Davidson-Davie Athletic Director Ridge to host free clinic for county coaches
Championship-winning coach Matt Ridge will host a free coaching clinic on Monday, November 20th from 6-8 p.m. at Davidson-Davie Community College’s Brinkley Gym. The session will begin a behind-the-scenes view of the fifth ranked national junior college team in practice. Ridge will speak on topics including preparing detailed practice plans, developing and maintaining a winning culture, different ways rewarding and holding players accountable.
Ridge left behind a long career as a high school math teacher, most recently at Southwest Guilford, to take the new position at Davidson-Davie. Before coaching the STORM, he coached basketball, golf, and track at the high school level and served as an assistant JV basketball coach at UNC-Chapel Hill.
He became Davidson-Davie’s head basketball coach athletics director on July 1, 2021 and served as head coach of STORM basketball since 2007.
Ridge remained head coach of men’s basketball with a back-to-back successful season to date in April when the STORM captured the runner-up title in the NJCAA Division II championship. “STORM athletics has enjoyed tremendous success since 2007, both as a popular extracurricular activity for student-athletes and fans and in the record books,” according to the STORM website. The increasingly successful STORM program moved from Division III to Division II in 2018.
Ridge has directed the STORM to 10 outright regular-season Tarheel Conference Championships while being Co-Champions in four seasons. The STORM claimed the Region X Tournament Championship in 2010, 2011, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. In eight of the sixteen seasons, the STORM has advanced to both the District VII Championships and the NJCAA National Tournament. In national tournament play, the STORM finished 8th in 2010, 4th in 2011, 5th in 2016, 7th in 2017, 2nd in both 2021 and 2022 and 5th in 2023. The STORM won the District VII Championship for the eighth time in 16 years.
Ridge will share his experiences with local coaches during this unique clinic.
