Ron Gartrell, whose 243 football victories rank second all-time in DeKalb County Schools history, has retired after 33 seasons as a head coach. He told his coaches and players on a Zoom call Monday evening.
“It’s been running through my mind so much that I just felt like it was time,” Gartrell said. “After watching things change tremendously over the years, I’ve been truly blessed to be able to run a program the way I want to run it. We’ve been able to build the type of program we wanted to build.”
Gartrell started Stephenson’s football program in 1996 and built into a state power. Stephenson has won 10 region titles, the most recent ones in 2018 and 2019, and reached the state quarterfinals or better seven times. Gartrell always maintained a relatively stable staff. His defensive coordinator and top assistant, Donald Sellers, also has been at Stephenson since the start.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed, Gartrell likely helped produced more college and NFL players than any other high school coach in state history. Fourteen of his former players played in the NFL, a list that includes Jeff Saturday, Kregg Lumpkin, Marcus Ball, Kelvin Sheppard, Perry Riley and Cosey Coleman. More than 250 of his former players have signed football scholarships.
Gartrell pointed to that when asked what he hoped his legacy would be: ’'That I helped every kid whether it was going to a college, or getting into a trade state or the job force. A lot of our players have become doctors and lawyers or great fathers or community guys. The guys that excite me the most are sometimes the ones you didn’t read about on Saturday morning but were a very important part of the team.’'
Gartrell kept a picture of one of those players, Al-Aakbir Grimes, on his filing cabinet. A 1999 graduate, Grimes never missed a practice in four years but never played in a varsity game.
“He wouldn’t go in if we threw him on the field,” Gartrell said. “But he’s doing a lot for his community today, and he’s one of the most motivating people I’ve ever been around. Those are the things that show up outside the radar that people don’t understand. That’s what coaching is all about.”
Gartrell played football in college at Carson-Newman. He began coaching at Washington-Wilkes, his high school alma mater, in 1983. His first head coaching job came in 1988 at Shamrock, which closed in 1996, the year that Stephenson opened.
Gartrell plans to remain at Stephenson as a teacher and golf coach through this academic year.
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