Longtime assistant Wells trying to take Riverdale to higher level

By WILLIAM FRANCISCUS

Staff writer

MOUNT BLANCHARD — For a long time, Jon Wells figured it was his place to be an assistant at Riverdale, but the longtime football coach was elevated to the head position this year after former coach Sam Petrie gave up the job.

“For many years especially when I was a young man it was something I’d love to do,” Wells said. “After 15 years of being an assistant I thought I’d be an assistant for life. But getting this job, it’s been a dream of mine.”

Wells has been a part of the Riverdale football program for over half his life, as he started playing football for the Riverdale Falcons and earned first-team All-North Central Conference all four years before graduating in 1990. After that, he has been part of the coaching staff for the Falcons for 25 years.

“I’ve been an assistant or junior high coach for the last 25 years and I’ve been with six or seven different head coaches,” Wells said. “So, when the opportunity came up, I thought i’m going to give it a shot.”

Wells has seen a lot of different teams take the field for the Falcons but with him leading the team he expects a different mindset.

“I expect more than average out of these kids, and we work towards that every day,” he said. “We will have high expectations and positive attitudes, and we are going to have a strong work ethic. That’s the kind of strengths we have as a team.”

In the transition from being an assistant coach to becoming the head coach, Wells is excited to set a new standard at Riverdale after seeing the team finish without a winning record for the fourth straight year.

“It didn’t take the players a long time to realize a head coach is different than an assistant coach,” Wells said. “As an assistant you don’t really get to set your own standard; you take what the head coach gives you and you run with it. They realized things were going to change a bit for the positive.”

Wells and the Falcons want to bring football back to prominence at Riverdale and bring a winning tradition back to the program.

“In the past few years, it’s been four, five, six wins a year,” he said. “We want to exceed that. I told the kids from day one that a bad year for us is 7-3 or 8-2, and a good year we aren’t going to lose a game.”

Wells has hit the ground running leading his team and has been impressed with what he has seen during summer training.

“They have shown great mental toughness,” he said. “We’ve put them through all the bases condition-wise and had the National Guard over for a workout. I was pleasantly surprised with how our kids reacted when they were really pushed.”

The Falcons will look to not only excel on the field, but in all aspects of life.

“We are going to be fundamentally sound and were going to be respectful,” Wells said. “My one golden rule that I tell the kids everyday you’re going to be a good person, student, athlete and teammate. We will also be active in our community and make people proud on Friday nights.”