By: Aiden Hendrickson / Co-Sports Editor
By: Brody Baker / Co-Sports Editor
Friday nights lights shine throughout New Palestine, but for Dragons’ Head Coach Kyle Ralph, it’s not about the trophies or the wins. It’s about building relationships with the kids and helping them grow not just as players but individuals. He hopes it’s something they carry on throughout the rest of their lives.
“I hope they carry our ‘Win the Day’ motto. We challenge our guys to try to be the best they can be every day. They’re teenagers and need a guiding light at times, and I hope they take with them the idea of making the right choices and being good people. Life throws a lot of choices at you; do you make the right one, the wrong one, or push it off? Pushing things off isn’t acceptable. I’d like to think that as they become adults, parents, and husbands, they’ll keep that mindset with them,” Ralph said.
Family is what first brought him and what has kept him here over the years. He has enjoyed seeing the youth system continue to grow and what they had established.
“My wife is actually a graduate from here and went here, so having been up in the area quite a bit when she and I were dating, engaged, and married, I just liked the area. It’s a good school system, a nice place to raise a family, and just a good town. The football program had a couple of good years and some tough ones too, but I thought they had a good established youth system that you could build off of. The big thing was my wife being from here, it was a chance to get her back close to where she’s from, and it’s a good place to live,” Ralph said.
Ralph has had a huge impact on his players throughout the years. He wants to win and makes sure everyone wants to and gets better.
“He makes everyone work hard, he doesn’t care who you are or how many stars you have, if you don’t work hard you won’t play for him,” Senior Garrett Ranes said.
Ralph has had many important and key games including multiple state championships and rivalry games including the one against Mt. Vernon this year where New Pal won 71-0 in a very dominant perfomance but the one that stands out the most to him is his first win. It’s something that he’ll remember for the rest of his life.
“I would probably say just getting the first win, honestly. The year before I got here, they were 3-7. It was a really rough year for a lot of reasons, and being a first-time head coach, playing against a team that was ranked in 3A at the time, Danville, I was extremely nervous. So getting that first win off your back was huge. It’s a game I’ll never forget. It was the opener, the first game after a tough season, and winning that one was a massive momentum builder for us,” Ralph said.
