A man among boys

Written on August 21, 2007 – 8:18 pm | by kbarkley |

Coach James “Friday” Richards is an institution. The Marietta community has been made better over the last 30 years because of this man. A graduate of Marietta High School he has described his school a home away from home. Since taking over the football program in 1996 coach Friday has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success. Suffering his first losing season last year (4-6) didn’t dampen his spirit at all. The two previous seasons his teams won 23 of 25 games and produced numerous college scholarships. That seperates this coach from alot of coaches in this profession. Wins and losses normally fuel the passion of a coach but for a man named Friday it’s how many lives he can affect in a positive way. Always putting God first those positve changes have been his victories with no defeats. Backed by a strong family coach has taken in 14 kids over the yearsand turned their lives around. In what might be his biggest success story to date Terrence Huey life went from possible jail to walking across a big stage. This was a kid he knew was selling drugs on the corner. Coach saw more than just that. He saw a kid trying to survive. After a talk with Terrence in which Terrence told the coach he didn’t want sell drugs anymore Friday went into action. He figured if the cops couldn’t catch Terrence nor the drug sniffing dogs then nothing could stop this kid from achieving everything. Success on the field and in the classroom and also the love from a man and a family led to a scholarship to Clemson (ful ride). That in fact maybe coach Friday’s sweetest victory of all. One of his proudest moments were the tears that streamed down his face when he saw Terrence walk across the stage in South Carolina. Being a graduate of one time rival Wheeler HighSchool having anything to do with Marietta was strictly taboo. Since meeting this man it would be a honor to have this man teach my kids

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