Loudon athletic director Ronnie Roberts takes over girls' basketball program for Bryant Collins

By Dave Link knoxnews.com

 

Bryant Collins stepped down Wednesday as the Loudon High School girls’ basketball coach and handed over the reins to his assistant coach and athletic director Ronnie Roberts.

Collins, who was 248-153 in 14 seasons as Loudon’s coach, resigned to spend more time with his family — wife Stephannie and two children, Kyndal, 13, and Kain, 9.

Loudon won at least 19 games in eight different seasons with Collins as head coach and went to the Class AA state tournament in 2011. His first team at Loudon won only two games.

“We’ve had a lot of good teams and a lot of good players come through here,” Collins said. “I think the program is in good shape, and it’s time for me to spend more time with my wife and kids, who are both involved in sports.”

Collins will continue as an assistant principal at Loudon, and he won’t be a stranger to the girls basketball program.

“I’ll be at almost all the games, and I’ll be supporting them any way I can,” Collins said.

Roberts looks forward to that.

“I told him I’m going to put a coach emeritus title on him, so he can be there whenever he wants,” Roberts said.

Roberts, a 1975 Loudon graduate, was Collins’ assistant for the past six seasons and is in his first year as the school’s athletic director, a position he will continue. He was an assistant football coach at Loudon for 22 years through the 2011 season.

“Bryant and I worked really well together for the last six years and became very close,” Roberts said. “I tried my best to talk him out of this, but family comes first.”

Loudon returns two starters, Aspen Jordan and Bre Snow, from last season’s team that went 17-13 and lost to Fulton in the Region 2-AA quarterfinals.

“Coach Roberts has been with (Collins), and they’ve worked very well hand in hand,” Loudon principal Cheri Parrish said. “I believe Coach Roberts will come in and make it a smooth transition.”