FRED T. FOARD
FOOTBALL PLAYOFF BIDS
State football playoff teams at Fred T. Foard High over the last 60 years:
Dick Foster–1981, 1982, 1983, 1985
Ryan Gettys–2005, 2006, 2008
Allan Gorry—1998, 1999
Mike McRee—1996, 1997
Derrick Minor—2016, 2017
Tom Harper—2015
Tony Paroli—1995
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
NEWTON – Fred T. Foard High’s shot at making the state playoffs in three straight seasons for the third time in its 60-year football history is back in the hands of Ryan Gettys.
RYAN GETTYS
Gettys — the Tigers’ head coach for eight years (2003-10) — was introduced Tuesday morning as the replacement for Derrick Minor, who stepped down after three years at Foard that included reaching the postseason last season and in 2017.
Foard, 6-6 last season and 9-4 in 2017, is changing head coaches for the 11th time since Dick Foster left in 1986. He coached Foard to three state playoff bids in 1981, 1982 and 1983 and another in 1985.
Foard also had three straight postseason teams — in 1995 under Tony Paroli and in 1996 and 1997 under Mike McRee.
GETTYS’ BEST SEASON
Ryan Gettys’ best season as head coach at Fred T. Foard High came in 2008 when the Tigers finished 7-2 in the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A-3A and in third place behind co-champions Hibriten and Newton-Conover.
The Tigers started 4-0– beating South Caldwell, West Lincoln, Maiden and Patton – before falling 29-20 at home to Newton-Conover. After wins over Hickory, Hibriten, West Caldwell, Bunker Hill and Bandys, the Tigers fell 10-7 at home against St. Stephens and just missed winning their first league title since 1983.
North Buncombe beat Foard 21-6 in the opening round of the state playoffs.
RB Quinton Owens ran for 1,425 yards on 169 carries and scored 22 rushing touchdowns while QB Landon Isenhour threw for 1,021 yards and 10 scores and Trent Safrit (15-272 yards, 3 TDs) and Tyler Ruth (13-247, 2 TDs) were the top receivers.
Owens had three 200-yard games – 20-220 against Hickory, 12-219 against Bunker Hill and 20-262 against Bandys.
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.
The Tigers have reached the state playoffs 15 times in 60 years with Gettys the only head coach other than Foster with at least three postseason teams.
Gettys’ eight years as Foard head coach ranks second behind Foster’s nine and only one other head coach, Paroli (six years), has stayed more than three seasons since Foster resigned after the 1986 season.
A graduate of North Rowan High and Appalachian State, Gettys was an assistant coach for eight years before becoming a head coach at Foard. He was on the coaching staff of the late Charlie Lloyd for one season (2002) before taking over as Tigers head coach the next season.
Ryan Gettys has also spent time as an assistant football coach at East Burke, St. Stephens, West Charlotte and Hibriten before working at Foard the first time.
After two straight 1-10 seasons to start his tenure at Foard, Gettys guided the Tigers to back-to-back playoff bids in 2005 (4-8) and 2006 (7-5). Two years after that, the Tigers finished third in the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A-3A – going 7-2 – and gained another 3A postseason bid and finished 9-3.
Gettys resigned in December of 2010 following his last team going 0-11. His Foard teams were 30-61 in eight seasons.
Minor, still on the Foard faculty, resigned in December (https://hobbsdailyreport.com/fred-t-foard-high/high-school-football-minor-out-as-head-coach-at-foard-says-he-will-coach-again/), saying the decision to exit the job was mutually agreed upon.
Gettys, who anticipated watching his son (Stefan) and daughter (Maggie) play prep sports after he resigned in 2010, left Foard in July 2011 to accept an offer as an assistant football coach (coaching wide receivers) at Bunker Hill.
Stefan Gettys, Foard’s starting quarterback in 2010, transferred to Bunker Hill and closed out his athletic career there; Maggie Gettys remained at Foard and completed her athletic career with the Tigers.
Gettys is a marketing teacher at Foard and has coached the Tigers’ girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis teams since returning there four years ago. Foard athletic director Samy Shreitah said Gettys will continue to coach boys’ tennis but no longer coach the girls team.
RYAN GETTYS’ FOOTBALL RECORDS
A look the eight seasons for Fred T. Foard High football under Ryan Gettys, who on Tuesday was named as the Tigers’ head coach for a second time:
Year Conf./Finish All
2003 0-6/Seventh 1-10
2004 1-5/Sixth 1-10
2005 3-5/Tie fifth 4-8*
2006 5-3/Tie third 7-5*
2007 3-5/Seventh 4-7
2008 7-2/Third 9-3*
2009 2-4/Tie fifth 4-7
2010 0-6/Seventh 0-11
TOTALS 21-36 30-61
*–state playoff team
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.