Jump to content
Head Coach Openings 2024 ×
  • Current Donation Goals

    • Raised $2,716 of $3,600 target

RSN Interviews Russ Radtke "Pre" Portage Departure


Guest DT

Recommended Posts

RSN broadcasters Chris Ramirez and Nathan Laird do a terrific job interviewing Russ Radtke on The Region Sports Network.

Lots of great chat about Coach Radtke's time at North Judson, Connersville, Griffith, New Prairie, Portage and now Knox.

Hard to believe Russ is not in The Hall of Fame.  Could that be right?  I was shocked.

https://www.regionsports.com/2020/06/01/football-interview-with-portage-coach-russ-radtke/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You nominate yourself for the Hall. He is obviously a shoe-in, just hasn’t filled out the form to do it. I believe they discuss that in the interview. He mentioned that he felt there were assistant coaches that deserved to go in before him. 

Russ is just chasing Bud at this point. He’ll have a loaded gun to start his reign with the Redskins. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Last minute of the interview coach Radtke states, “We are in it for the long haul.”

What a bunch if BS.

Tell us how you really feel Tommy  😂

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my 40+ years of high school football, I would have to say Coach Radtke is one of the more interesting figures I’ve seen. He is often his own worst enemy. But that is the product of his intense focus and his uncompromising attitude. Earlier in his career, he had lots of problems with officials. But later in his career he got away from that. There are 2 things that tell a large part of the story for me: (1) Despite his “tough love” approach, his kids love him. Talk to his former players, you’ll see, and (2) As a byproduct of #1, his teams play unbelievably hard for him. Some of my favorite games were when his Griffith team would take on Kirk Kennedy’s Lowell teams. The effort expended by both teams was really something to see.

I also strongly disagree that he’s doing this just to pile up wins in pursuit of the all time record. I honestly think that sort of thing is not what drives him, doesn’t mean that much to him. He is just one of the more intensely competitive people I’ve ever met. 

My bottom line is that Coach Radtke has my respect. We’ve had a few run-ins over the years as a result of his intense focus and extreme competitiveness. But I never had any doubt that his only interest is the kids. That’s why he is very popular with his kids, and not so much with opposing coaches, officials, administrators, etc. He just has that singular focus ... and everything else is irrelevant.

I’m looking forward to seeing what he does at Knox. I’ve seen them several times over the last couple of years, and that program has made great strides. If the kids buy into his program, I’m confident he will take them to the next level. I wish him the best of luck. And by the way, if anyone had told me 20 yrs. ago that I’d be publicly defending Coach Radtke against his critics ... well, you could have gotten pretty long odds on that. 😆

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Bobref said:

In my 40+ years of high school football, I would have to say Coach Radtke is one of the more interesting figures I’ve seen. He is often his own worst enemy. But that is the product of his intense focus and his uncompromising attitude. Earlier in his career, he had lots of problems with officials. But later in his career he got away from that. There are 2 things that tell a large part of the story for me: (1) Despite his “tough love” approach, his kids love him. Talk to his former players, you’ll see, and (2) As a byproduct of #1, his teams play unbelievably hard for him. Some of my favorite games were when his Griffith team would take on Kirk Kennedy’s Lowell teams. The effort expended by both teams was really something to see.

I also strongly disagree that he’s doing this just to pile up wins in pursuit of the all time record. I honestly think that sort of thing is not what drives him, doesn’t mean that much to him. He is just one of the more intensely competitive people I’ve ever met. 

My bottom line is that Coach Radtke has my respect. We’ve had a few run-ins over the years as a result of his intense focus and extreme competitiveness. But I never had any doubt that his only interest is the kids. That’s why he is very popular with his kids, and not so much with opposing coaches, officials, administrators, etc. He just has that singular focus ... and everything else is irrelevant.

I’m looking forward to seeing what he does at Knox. I’ve seen them several times over the last couple of years, and that program has made great strides. If the kids buy into his program, I’m confident he will take them to the next level. I wish him the best of luck. And by the way, if anyone had told me 20 yrs. ago that I’d be publicly defending Coach Radtke against his critics ... well, you could have gotten pretty long odds on that. 😆

His love for the game and intense nature and his drive for the all time wins record are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  He can and does generally achieve both 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, region said:

You nominate yourself for the Hall. He is obviously a shoe-in, just hasn’t filled out the form to do it. I believe they discuss that in the interview. He mentioned that he felt there were assistant coaches that deserved to go in before him. 

Russ is just chasing Bud at this point. He’ll have a loaded gun to start his reign with the Redskins. 

So wait, you have to nominate yourself to get into the Indiana HOF?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, WolvesOnTheProwl said:

So wait, you have to nominate yourself to get into the Indiana HOF?

You do not:

Rensselaer, HC Chris Meeks, presented to our Region 4 an application 2 years ago for Steve Brandenburg, it goes through a process from each individual region and onto final step.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...