Coach Ralph Potter prays with his Brentwood Academy football team after a game this season. (File photo by Renee Yarbrough for BHP)

Football coach cites negativity affecting family as factor in decision to return home

Updated at 10:35 p.m.
By CAROL STUART
Brentwood Home Page
Ralph Potter, Brentwood Academy's head football coach the past five seasons, is returning to his alma mater McCallie School, where he coached for 10 years prior to taking the BA position.

Potter, who also served as the Eagles athletic director, was attending the fall sports banquet at BA on Monday night and made the announcement just as the news was breaking publicly out of Chattanooga. He had originally planned to tell his team on Tuesday, then BA was going to send out a release.

Ralph Potter played at McCallie for his dad, Blue Tornado coach for 20 years.

"My family has a deep appreciation for Brentwood Academy," Potter told the parents, students and staff attending. "There are two things that I really always pride about Brentwood Academy: One is the world view it has, the mission that it has. I've gotten my children to the cusp of adulthood, and they are still on our team, in a remarkable way.  Also I really appreciate our headmaster, Curt Masters. It has been a joy and a pleasure to work with him. It's been a joy and a pleasure to work with many of our coaches and players.

"It is a difficult decision. To be quite honest with you, the negativity that is directed to me has become so pervasive that it's beginning to affect my family, and that's not something I'm willing to tolerate. So it's with a heavy heart that I wish you the best."

Potter, who will officially leave BA on March 30, said he would be around to help with whatever Masters wanted him to do including with the transition or with the coaches.

The coach said he wanted to leave the audience with a prayer. "This will be my prayer for you as I end my time at Brentwood Academy," he said, explaining he would slip out after Masters talked and then Coach Compten led a prayer.

Potter said he didn't want to have conversations about his decision Monday night, but that he would be at his office all day Tuesday and around on and off during January and February.

"I hope you understand and forgive me," he told the crowd.

He received applause and a standing ovation after citing Romans 16:21 as his prayer for the school:

"Now to him who has power to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the sacred secret kept silent for long ages but now revealed and made known through the prophetic scriptures according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him be the glory forever."

Potter was on the sidelines for McCallie the last time that Brentwood Academy won a state championship, its 10th title in 2006 after legendary coach Carlton Flatt came out of retirement. Potter also won a state championship at the all-boys school in Chattanooga.

At BA, Potter's first two teams made the Division II-AA finals, but the Eagles never won a state title or made it back to the championship game. The 2009 and 2010 teams lost narrowly in the semifinals, and this year's team tied for the East/Middle Region championship but lost in the quarterfinals at Christian Brothers after being seeded third in the playoffs.

"I appreciate Curt giving me the opportunity to work at Brentwood Academy for the last five years," Potter told BHP last night. "It has been quite a learning experience for me. It made me a better coach and a better person as I go forward.

"I just think it's time. It has given me some clarity I think in terms of who I am as a coach and how I want to do things. And I think McCallie is certainly offering me a chance to do that, and that's just an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

In an official statement by BA, Potter said: "McCallie's unique approach to the development of young men as leaders defined by honor, truth and duty fits my own personal mission."

Potter not only graduated from McCallie in 1981 but played football for his father, who was the McCallie head coach for 20 years (1973-93). Ralph, who attended UT-Chattanooga, later served as an assistant with his dad in 1986-87.

In 1997 Ralph Potter returned to McCallie as head coach and stayed a decade until taking the position at Brentwood Academy.

"That is deep," he said about his roots at the school. "It goes back to 1973 when my dad first went there, and so I'm very well known. I know most everybody there, and that counts for something."

While Potter was 46-17 overall at BA and 5-0 against McCallie, the Blue Tornado went 24-30 and had two different coaches. McCallie's 2011 coach, Bubba Simmons, is stepping aside as football coach and remaining as athletic director.

Potter also previously coached at Baylor, McCallie's cross-town rival which finished runner-up this season to two-time state champion Ensworth.

"I think in my professional life I've been a restless person," Potter told BHP. "I've been at a lot of different schools. And I think it's given me an appreciation for what my personal mission is in coaching and what I want to accomplish. The fact that McCallie came through with an offer when they did and that mission matches up with mine is an important thing."

The BA coach said he wanted to "hopefully finish my career there."

Potter has two children who attend Brentwood Academy: son Jud, a junior who plays football for the Eagles, and daughter Ann, a sophomore.

Masters said in the release that Potter would finish out the school year at Brentwood Academy in his current role. A selection committee will begin the process of identifying Coach Potter’s successor in his roles as head football coach and athletic director immediately. Interested applicants may apply on the school’s website (www.brentwoodacademy.com).

“Ralph Potter has accepted a position with McCallie School, returning to his alma mater. We have appreciated his five years with us,” BA Headmaster Curt Masters said in a statement. “I have enjoyed his leadership, vision and friendship as well as his commitment to Brentwood Academy during his tenure here. We wish him God's richest blessing as he and his family move through this time of transition.”