By day, Matt Ridge is a math teacher at Southwest Guilford High School.
By night — almost every night during basketball season — Ridge is out pursuing his dream, while his wife, Candice, stays home with their two young daughters.
"I teach all day, then go practice and then go recruit," Ridge said. "Fortunately I have the most supportive coach's wife in the country."
Ridge, 36, is the men's coach at Davidson County Community College, a fourth-year program in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association. The program is thriving, in part, because of the aggressive work of Ridge and his staff and the support the program receives from the DCCC administration.
Ridge's overtime work is paying off — the Storm is 18-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation, according to the NJCAA Division III poll.
"I would say 90 percent of the nights we don't play, we hit the road," said Ridge, who is often recruiting with assistants Jon Weavil and Brandon Mullis. "The last four years, I have seen so many gyms in North Carolina it's unbelievable. We are recruiting against other junior colleges.
"It's a hard sell to make, but we feel like if we get the kids and families here, we can get some of those guys."
Ridge, the Storm's coach since the program was formed in 2007, said he couldn't say how long he would continue in the position.
"I have no idea," he said. "Ideally, like a lot of my players, they want to move to a four-year school, and I have hopes and dreams of that for myself. But I could see myself doing this for a long time and being happy.
"I really appreciate the opportunity to coach at this level, and I am doing that even though it's a two-year level."
Ridge, a 1992 graduate of Ledford High School and a 1996 graduate of North Carolina, said he played for North Carolina's junior-varsity team for two seasons and then spent his last two college seasons as a student assistant on the North Carolina basketball staff.
He was the boys coach at High Point Central High for the 2000-01 season, then spent the next six seasons as the boys coach at East Davidson. After working as an assistant at Guilford College for the 2006-07 season, he applied for the job at DCCC and was hired.
"I got the job in late June, had six weeks to recruit, had no players," Ridge said. "We had to order uniforms, get side goals in the gym, paint the walls, order bleachers. You can't imagine the things that had to happen in a short period of time.
"It's been an amazing four years. That first year, we got to ninth in the country."
The Storm has won the Tarheel Conference title each of the past three seasons, which comes with an automatic berth to the NJCAA district playoffs, a one-game shot to reach the Division III Elite Eight.
Last spring, the Storm won the district playoff game and reached the final eight in Delhi, N.Y. The Storm finished eighth after losing its three games by a combined 12 points.
The Storm has been nearly unbeatable at home, going 51-2 in its home gym, a cozy building that seats about 300.
"We have had to turn people away at the door," Ridge said.
This year's team plays like a blur — averaging 108 points a game, with five players holding double-figure scoring averages. One of those five, Robbie Curry, is a Lexington High graduate who is second on the team with 34 3-point baskets.
"We have the most athletic group we have ever had, and that's why we are averaging so many points," Ridge said. "We are running more presses and multiple defenses because our personnel allows it, and we are playing more people.
"We have been talented in the past, but not this athletic."
rlinker@wsjournal.com
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