The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

Ryan Adams has been named the new Head Football Coach for Sweet Home High School, Athletic Director Nate Tyler said Monday.

Adams, a social studies teacher at the high school, grew up in Sweet Home and played on the football team himself in high school.

"It's a dream come true," he said. "I've envisioned being head coach for a long time, so I'm super blessed to have the opportunity."

Adams, 23, has been a member of the Sweet Home football coaching staff for six years, first as a positional coach and then as the offensive coordinator for the past two years.

He replaces Dustin Nichol, who retired from teaching and coaching after the 2021 season.

"Dustin did a phenomenal job," Adams said. "I have nothing but respect and good things to say about him."

Adams, a 2015 SHHS graduate who played football and basketball throughout his high school career for the Huskies, said one of his own strengths as a coach is relating with kids.

"Being younger, it makes it a little bit easier," he said.

"Just being able to build relationships and trust and being somebody those kids can lean on when things outside of football get tough, I think helps me a lot," he said.

From a tactical perspective, Adams said he plans on sticking with the spread offense the team has utilized in the past few years. But he says he will be tweaking some things a little bit.

"I want to go fast. No huddle. Hurry-up offense is what I envision."

On defense, he said his early thoughts are to run a four-two-five formation.

"Defensively, we're going to stick to a four-man front," he said.

Overall, he wants "high intensity all around the football. Swarming."

"Just something that's fun to watch," he said. "You get kids out in space, and just high intensity and a lot of energy. That's kind of what we're striving for this fall."

As he looks to the future, he said, "the big thing is just making good people. Just teaching and coaching kids into learning how to be good people that can come back into our community and be something we are all proud of."

Adams was selected from a pool of a dozen candidates, Tyler said.

"I was very pleased with the candidates we got," he said. "We had several candidates with very good and very successful experience. We had some candidates that were new to head coaching, but were promising."

Four finalists were picked from the field. Two of them had successful head coaching experience, and the other two, including Adams, were applying to be head coaches for the first time, Tyler said.

He said that through the interview process, "it was very clear that Adams was our number one."

"What came through in the interview process is that Ryan presented a very clear picture of what his program is going to look like, on and off the field.

"He has a very good understanding of how school supports athletics and athletics supports school.

"He made it very clear that he's going to lead that program, not just on the field but off the field as well."

Tyler went on to say that "what Adams presented was a wonderful program that takes into account the entire student.

"He really emphasized turning these young men into better humans, better people, better fathers, students, husbands in the future. That was really the deciding factor.

"It helps that we believe that he can coach," Tyler added. "We believe that he's going to do a good job on the field."

"He's good at motivating. He's good with the X's and O's, and has a good offensive mind. There was a lot of upside with Adams," Tyler said.