After sitting down with the head coach of the Marietta Blue Devils football team, James “Friday” Richards, and getting a simple short question-answer interview I learned some information about him. “I have been coaching at Marietta for 32 years and wouldn’t trade it for the world,” said Richards. He also described being a part of the Blue Devils program as a great experience. He grew up in Marietta, graduated from Marietta High School, and played for the Blue Devils in football, basketball and track.
Richards was very proud of the Devils’ season this year and said that he wouldn’t change much. When asked if there was going to be a big loss in talent next year, he said, “We had a very young team and a lot of talented underclassmen that I am excited to work with next season, but we are going to lose a lot of talent with the graduating seniors, such as Chris Tanzy, Steven Hunter, Jack Dowdel and many more.”
“Well we had a lot of talent and everybody had a part in this team, but the five main key players this year would have to be Chris Tanzy, Steven Hunter, Zack Shelton, Perry Beasley and Greg Franklin.” In the beginning of the 2008 season, Richards earned his 100th career win, making his head coaching career 100-41. After asking Richards what team was Marietta’s toughest opponent this year was, he replied, “East Paulding.”
Richards not only played football for the Marietta Blue Devils, but also ran for the track team and played basketball. In addition to being the head coach of the football team, he is the head coach for Marietta ’s very successful track team. After graduating from Marietta, Richards received a football scholarship to the University of Florida and later was drafted by the NFL’s New York Jets. Richards is planning to be apart of the coaching staff for about four more years until his child graduates from Marietta High School.
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