.&
Sats.

 

Ridgway leaves the Royals

Head coach resigns after three losing seasons

Josh Ridgway (right)
By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

2010 wasn’t exactly what you’d call a
banner year for the Douglas College
Royals baseball team. The squad
failed to qualify for the post-season
while finishing a disappointing fifth
in the Northwest Athletic Association
of Community Colleges (NWAACC)
North division standings (just two teams
finished below them) and they posted
a less than stellar 12-25 record to boot.
Now, on top of finding a way to improve
their immediate on-field performance
next season, they’ll also have to add
finding a new head coach to the team’s
list of priorities.

Josh Ridgway resigned from his

 

missed the playoffs each season. In those
three years Ridgway’s clubs never got
past fifth place in the North standings,
which, to put it simply, just isn’t good
enough.

Douglas has set a standard
of excellence in recent years with
incredible success in a number of
programs, most notably men’s soccer
and basketball, and three consecutive
years Royals baseball teams with
winning percentages that never cracked
500 doesn’t cut it. This year, in the
entire NWAACC (Northwest Athletic
Association of Community Colleges),
which encompasses 27 different schools
and teams, just eight other squads had a
worse winning percentage than Douglas,

During his tenure at Douglas, Coach Ridgway never managed to post
a winning record and had a cumulative mark of 47-77, during which
the Royals never posted 20 wins in a year and missed the playoffs
each season.

position as the Royals’ head coach back
on May 17" after three campaigns at the
helm of the team. He didn’t close out
his run with the Royals on the best of
terms. Douglas lost their final five games
of the regular season, including getting
swept and dominated in the final four
by Edmonds (the final two games of the
year? 7-3 and 10-0 defeats. Ouch).
While it is never easy to see a
college coach go, in the long run
this may be best for Royals baseball.
After all, during his tenure at Douglas,
Ridgway never managed to post a
winning record and had a cumulative
mark of 47-77, during which the Royals
never posted 20 wins in a year and

20

and at the risk of stating the obvious,
that is a mark that needs to improve, and
fast.

While league all-stars haven’t been
revealed for 2010 yet, under Ridgway’s
command the Royals didn’t have a single
player named to any first or second team
all-league teams.

If there is any bright side to the
Royals’ season, it’s that there is hope
for the future. Douglas was one of the
younger teams in the league this year,
and they don’t have a single senior
departing the team, so next year’s edition
should feature a veteran-laden squad that
is hopefully much more competitive then
they were this year.

 

Me ee)

facebook.

ee me ha Coe
ar mC it Mk ee

Become a fan of The Other Press
on Facebook instead!

PUR ee eee Md