Russell Rigdon, who spent the past six seasons as an assistant coach at Manual High School, has been named the new football coach at Jeffersontown.
The 40-year-old Rigdon replaces Steve Stonebraker, who stepped down after one season to take the job as head coach at Casey County.
“After my first year at Manual (in 2010) I applied for some jobs,” Rigdon said. “I got better at the interview process, but looking back I wasn’t really ready to be a head coach. This year I thought I’d try again and do things my way and see what it looks like.”
Rigdon is a 1993 graduate of Dixie Heights High School and also attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the University of Kentucky. He got his coaching start in Florida before moving back to Kentucky and becoming an assistant at Pendleton County.
Upon moving to Lexington, he applied for jobs at each of the high schools and caught the eye of then-Bryan Station coach Oliver Lucas.
“He got back to me and hired me, and it’s worked out since then,” Rigdon said.
Rigdon spent four seasons with Lucas at Bryan Station before the duo headed to Manual in 2010. Rigdon was the defensive coordinator during his first season before spending the past five as offensive coordinator. Lucas stepped down as Manual’s head coach after last season, posting a 45-25 record.
Rigdon inherits a J’town program that finished 2-9 last season after jumping from Class 5-A to Class 6-A in a district with Trinity, Ballard, Eastern and Seneca.
Rigdon said he wants to bring stability to a program that’s had three other head coaches since the start of the 2014 season – Nathan Jones, Gary Weiter and Stonebraker.
“We’re going to try to bring more kids into the program and build something and do it the right way,” Rigdon said. “One of the big goals is just to get the program settled down a little bit and teach some kids some football and get them playing at the level I’m used to seeing it played at.”