Cody West wins Nick Coutras Award
BY CHIP CIRILLO • Gannett Tennessee • February 18, 2010 
When Cody West became Riverdale’s quarterback as a junior in 2008, his position coach gave him a playbook that was six inches thick.
Former Warriors quarterback Coach Terry Hemontoler told him if he learned only one thing from the playbook it should be that quarterbacks get too much praise after a win and too much blame after a loss.
West learned all about blame that season as the Warriors went 5-5, failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 1990.
But he led a turnaround last season as a senior, leading Riverdale to an 11-3 record and an appearance in the Class 6A semifinals.
His perseverance helped earn him the Nick Coutras Award, presented annually to a senior football player from Middle Tennessee who shows exceptional individual effort, superior attitude, dedication to team, academic and athletic excellence and commitment to community service.
The late Coutras was successful coach at Overton and Cumberland. West will receive a $5,000 scholarship, and $1,000 will be awarded to Riverdale’s athletic department. A panel with a wide variety of backgrounds made the selection.
“The thing that caught my eye with Cody is that he overcame adversity and came back very strong his senior year,” said Chris Coutras, Nick’s son. “He played the game with such passion and turned their program back into a successful one.”
Riverdale is one of the state’s winningest programs, so there was a lot of grumbling when the team went .500 in 2008.
“In the Riverdale community it’s all about winning and we went through a lot of pressure with the fans,” West said. “I got called every name in the book. I had a lot of fumbles my junior year and a lot of losses were on me. Turnovers lose ballgames and I had the majority of them in most games.”
West became determined to cut down on his fumbles and narrowed them down to one his senior year. He ran with a football all summer during conditioning, so that holding it became second nature.
“It was pure hell for him (in 2008),” Warriors Coach Ron Aydelott said. “He took a lot of that heat for us going 5-5. It was not a whole lot of fun being the quarterback at Riverdale his junior year.”
But West turned things around in 2009, passing for 1,165 yards and rushing for 900. He earned the District 7-AAA MVP award and committed to Navy earlier this week.
He played through a pinched nerve in his neck, sprained ankle, strained wrist, turf toe and staph infection.
“As a whole team nobody wanted to lose again because we’ve experienced losing,” West said. “Winning is expected at Riverdale. My junior season was the one that the dynasty kind of collapsed, but through the summer we just wanted it so bad. We got the program back on its feet.”
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Scoreboard - August 27, 2010
| Teams | Score | |
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Riverdale
La Vergne |
34 0 |
Final |
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