McCallie Turns Football Reigns Over to Joel Bradford as Ralph Potter Decides to Step Down

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Veteran McCallie coach Ralph Potter has stepped down, although he will stay on Big Blue’s staff as a defensive coordinator.
Offensive coordinator and former McCallie stand-out Joel Bradford has been named McCallie’s new head coach.
Bradford will follow the winningest coach in school history in Ralph Potter, who racked up a total of five state titles.

Said Bradford:”The day that Ralph Potter you know hangs it up. It’s pretty. Kind of a crazy thought you know.”
It is a crazy thought. McCallie just won the state title last week.
It was Potter’s fourth state crown in the last five years.
Said Potter:”If you had to write a script to end your head coaching career, that was the script. If you are going to make a mistake, I would rather leave too early than too late because football has a way of ushering you out the door if you stay a little bit too long.”
Said McCallie headmaster Lee Burns:”I guess Ralph had come to me about two years ago I guess to start thinking about that transition. One of the things I so appreciate about Ralph is he is not about himself. He’s about McCallie. We could have had an extensive national search. Had all kinds of high school and college coaches interested in this but at the end of the day, we already knew that Joel Bradford was our man.”
And Potter cherishes the opportunity to turn the program over to Bradford .
Said Potter:”My dad wanted to do this for me 30 years ago and didn’t have the opportunity. He got sick. When I was at Baylor, Fred Hubbs did this for me. He was the head coach and ended up being on my staff, and I had a staff of 55-year-old men as a 30-year-old. I really appreciated him doing that.”
Reporter:”Is it surreal with this moment though as you are talking about stepping aside?”
Said Potter:”Yes it is because half my life has been spent doing this. It’s almost like the death of a person that I’m well acquainted with.”
Pretty surreal for Bradford as well.
Said Bradford:”It’s just a pretty unique opportunity for me to take over the position of someone that I admire so much and who has poured a lot of his life into me.”