Southeast boys soccer will have new leader

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(Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen) Jamison Griffin established a tradition of success for Southeast Whitfield’s boys soccer program, but the former coach was always eager to put as much of an emphasis on the Raiders’ accomplishments off the field — such as earning college scholarships — as those on it. He has taken a job as an assistant principal at Tennessee’s East Hamilton High and won’t be back as coach this spring.
Kevin Kettenring

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August 16, 2012

Southeast boys soccer will have new leader

By Marty Kirkland martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Thu Aug 16, 2012, 07:02 AM EDT

Jamison Griffin feels good about the legacy he established in 11 seasons as Southeast Whitfield’s boys soccer coach, and he feels just as good about what’s ahead for the Raiders.

Both are no doubt comforting measures to Griffin as he moves on to a new phase of life.

Griffin is working as an assistant principal at Tennessee’s East Hamilton High, meaning he won’t be on the field in the spring when the Raiders return there. Even without him, they’ll try to build on a decade of success that included trips to the playoffs in each of Griffin’s seasons in charge, including a run all the way to the Class 4A state title matchup in 2008.

A social studies teacher during his time at Southeast, Griffin said he had been seeking a position in administration for several years before the opportunity in Hamilton County came up this summer. After praying about what to do, he decided to move on.

“Honestly, it’s the toughest professional decision I’ve ever had to make,” Griffin said. “... But I felt like I came alive in leadership and really wanted to pursue administration.”

Griffin said Kevin Kettenring will take over as Raiders coach. Kettenring, a veteran coach who has led the Lady Raiders the past four seasons and assisted Griffin with the boys program, was last a boys head coach in 2004 at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe. Griffin said he did not know who would take over as Lady Raiders coach.

As he’s searched for administration jobs in the past few years, Griffin’s ambition was made easier by the expectation that Kettenring would take over when he was gone.

“I wanted to make sure the program would be left in good hands,” Griffin said. “Kevin’s been coaching 25-plus years, so he knows soccer, and now he’s had four years with our guys, so he knows the program.”

And the program knows success — at least it certainly did under Griffin, who inherited a job that was more about keeping the Raiders out of trouble than getting them into the playoffs. He managed to do both.

When he took over, Griffin said, the team was on probation with the GHSA and facing a ban if they got into another fight on the field. He had to fish damaged goals out of the woods on campus and have the school’s shop teacher weld them back together. He collected scrap metal from businesses around town to build additional goals, begged for and borrowed other equipment and brought structure and discipline to practices.

Some players quit — two of the best left after the team was made to do pushups in the rain after a bad effort in Rome, Griffin said — but the new coach’s command was established. Oh, and the team made the state playoffs for the first time ever in Griffin’s first season.

While he didn’t have much experience with soccer prior to taking the job — he was initially hired to lead Southeast girls basketball, which he did for a year before finding the “blank canvas” of soccer more to his liking — he applied what he knew and believes players respected his effort to plan practices and create strategy in games.

“It’s been a tight ship, but it’s been a balance of love and discipline, combined with intentional motivation,” Griffin said.

The success was evident on the field. Over the years, the Raiders transformed from a team that could compete with established power Dalton but never quite win to one that challenged — and beat — the Catamounts as much as anyone who regularly played them.

And while they never missed the state playoffs, it wasn’t until 2008 that the Raiders advanced beyond the second round. That year’s trip to the state title game — they lost on penalty kicks to Lakeside-DeKalb — was the start of one of the best postseason showings any Southeast program has known.

The Raiders have been to at least the quarterfinals in three of the four seasons since then, twice making it to the semifinals.

But Griffin always believed the work done by he, his coaches and his team off the field was just as important. He established a team motto that channeled that once uncontrolled emotion into something positive — RAGE, Raiders Accepting Great responsibility and Extreme sacrifice — and began the “More than a Successful Season” program with the help of school counselor Kristin Spoon. That has led to “16 or 17” players signing college scholarships over the past few years.

For Griffin, it was all hand-in-hand with his Christian faith.

“When I got there, it was just pretty obvious this was a mission field I’d been given,” he said. I think I’ve tended it well, tried to at least, and I’ve tried to bring on somebody who’s just as good a farmer as I was. We’re different, but Kevin’s a great mentor and he knows soccer better than probably anybody I know.”

Kettenring did not return a message seeking comment by The Daily Citizen’s deadline.

Attempts to reach Southeast athletic director Mark Lentych, who was attending the Region 7-4A meeting, were also unsuccessful. Lentych returned a message, but The Daily Citizen was unable to interview the AD.

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Southeast boys soccer will have new leader

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