If you have been involved with or watched Trigg County little league football in the past 40 years, you have witnessed the tradition known as the ‘Red Team’.
Clayton and Roger “Spud” Ladd began coaching little league football in 1978. Both were standout players for the Wildcats in their day.
Clayton was an All-WKC running back in 1962 and 1963 and was the first Wildcat to rush for 1,000 yards in a season in 1963, which included a 216-yard, four-touchdown night against Providence.
Spud was a lineman for the Wildcats in the late 1960s and a key blocker on the 1970 team that set many offensive school records, some of which continue to stand today.
But it was the impact they made on the youth of Trigg County as little league football coaches of the Red Team. Their style was different than the other coaches, and not every player was cut out to be a Red Team member. They did more exercises and ran more than the other little league teams. They learned the proper Red Team vocabulary, so they knew which gaps to run through or which ones to block. And they ran the football. A lot.
More than 750 players have been taught Red Team football through the years, with their success carrying over to the varsity team. Seven players on the 1989 Wildcat state runner-up team got their start on the Red Team.
Even after coaching, the Ladd brothers remain a fixture at many Trigg County football games – attending just about every Wildcat contest both home and away.
