Riverwood Raiders coach Robert Edwards is a strong believer that relationships are the key to everything, and that philosophy has carried him far.
It helped him through a stellar high school career at Washington County High, where he was teammates with future NFL Pro Bowl selection Takeo Spikes. It would play a vital role at Georgia, where he later returned after a horrific injury in the NFL that nearly cost him a leg.
And it’s helping him turn Class 6A’s No. 9-ranked Raiders (7-1, 4-1 in Region 7) from perennial mediocrity into a viable contender.
“(My approach) is to get the kids to trust me because I’m the type that believes in relationship-building,” said Edwards, who is 30-10 with a region championship — the program’s first — since taking over the Raiders in 2018. “What I want out of the kids, what I demand, the culture — all of that is built around relationships. That’s how I grew up playing. I trusted my coaches, and when you do that, you believe in the system. They made it a point to build relationships with me, and that’s what has made me successful.”
The Raiders are coming off a 40-33 victory against No. 8 Cambridge last week, which kept hopes of winning a second region title in three seasons alive. They won 6-5A during a historic 2019 season, in which they went 10-0 in the regular season and won a playoff game — both firsts for the program. The victory was their third consecutive against a ranked region opponent after they dominated No. 4 River Ridge 44-15 on Oct. 1, then returned from a bye to beat No. 10 Creekview 35-28 on Oct. 15.
That run put the Raiders inside the top 10 for the first time since 1986.
If Johns Creek, which beat them 40-32 on Sept. 24, loses to either River Ridge or Creekview, and the Raiders win out against Sequoyah and Chattahoochee, they’ll be region champions again.
Edwards’ coaching career began at Arlington Christian, a GISA school in Fairburn, where he was named head coach despite having no previous coaching experience. The program was green, too, having been around only four seasons. He cut the grass and lined the field, washed the uniforms and even served as the team’s athletic trainer in his two seasons there, while compiling a 15-7 record.
To learn the ropes, he leaned on the advice of friends, including former Bulldogs teammates Kirby Smart, Mike Bobo and Hines Ward, and his former Washington County coach Rick Tomberlin, who spent 34 years coaching teams around Georgia and compiled a 270-129 record with 10 region titles and three state championships.
“I was in all of their ears,” Edwards said.
From there, he went to Greene County for six seasons, taking the Tigers to the Class 1A Public quarterfinals in 2016 — the farthest the program had advanced since winning a 2A championship in 1993.
That was the deepest Edwards has taken a team, and he believes this year’s Raiders — the first senior class he has had at Riverwood that has played for him all four years — stack up, talent-wise.
“They’re right up there,” he said. “If we can stay healthy ... we can make a deep run.”
Edwards said that every year he revisits the infamous knee injury, suffered during a rookie beach flag-football game during Pro Bowl festivities following his 1998 rookie season, by talking to his team about it in the preseason.
He tore every major ligament in his left leg and severed an artery. Forget playing football, doctors told him, because his leg would be amputated if it didn’t heal properly, and even if it did, he’d be walking with a cane the rest of his life.
After Edwards said doctors gave him a “zero-percent chance” of playing in the NFL, he returned to Athens and rehabbed at Georgia with his former Bulldogs trainers, who he had befriended. In 2002, he returned to the NFL to play one season for the Dolphins, then three more seasons in the CFL.
He hasn’t needed a cane yet, either.
“That’s a big part of my testimony,” Edwards said. “What I didn’t know then — that I know now — is that it would become a big part of my coaching philosophy. It took me years to get back, and what helped was surrounding myself around the right people (in Athens) who I had relationships with, people who cared about me and cared about my goal. That played a big role in the coach I am today.”
He expects the same hard work from his players. Three-year starting quarterback Avery Smith, a senior, knows better than anyone. Coming in as a transfer ahead of his sophomore season, he had to earn the starting job.
“(Transferring) was one of the best decisions I made,” said Smith, a Toledo commitment. “I had to fight for this job, and I didn’t start the first two or three games — that was our (11-1) year (in 2019) — and he was telling me I had to compete even though I thought I’d already beat the other guy out. We were still splitting reps, and he told me it would be like this in college. I’d be evaluated every day.”
Smith has seen Edwards’ networking in action. He recalled going to a 7-on-7 event in Athens and how everyone at Georgia, from Smart to his assistants and school administration, “love and remember him,” Smith said. Champ Bailey, Smart and Spikes are a few who have stopped by Riverwood during Smith’s time there.
Smith said he has learned a lot from seeing Edwards build his network.
“He taught me relationships can turn your life upside down,” Smith said. “You could be somewhere different every day based on relationships, and if you build good relationships, you can be highly thought of, and doors will open. ... The camaraderie of the whole team, the coaches and the players, we’re all close, and the coaches genuinely want to see everyone get better.”
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