Preps Central: Heath Ridenour and David Howes talk coaching, rivalries and more

They were once rivals. They were recently co-workers. And now they’re matching brain pans again.

The high school football scene in the metro area has a familiar tint to it this fall with the return of Heath Ridenour and David Howes to the coaching ranks.

Ridenour won three state championships (2015, 2019, 2021) as the Cleveland head coach. Howes won two blue trophies (2014, 2016) at Rio Rancho. The two men later took their talents to the University of New Mexico as assistant coaches — Howes coaching the safeties, Ridenour the quarterbacks — but when Danny Gonzales lost his job as Lobo head coach last season, Howes, who joined the UNM staff in 2020, and Ridenour, who joined in 2022, were out of work, too.

But not for long. The lure of their vocation brought them back to the prep scene.

“I’m glad to be back at it,” Ridenour said. “I learned a lot of football at the University of New Mexico.”

Ridenour, for the second time in his career, is calling plays as the offensive coordinator at Cleveland. Howes has returned to Cibola, his alma mater and where he was an assistant coach long ago, to coordinate the Cougars’ defense.

“It's been a great experience and I’m glad to be back to try to make a difference,” Howes said.

And as it happens, Week 8 offers up a Cleveland-Cibola District 1-6A matchup on Friday night at Nusenda Community Stadium.

The two men sat down in the Journal studios for a lengthy podcast earlier this week.What follows are portions of that interview, which has been condensed for clarity and content.

Watch the video podcast above or listen to the podcast below.

JOURNAL: You both earned the right to take a little time away from football. What brought you back to coaching high school?

RIDENOUR: I didn’t think I was gonna coach. But once you coach, you coach. It’s what you do. I’m glad to be back at it.

HOWES: I didn’t get back into the work force until August. I spent some some time in the spring and summer with several teams. … I really didn’t plan on jumping back in, but I looked at Cibola going 0-10 (last year), and a bunch of kids coming back … and I thought, you know, I can go make a difference.

JOURNAL: How has the transition been?

RIDENOUR: When you’re the head coach, 95% of your job is all the administrative side of it, and 5% of it is football. You don’t get to do a lot of football. End of the day (now), I walk out, I leave. It’s nice. There’s a lot less pressure.

HOWES: I agree with coach. As a head coach, at the end of the day, you spend more time doing laundry. When you have a big program, and you want it to be successful, you have to do everything right.

JOURNAL: What did you learn about coaching football, in general, that you did not know before you left for UNM?

RIDENOUR: For me, it was detail. The amount of time you get to spend on football when you're in college. … The detail you get to coach is awesome. At the high school level, that’s really hard to do because you’re wearing so many hats.

HOWES: And stay in your lane, too. Once you take a role like we took, and you’re a position coach, you find out real quick where your lane is, and you do your job. You don’t focus on anything else. … I’ve learned so much football over the last four years. Leaving Rio Rancho, I was feeling like I knew something about football, and then I got with coach (Rocky) Long and coach (Danny) Gonzales, and realized there was a whole bunch to learn. I got a crash course for four years on football and it’s made me a better coach, and it’s made me enjoy and appreciate what these high school coaches do.

JOURNAL: In high school, there wasn’t anything left for either of you to prove. What ultimately led you to bolt for the challenge of coaching college football?

HOWES: I was actually in the process of going to ASU (Arizona State) at the time, that was gonna be the next move for me. Danny ended up getting the job here and called me and brought me over. It was a childhood dream, and I think that I’ve always wanted to do it, be in the college game and stretch my legs and throw my hat in there and see what I can do.

RIDENOUR: Ultimately, it’s the competitiveness inside of you. You want to grow every single day. I’ve got zero regret doing what I did. I would do it again, in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself. I think your window to coach football is small, and you have to be able to take advantage of the opportunity when you get it.

JOURNAL: It’s been a decade of domination in the big-school division by metro-area teams. A metro team has won every big-school final since 2014. How and when did the worm turn?

HOWES: Cleveland having the success they had early, and us having the opportunity to have the success we had … I think we definitely fed off each other. Don’t kid yourself; we sat there, me and my (coaching) staffs, watched all that southern (New Mexico) success, and we were like, we want that. That needs to be ours, we need to bring that here. Those guys drove us, these guys (at Cleveland) drove us.

RIDENOUR: Think about how big the story was in 2015 when it was two metro area teams playing in the state championship game. (Cleveland and Eldorado). First time ever, which was crazy to me.

JOURNAL: Where does the Rio Rancho-Cleveland rivalry rank in New Mexico?

HOWES: Top five. I’d always put that top five, all classes, everybody combined. That’s the Friday Night Lights that I absolutely adore.

RIDENOUR: All-time, (Las) Cruces-Mayfield (is first), in my opinion. I would put Cleveland-Rio No. 2.

JOURNAL: Should Rio Rancho build a third high school?

HOWES: If they’re smart, they won’t.

RIDENOUR: (smiling) If I can prevent it, I will.