Rick Rice leaves Summertown football to take over as coach at alma mater McEwen
Longtime Nashville area high school football coach Rick Rice has left Summertown to take over at his alma mater.
Rice was named McEwen football coach Monday, replacing Eric Pullen, who retired Friday as coach but will stay on as a teacher at the school.
"I feel honored to get to come back to a place that has meant so much to me," said Rice, a 1981 McEwen graduate who was a quarterback for the Warriors, including an 8-3 season and state playoffs appearance during his senior season. His father, Rudy, and brother Mickey also played football at McEwen.
"I have so many memories of high school and growing up there. I'm honored to be able to (go back) late in my career and finish everything up."
Rice, who is 231-147 in more than 35 years of high school football in Tennessee, has been well traveled in recent years after a long stint at Wayne County.
His most recent stop was at Summertown, where he went 0-2 to begin the 2022 season before resigning for personal and financial reasons to teach in Rutherford County. The move was to get back on the insurance plan at Rutherford County Schools, something essential to take care of his son, Austin, who was critically injured in an automobile accident in October 2019.
He returned as head coach at Summertown during the offseason before accepting the McEwen position. Practice in pads starts Monday for high school teams across Tennessee.
"I had no plans of leaving Summertown, but only if something came open in my hometown," said Rice, whose mother still lives in McEwen and has battled health issues, a big reason for his return. A business teaching position came open at the high school, making it possible.
MORE: Brentwood Academy football adds Oakland transfer TT Hill to now loaded lineup
"I wanted to get back home. My mother is not doing well. I gave it a lot of thought," he said. "The timing about everything in Summertown wasn't good. I should have handled that a lot better than what I did. I was torn about wanting to stay there with those kids. They had bought in."
Rice started the program at Rockvale in 2019, leading the Rockets to the 6A playoffs in 2021, going 7-4 after a combined 1-19 start in the first two years.
During that time, he was faced with Austin's accident and his long road to recovery.
BASKETBALL: Brentwood Academy guard Tyler Tanner commits to Vanderbilt basketball, Jerry Stackhouse
He also was named in a complaint by a national religious organization for leading his team in a prayer during his first year with the Rockets.
Prior to Rockvale, he spent 21 years at Wayne County, where he won 176 games and took the Wildcats to the playoffs every season from 2001 until moving to Rockvale, including a 14-0 season and Class 1A state championship in 2011. Wayne County was 12-1 and made the state quarterfinals in 2015, and was 13-1 and reached the state semifinals in 2016.
McEwen won five of its first six games last season but finished 6-5, including a 28-14 loss to Moore County in the first round of the Class 1A state playoffs.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: TSSAA football: Rick Rice named McEwen coach, leaves Summertown
