Roff athletics says farewell to many familiar faces

Jun. 27—In my more than three decades of covering local high school sports, I cannot recall a school experiencing a mass exodus as significant as Roff has this summer.

I told athletic director Steve Kile I would know very few folks involved with Tiger athletics this fall.

Veteran boys basketball coach Larry Johnston left Roff to take a similar position at Hammon High School. To add to the blow, he took his soon-to-be-freshman son, Lane Johnston, with him. I had been eagerly waiting for years to report on Lane Johnston's high school career.

Trent Storts has left the girls basketball program at Roff and has accepted a job as the new boys basketball head coach at Calera High School.

Danny Baldridge has retired from coaching the Roff baseball squad and is riding off into the gutter ... I mean he will be focusing on his gutter business and following son Cade Baldridge around to baseball diamonds near and far. Cade, by the way, was named the second baseman for the Daily Oklahoman All-State team. He hit .566 with 47 RBI and 12 home runs last spring.

But I digress.

Jaden Shores Reed has also vacated the job as head softball coach at Roff. Although it remains unclear if she will coach again this fall, The Ada News has learned that she will be conducting a Boot Camp from July 10 to August 18. Contact her for more information about that.

However, the exodus doesn't stop there.

High School principal Kirk Wilson is also leaving Roff after graciously letting RHS Athletics borrow his son, Brand Wilson, who graduated last spring after a stellar career with Tiger baseball and basketball.

And lastly, but certainly, not least, Ead Simon — who coached baseball at Roff and Allen for a combined 23 seasons — left the job as the superintendent of Roff. He accepted the job as superintendent at Alex High School. Simon had spent the last 21 years at Roff.

I later found out I was wrong about not knowing anyone this fall. That's because Kile, who has been at Roff for 10 years, has hired a couple of individuals I am quite familiar with.

Derek Collins, the son of iconic former Latta baseball guru Eddie Collins, has been named the new head baseball coach at Roff and Eric Hardison joined the Roff staff as the head boys basketball coach and head softball coach. Hardison spent some time at Latta "back in the day."

Also, Chase Tidwell has resigned as the Roff assistant baseball coach and will be the head coach for the Stonewall softball team this fall. Tidwell was replaced by Ryan Collins at Roff (no relation to Derek Collins). Ryan Collins was the assistant baseball coach at Vanoss last year and played college baseball at East Central University.

And the most recent RHS hire is Whitney Robertson, who will coach girls basketball at Roff. She comes to Pontotoc County from Coleman High School. I look forward to meeting her this fall.

"I am very excited about all my new coaches," Kile said. "June has been a very busy month for all our teams and coaches. We appreciate all their hard work and the time they've put in."