With his last season on the horizon, Westside’s Spoon Risper considers it all — and is thankful

It was almost fitting that the Westside field house was abnormally quiet.

When longtime Seminoles head football coach Spoon Risper sat down in the building’s meeting room, the usual shouts, music and chatter that typically come from the adjacent locker room were absent. With the first day of summer practices done, all the Westside players had already gone.

It was the beginning of the end of his tenure at Westside. Risper will coach the Seminoles for the final time in the 2025 season. 

Though his voice wavered with emotion occasionally as he reflected on nearly 30 years spent at Westside and its “feeder” school, Weaver Middle, the veteran coach felt phenomenal.

“God’s been whispering in my ear,” Risper said of his decision to leave Westside, where he has been head coach since 2009. “I know his voice, and it was just time to change and get ready for the finale, for the end of my ‘season’ at Westside.”

Risper has become a fixture at the school since coming on as the wide receiver coach in 1998. He moved to become head coach at Weaver after a few seasons before he succeeded legendary Seminoles coach Robert Davis, who became a mentor for him, in 2009.

“It’s a history I’ve been proud to be a part of,” Risper said. “I think one of the things I’ll miss the most is the way they play here and all the players that have played for me. They never quit, there’s just a different way of playing at Westside.”

That history has consisted of Westside becoming Bibb County’s winningest program, as the Seminoles have not had a losing season since the school began playing in 1997 with Davis as the head coach. 

Risper became the all-time winningest coach in Bibb County School District history last season when he passed Davis with a 116-64 record, passing Central High School football architect Tom Simonton. He accrued many of those wins at the 4A and 3A levels before Westside was reassigned to Class 2A in 2024.

“I couldn’t do that without the kids, I can’t take the credit for all the success,” he said. “Those kids have gone out and laid it on the line for me, year after year.”

Risper had already passed his own predecessor. Davis, the only other coach in Westside’s history, went 101-33 with the Seminoles. The trio are the only coaches in Bibb County since 1970 to have winning career records with at least five seasons coached, according to records from the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.

It’s an impressive legacy, one Risper thinks the school will be able to continue.

“They’ll pick the right person,” he said. “The way this program is run is incredible. It’s really a reflection of the way the game is played in Middle Georgia. Football is so big here. I love this area and the football here.”

And for that reason, Risper’s coaching career is not likely to end. He’s feeling great physically, he said, and still has plenty of passion for the game. He will likely stay in the Middle Georgia area, a place he loves to call home.

The one thing that has eluded Risper and the Seminoles, despite running such a prolific program, has been a state title. Risper has twice reached the state quarterfinals as a head coach, once right after he took over in 2009 and again in 2015.

“The career has been everything I could have asked for, except for the state championship,” he said. “You always strive for that, and you really want the kids to experience that.”

But Risper’s legacy at Westside is not quite finished with the 2025 season still in store. The program is coming off one of its better playoff performances in recent years, taking the No. 1 seed in the GHSA Class 2A bracket, Rockmart, down to the wire in a back-and-forth affair.

Though the second-round showdown ended in a 37-30 loss for the Seminoles, they showed guts, exemplifying the traits Risper praised so fervently when he espoused the program’s values.

“That game is the perfect example. I’m kind of a fiery coach, I try to inspire the kids. That trip was really good for them — they went up there and played well and fought against a really good team, and a team with a great crowd at home,” Risper said. “We were down 14 points with probably two minutes left, and we took it down to the last play as time ran out. That’s how we play, that’s our brand of football.”

Such a game has given the returning players lots to build on — and lots to learn from.

“That last play, we just couldn’t get the touchdown. We’ve actually watched that play a lot over the offseason, just to get that hunger in our minds,” he said. “They’re ready to go. It’s already feeling a little different, because the kids are ready to fight for me.

“I really want them to go the extra mile, but I want them to do it for them. I do think we’re going to have a good season.”

It won’t be easy. The Seminoles will be tasked with replacing star running Kadiphious Iverson, who broke the program’s single-season rushing touchdown record last year with 31 scores and paced the offense throughout the season.

“He’s a bell cow. That’s tough to replace. He’s one of the most talented guys I’ve had come through here. That’s something that only comes around once every many years,” Risper said. “But we have guys with talent and fire. They’ll be ready to help this team.”

There will also be the matter of Westside’s region in Class 2A, a talented group featuring regular powerhouse Morgan County and other talented programs like Callaway and Jackson.

But the group is motivated. Many of them had siblings that played at Westside, even fathers that were part of the school’s earliest graduating classes. They know it’s Risper’s last season with the program — after all, there will be a documentary series shot during the year keeping track of the coach’s Westside swan song.

Regardless of how the final season plays out one thing is certain: it will be a bit of a strange feeling when things wrap up — and Spoon will surely have to revamp his wardrobe.

“It will feel weird not to wear that garnett and gold, I don’t know what in the world I’ll do,” the head coach said, smiling. “I’ve got Westside shirts I’ve had for five years that I’ve only worn twice, that’s how much of it I got. But I’ll always love the colors. 

“I get choked up just thinking about it — everyone I’ve met here, everything the school has accomplished. The students have become police, firemen, doctors, lawyers, teachers and coaches. They come back and tell me about everything they’ve accomplished, and I feel that my coaching’s not in vain. I feel like I made a difference.”