Beech Tree News Network

Prologue:  Coach Ryan Emmick has always been a great interviewee and was the perfect candidate to kick off this new BTN Feature - 5 Questions with John Embry.  It gives me the opportuity to "sit down" with someone, so to speak, and ask five candid questions to a well-known person in our community.  Ryan Emmick is a quality individual, accomplished coach and school leader, mentor to youth, and a good friend.  It was pleasure to inteview him.  I hope you enjoy this new feature.  --John Embry 

1.  How many years were you head coach at Butler County High School?  Provide BTN readers with some information about your "football history." 

I have been the head football coach at Butler County High School for eight seasons, starting in the 2010 season.  I began working as an assistant coach in Butler County under the winningest coach in school history - Coach Robert Tuck - during the 2008 season, giving me 10 years total with the Butler County football program.  I spent 2000-2007 as an assistant coach at Ohio County High School, serving as offensive line/defensive line coach, offensive coordinator and special teams' coordinator.  During my time there I was able to learn from the winningest Ohio County coach - Dan Crume -and was able to experience the first-ever playoff victory in school history there as well.

I have played football since I was a young boy in the Hancock County Youth Football League.  I played football nonstop from youth through high school and then on to college.  I had the unique experience of playing football from the youth leagues until the end of my collegiate eligibility with my twin brother, Aaron.  I graduated from Hancock County High School in 1995 and I went on to attend Kentucky Wesleyan College, where I was a four-year starter on the offensive line from 1996-1999.  During that time, the KWC football team set or broke nearly every offensive record, were nationally ranked yearly in their division, and ended the 1999 season as the #2 ranked team in our division.   I earned Academic All American honors during my senior season and also received many other awards and recognitions during my time at KWC.  

2.  What did you enjoy the most about your time as head coach at Butler County?

I enjoyed the challenge of helping make the program more than what it was.  Coach Tuck had done a great job building the program and creating a winning mentality.  The challenge fell to me to take that success and build upon it and to create a belief and attitude that would carry the football program forward.  The challenge to get the young men to believe and expect to progress in the playoffs, to compete with the best teams in our region, and to hold ourselves to a higher standard.  I wanted our players to believe that they had the ability and opportunity to go play at the collegiate level if they so desired.  I feel like WE accomplished those things.  I feel like now it is expected that Butler County Football has a winning season, makes the playoffs, and progress beyond the first round in the playoffs.  Our players understand what it takes to make it to the next level and our players are coached in such a way as to have an understanding and knowledge of football that goes beyond rudimentary. 

I enjoyed the relationships we built with our players each and every year.  The players have touched my heart in so many ways throughout the years and I have developed a great relationship with so many of the players.  To have the opportunity to touch these young men in such a way as to have a positive impact in their life is such an important thing.  I have seen so many young men come in as freshmen and I have worried about them and their future.  To see those same young men today as college graduates, professionals, parents, and successes in life makes me as proud as anyone could ever imagine.  I'm proud to know that I have had the opportunity to touch these young men's lives in such a way as to help them improve themselves as a man and to have a better outcome in life.  I'm proud to say that this staff put our players first and always did everything we could to make them better men. 

I have enjoyed working with the great assistant coaches I have had over the years.  I don't think the average fan understands just how important a quality coaching staff is.  One person cannot be a successful coach year after year without having great assistant coaches.  The gentlemen I have worked with over the years have been some of the best and brightest in the game and it has shown on the field.  I feel as if we have to put the product on the field that highlights our players' abilities at the same time as presenting cutting edge concepts in the football world.  The coaches I have worked with over the years have been by far one of the greatest highlights of my coaching career.

3.  What did you find the most challenging or difficult aspect of your specific job or of coaching in general?

Reality vs. Expectations is by far the most difficult aspect of coaching.  When I say expectations - that is more of an all-encompassing concept that relates to not only the expectations of fans, parents, players, but of myself as well.  As a coach, you have a vision to what you see your program becoming.  You pour your heart and soul into the program and see so many unmet needs and it is difficult to come to grips with what you know you can become vs. the reality of the resources you have at hand.  I have had to temper my "fire" at times over unmet expectations due to a lack of available resources because simply the reality dictates that we as a district, community, and program just do not have access to the monies and other resources needed to meet those expectations.  This is in no way an indictment of our schools or community; it just is what it is.  We learn to fight for what we have and that was something I embraced as the years went along.  We took pride as a program in working for what we were and what we had.  If we needed to purchase something for the team, we did fundraising.  We didn't have an anonymous donor walking in and handing us a check.  We had to get out and work for it.  Our players understood that and our parents did as well.  Our boosters were the lifeline of the program and without them we would not have been able to become what we are today.

4.  What are you plans now with all your free time and do you think you would ever return to coaching in some capacity in the future?

Angela and I met on April 16, 1998, which also happens to be the date of the historic hail storm in Bowling Green (so it can be said that hail froze over the day we met.)  Since that time, Angela has been the quintessential football wife.  Nearly 20 years of dealing with a first college football player and then a football coach means that she has earned a break.  She's had to put up with the late nights, early mornings, bad moods, all of the things that come with being a publicly accessible extension of the head coach.  I owe Angela time, and I'm sure she will put me to work during that time.  There are several things at home we are planning on doing with our farm and simply having the chance to take a vacation will be a wonderful thing.  So I guess the easiest answer to what I'm going to do with my free time:  Whatever Angela wants me to do! 

I don't think I'll ever get coaching and football out of my blood.  I have truly enjoyed coaching and relished in each and every minute of it, both good and the bad.  I do plan on taking some time away from the game and recharging my batteries.  After that we will see.  I plan on helping out the program where I can in the future and trying to be as much of a part of it as the new head coach wants me to be. 

5.  Advice you'd give to whoever is hired as the new coach?

Bring the juice.  Be energetic and have a passion for the game and for the program.  You will get out of this program what you put into it.  Your success will start at the Jr Pro level, extend through the middle school classes, and eventually culminate at the high school level.  Build each part of your program to a championship level and surround yourself with individuals who have the same goals as yourself.  Know that this program is about more than yourself; it is about those who have played and those that will play, those that have laced up their cleats and those that will lace their cleats up one day.  Love this program with all of your heart, love these players with all of your heart, and give it everything you have and I guarantee you will walk out a winner!

Postscript:

"I'd like to take a moment to thank Butler County, all of my players through the years, their parents and relatives, my assistant coaches, and the Butler County High School and Butler County Board of Education for allowing me to have this amazing experience over the past decade.  Butler County is a truly special and amazing place and it has some amazing people who live here.  Since I was a young boy first strapping on the pads, I had dreams of what my football career would be like.  I had dreams of greatness and dreams of success, but never in my mind could I have imagined I would experience what I have being the head coach for the Butler County football team.  I have experienced the rush of Friday nights in Morgantown, the echoes of the greatest fans in Western Kentucky, and an energy on the hill above the school that is unmatched in this area.  From the cheers of our cheerleaders supporting us each step the way - come rain or shine - to the precision and excellence of our band, Friday nights in Morgantown are an experience like none other. I have come to an understanding of how special of a place this is that we call home.  The pride that runs through the veins of this county are evident in everything we do.  Always take pride in the "Blue" and the young men and women who go out and represent all of us in a way that makes us proud.  Butler County is a precious gift that has been given to each of us.  I am deeply honored to have been a small part of the Butler County football program and to have had the opportunity to experience what it means to be a Bear.  Thanks to everyone who has been there along the way to support us and continue to do so.  Always and forever a Bear!"

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5 Questions with John Embry is a new BTN feature.  Periodically, I will interview interesting people in the community.  Feedback?  Ideas for future interviews?  Let me know at [email protected].