Joe Rietveld

Updated 3:45 p.m.
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page news reports
Joe Rietveld will be introduced to Ravenwood High School football players and parents at a team meeting Sunday. The announcement of Rietveld's selection today by Ravenwood principal Dr. Pam Vaden ends a difficult winter and early spring for the school, which had hired a new head coach  on Jan. 19 only to have him abruptly resign on March 3, one week after moving to Tennessee from Virginia.

“After an extensive search, it became clear that Coach Rietveld is the leader we need to re-establish Ravenwood as a perennial football contender,” Vaden said in a statement released through Williamson County Schools spokesperson Carol Birdsong.  “With over 15 years of teaching experience, he will also be a welcomed addition to the math department.

"We are very pleased to introduce Coach Rietveld and his family to the Ravenwood community.” 

Before accepting the Ravenwood position, Rietveld served as the head football coach at Wawasee High School in Syracuse, Ind.   Rietveld turned the losing Wawasee program into a sectional champion and State Runner Up during his nine-year tenure.  He was named “Coach of the Year” in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and posted the most career wins in school history. 

Based on his advanced training regime, his players set 43 individual and team school records.  

As was the case during the first search, "over 120 individuals applied for the position," Whitlock told BHP Friday afternoon. The applicants included both coaches who had applied earlier and newcomers to the process.

"We narrowed it down to seven to 10 pretty quickly, which is pretty fast paced for us," Whitlock said. Of those, three to four -- including Rietveld -- had been finalists during the first search for Shuman's replacement.

Whitlock said they had  had talked with Rietveld earlier, but at the time were "pretty far down the road" with Smith. 

It's not the first time Rietveld had been interested in a position at Ravenwood, Whitlock noted. The coach had applied to be on schools's first football staff, headed by Jack Daniels, in 2001.

Asked what set Rietveld apart from the competition, Whitlock noted that in addition to having an "innovative offensive mind, the biggest factor is that he took a program with minimum success and in a short period built it to a point that it had consistent winning seasons, including a state championship game."

"We feel fortunate to have someone with his credentials at this point in the year," Whitlock added of the timing of the second search.

Rietveld is currently in Brentwood and will remain in town through next week, while Wawasee High is on spring break. "He's ready to get started," Whitlock said.

The new coach plans to be on campus for spring football practice, now planned in late April and early May. TSSAA allows 10 spring practices in a 15-day window.

Before moving to Indiana, as an assistant coach at Anderson High School in Cincinnati (a National Blue Ribbon School), Rietveld helped lead the elite program to seven consecutive conference championships, six seasons of nine or more wins and three playoff appearances.

“I’ve followed the Ravenwood program since 2001 and am extremely excited about the opportunity to work with the administration to bring home another state championship trophy,” said Rietveld in a statement.  “I’m a big believer in building strong athletes as well as principled young men who succeed on and off the field.”