Coming Home: Ridenour elated to be back at Cleveland

SOCORRO -- Michael Jordan famously proclaimed his return to the NBA in 1995 with a terse two-word statement: “I'm Back.”   Heath Ridenour could have done the same thing and most folks involved in New Mexico high school football would have understood what he was talking about.   After two seasons on the New Mexico Lobos staff, Ridenour has returned to high school football as the offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Storm, the same school he led to three Class 6A state championships in 10 years as head coach (2012-21).   Ridenour served as UNM's quarterbacks coach in 2022 and running backs coach in 2023. He was also interim offensive coordinator for the second half of the 2022 season when former Lobos head coach Danny Gonzales made a mid-season change.   While he quietly began his duties as Cleveland's offensive coordinator in April, Thursday's 7-on-7 jamboree in Socorro served as Ridenour's unofficial public unveiling.   In an in-depth and wide-ranging interview with Prep Redzone New Mexico, Ridenour spoke Thursday about his return to high school coaching, his time with the Lobos, his long-time relationship with Cleveland head coach Robert Garza and more.   “There's no other job I'd rather be at,” Ridenour said. “Cleveland is home for me. Always has been. They haven't missed a beat since I've been gone. Coming back gives me  the opportunity to be involved with the program again, and my kids are getting to high school age. Being around them and still being able to coach football, everything made sense. It's been pretty seamless.”   Ridenour and the other full-time New Mexico assistants were let go shortly after Gonzales was fired on November 25, one day after the Lobos suffered a season-ending home loss in double OT to Utah State.   However, Ridenour wasn't unemployed long. He joined the Cleveland High School administration in February. That's when he began discissions with Garza about assuming some type of role with the Storm's football program. He says he ‘officially' returned to coaching in April and has been involved with day-to-day responsibilities since then as Cleveland prepares for the 2024 season.   Cleveland was 96-18 in Ridenour's 10 seasons as head coach. Garza led the Storm to the 6A title in 2022 and a runner-up finish to La Cueva in 2023. Ridenour hinted he might tweak the Storm offense for the 2024 offense but don't expect any major changes.   “Cleveland has been very successful for a long, long time,” Ridenour said. “It's not broken, so don't fix it. We'll look a little bit different. When you coach, you have to be yourself. I'll be myself. I've had a role in Cleveland's success and I take pride in that but I've also had a lot of good coaches and good players and great families who supported the program and what we were doing.”   In Ridenour's final season as head coach in 2021, Evan Wysong was in his first season as Cleveland's starting quarterback. Wysong accounted for nearly 2,900 total yards in leading the Storm to a perfect 13-0 record and the 6A title. He's now playing for New Mexico.   Ridenour's prize pupil at quarterback is now rising junior [player_tooltip player_id='851873' first='Jordan' last='Kekoa Hatch'], who threw for 1,657 yards and 18 TDs in 12 games as a sophomore. Ridenour said he watched nearly every Cleveland game on Friday night during football season when the Lobos were at the team hotel. As a result, he was familiar with Hatch's skill set when he took over as OC.   In 2021, Hatch was a promising 8th-grader rising through the Cleveland system.   “Evan and Jordan are incredibly different,” Ridenour said. “I've watched Jordan play. He got an opportunity to play as a young guy. Sometimes that means growing pains. He had some last year. All he needed was experience. Now he has that right now.   “We have some new terminology, so there's been a learning curve with that. But Jordan is very mature. He is different from Evan. Coaching Jordan was one of the perks in coming back. We have a talented quarterback who's a returning starter. That's appealing to me as the play-caller and quarterback coach.”   Cleveland's top rusher (Harris Mbueha) and receiver (Jaden Davis) from a season ago have graduated. But there's plenty of talent returning (and some newcomers) at those offensive skill positions. And the offensive line returns three of five starters from 2023, including 6-foot-5, 275-pound Power 4 prospect [player_tooltip player_id='851862' first='Moses' last='Sparks'] Jr. (recently offered by UTEP and Texas Tech), Gabe Marquez and [player_tooltip player_id='1118250' first='Robert' last='Sabado'].        “The pieces are there, both offensively and defensively,” Ridenour said. “We just have to put them together. How well we gel as a team and how well we execute in critical situations will be the telltale signs of whether we can make a push and play deep into November.”   In 2-1/2 months as Cleveland's offensive coordinator, Ridenour has discovered (again) why he loves coaching high school football. He knew when Gonzales was fired in late November that his days with the Lobos were numbered.   Nonetheless, he doesn't regret making the coaching move to FBS football.   “When your head coach is let go, everybody gets let go. That's the nature of the beast,” Ridenour said. “I knew that was a possibility when I accepted the job there. Hindsight is 20/20. I wouldn't change it. Not many people get the opportunity to make the jump like I did. I don't regret it at all.   “The jobs in high school and college are different because in high school you are a teacher first and you coach because you love it and it's a passion. The speed of the game is vastly different. My job at UNM was to coach football. I spent hours and hours and hours doing that job. It can be tough sometimes.”   The detail in coaching at the college level, the emphasis on recruiting and the speed of the athletes involved in playing the game are key differences between high school and the next level, Ridenour said.   “In college, everybody is so fast and the windows are so small, the opportunity for success is small,” Ridenour said. “In high school, the learning curve is slower and it's not quite as steep. But I love the passion of the kids at the high school level. They're loyal to their school and the program. You get to build a program. It's tough to do that in college with NIL and the transfer portal.   “There are positive and negatives to both. I find more positives in the high school game.”              Happily, Ridenour was good friends with Cleveland High principal Scott Affentranger. He offered Ridenour the opportunity to join the CHS administration and Ridenour accepted.   “I told people, yeah I'm going back to Cleveland,” Ridenour said. “Where else would I want to be? I'm excited. I see my kids a lot more than I have the last couple of years.”   By April, the opportunity to reunite with Garza on the Cleveland coaching staff was finalized. Ridenour has known Garza since they were teammates on the Eastern New Mexico football team in the early 2000s. Thus, the trust factor was extremely high.   “That's why coming back here was easy,” Ridenour said. “I was ready to take some time off from football and just be a Dad. But this opportunity at this school to work again with Coach Garza and the other coaches doesn't happen often. Many of the coaches who were here when I left a couple of years ago are still here.   “I knew I had to grab the opportunity.”   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1803972895703506972 </div></figure>

SOCORRO -- Michael Jordan famously proclaimed his return to the NBA in 1995 with a terse two-word statement: “I'm Back.”