Wiedmer: A New Era Dawns In McCallie Football

The fairytale ending. The Hallmark movie moment. All’s well that ends well.

Knowing her husband Ralph was not going to be the McCallie School head football coach for much longer last season, every time Jennifer Potter would watch a Hallmark or Disney movie in his presence, she would point to the inevitable feel-good ending and tell him, “That could be you one day.”

The famously gruff Potter would almost immediately fire back, “That’s not real life.

In real life, the coach loses the big game and gets fired. That’s the life of a coach.”

Then November 30, 2023 happened. McCallie facing bitter rival Baylor at Finley Stadium for the second time in two months, and this time with the TSSAA Division II Class AAA state title on the line, the Blue Tornado knocked off the defending champ Red Raiders 34-28 to claim its fourth state crown in five years and accomplish its first-ever sweep of Baylor.

Less than two weeks later Potter retired as head coach, handing those duties to longtime offensive coordinator Joel Bradford. Potter remains on staff as defensive coordinator, a role he’s basically filled for the past five years.

Said a beaming Jennifer on the night the transition was announced, “I got my Hallmark moment, I got my fairytale ending.”

It may have been the best-kept secret in the history of McCallie School, this long-planned changing of the guard from Potter to his former receiving star Bradford. Executive athletic director Kenny Sholl will tell you he knew for almost two years before the public did. Head of school Lee Burns will largely say the same. To quickly dispute a popular rumor from last season, had McCallie lost that title game to Baylor, Potter was still retiring, with or without the fairytale finish.

But as he said that night atop Finley Stadium’s Davenport Field, a rare smile spread across his face as he thought about sweeping Baylor before the largest championship game crowd in TSSAA history, “This is the mountain top. This is No.1.”

But starting at 7:30 tonight at Spears Stadium against Chattanooga Christian, Bradford is on the mountain top and McCallie football is about to venture into largely unfamiliar territory. For only the ninth season in the past 51 years, someone not named Potter will be the head coach of the Blue Tornado. Ralph’s father Pete became the McCallie coach in 1973 and held the job for 21 always solid, often superb seasons before health issues forced him to retire at the close of the 1993 season.

In 1997, Ralph took over the program he once played quarterback for, left in 2006 to take the Brentwood Academy job, then returned in 2012 before stepping down 12 years later after a historic run that included four state titles the past five years after winning his first in 2001.

So for 43 of the last 51 years, the football buck has stopped with a Potter. And what a run. Pete went 155-67 over his tenure with several playoff appearances and a state semifinal berth in 1983. Ralph was 181-77 with those five total state crowns. A few years ago, the Spears Stadium playing surface was renamed Pete Potter Field. Some similar honor is sure to come Ralph’s way soon.

A single long-ago quote to frame what kind of hands McCallie football is in now: When Ralph told former quarterback BJ Coleman he needed to throw passes to someone other than the sticky-fingered Bradford, Coleman replied, “But Coach, when I throw it to Joel, he always catches it.”

When the pair hooked up again at UT-Chattanooga, Bradford caught enough of Coleman’s passes to become a two-time All-Southern Conference receiver and a FCS All-American .

Bradford’s wife, Courtney, said earlier this week of him taking over the program, “This is his dream. He lives and breathes the game of football.”

They started dating when her brother-in-law, Brad Roberts, who had known Bradford since their childhood in East Ridge, told him, “I’ve got a girl for you.” Because Courtney lived in Nashville, they agreed to meet following a McCallie-Father Ryan football game in the Music City. Fortunately, the Blue Tornado won. Bradford was soon driving to Nashviille every weekend to see her.

Unlike Jennifer Potter, who almost never discussed football with Ralph other than to inquire about an injury or how one of her McCallie math students was doing, Courtney and Joel often talk about the intricacies of his job.

“He’ll bounce ideas off me, maybe a speech he’s going to give the team, something like that,” said Courtney, who spends much of her time raising their two children _ 6-year-old Dekian and 3-year-old Loxton _ in McCallie’s new Peak View townhomes near the top of Missionary Ridge.

“I’ll tell him I’ll give him 10 minutes. Then I’ll say, ‘Maybe leave that out.’”

She also says of Joel’s adapting to the job since first taking over the program in December, “He’s handled it with a lot less stress and a lot more grace than I thought he might.”

She credits Jennifer Potter with showing her how to be the First Lady of McCallie football.

“Oh, she’s been great,” Courtney said. “It’s very comforting that they’re still here. She’s so positive. She’s there for me every day. One thing she told me, ‘Not everybody’s going to like you.’ I’m OK with that. I’m focusing on my kids. We’ll be at the game. We’ll walk down the hill like we always do, see Joel during warm-ups and the kids will run around playing. I’m excited.”

Jennifer fondly recalls when it all began for her and Ralph. They were taking an Economics class together at UTC. She made sure to sit in the seat directly in front of him every day so that when she would check off the attendance sheet, she could see him as she passed it back to him.

“I didn’t know he was the quarterback,” she recalled. “But I was a flag girl in the marching band. I saw him on the sideline one game. He seemed kind of miffed that I didn’t realize he was the quarterback.”

They kept dating, though. Got married. Had kids. A grandson arrived last fall.

She says a change of jobs has been both hard and good for her husband.

“For two months in the winter he was really sick,” she said. “Flu, really bad flu, and COVID. For all those years, no matter how hard he worked, how little sleep he got, Ralph never got sick. Then the adrenaline went away and it seemed like he caught everything.”

But once that passed, she’s seen a welcome transformation.

“He helps out around the house,” she said. “Not a lot, but more than I thought he would. He comes home from practice, eats a light meal, watches film for an hour, then goes to bed. He used to never go to bed. He’d be watching film until two or three in the morning. I’d never see him during football season. Now, if Joel calls with a question, Ralph listens, gives his opinion then hangs up. It’s over. No worrying about it. It’s Joel’s decision.”

She paused for a moment. “I’ve actually seen Ralph smile this summer. Others tell me they’ve seen him smile, too. His stress level is so much better.”

There’s been a change in Jennifer, too. “I’ll be there for the Chattanooga Christian game. Ralph’s still coaching , after all. I hope I enjoy it more. The last 15 years or so, I didn’t enjoy it. Too much pressure.”

The stress of that pressure all surfaced at the end of the Baylor state title game. “It wasn’t what I expected,” she said. “It was very emotional. Both the lowest and highest of emotions. I thought back to all the lives we’ve been touched by the last 40 years. So many players, parents, teachers. We got a letter from Betty Latham (just-retired teacher Cleve Latham’s wife) telling us how she watches the state title game every day, how it brings her such joy. You don’t always realize how many lives you’re touching.”

Both Sholl and senior defensive back Carson Lawrence, the Vanderbilt football commit, see subtle changes already.

“It’s not that different, because Coach Potter is still around,” said Lawrence. “But the head coach’s office has been renovated. There’s a TV in there now. And Joel’s obviously younger. He’s closer in age to us, so he goes about things a little differently.”

Added Sholl, “The message is no different, but maybe the voice is. It’s firm, but in a different way. The way I look at it, I think it’s the way Ralph would be doing things if he was 37 years old.”

Come tonight, We’ll begin to know what the Bradford Era will look like. And somewhere down the road, Courtney Bradford just may have a far bigger role than merely that of a supportive coach’s wife.

It seems that every now and then, Courtney will text Joel during the first half of a game to ask why he isn’t calling this pass play or that run.

“A lot of times right after halftime, he’ll call that play,” she said. “And it almost always works.”

If one of those plays one day leads to a victory over Baylor, or a state title, or both, we’ll know Jennifer Potter isn’t the only McCallie football coach’s wife capable of experiencing a Hallmark movie moment or fairytale finish.