the opportunity to do so.''
Rankin, who visited Alcoa High School on Thursday before attending the Tennessee Athletic Coaches Association conference at the University of Tennessee, made the Riverdale program a fixture atop Class 5A during his 16 seasons at the school. After his first Warriors squad went 4-6, Rankin posted 15 consecutive seasons of 10 wins or more. He garnered state titles in 1994, '97, 2001 and '04. Additionally, five other times Rankin's teams played for state championships in helping him compile a 194-25 record at the school.
Overall, Rankin has a 252-56 mark and has coached 15 Mr. Football finalists, eight Mr. Football winners.
Most recently, Rankin's 2005 Riverdale squad had engineered a 28-game winning streak before falling to Oak Ridge in the semifinals of the 5A playoffs.
``He's 52, and he's spent 26 years, I think, in education,'' Daugherty said. ``He told us he'd like to coach until he's 62, and he felt like he had one more move in him. His intentions are to be with us for a period of time to continue the great tradition at Alcoa. I think his reputation speaks for itself.''