Massillon Tigers corridor of fame enshrines swimming, diving coach legends

Former Massillon Washington High School aquatics coaches Bob Wherry, Dave Rotthoff and Terry Ridgley can be inducted into the Tiger Sharks Hall of Fame in the course of the 2026 group’s recognition banquet.

The banquet is ready for six p.m. Wednesday, April 8, on the Massillon Women’s Club.

The faculty natatorium that was a fixture at previous Washington High School was named after Wherry, who piloted the Tiger Sharks for 1 / 4 century and was across the program significantly longer than that.

Wherry grew up in Canton, graduating from Lehman High School, earlier than learning at Ohio State. In Massillon, he developed championship swimmers together with four-time state champion Bill Pritchard and impressed many to educate, officiate, compete in or assist the game. Ridgley, Jim Starrett, Doug Nist and Joel Vogt are amongst his notable protégés.  

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Rotthoff was in his tenth yr as a swim coach at Farrell High School in Pennsylvania when he noticed a gap for a job in Massillon in Swim World journal. He turned head coach of the Tiger Sharks in 1984, labored the job at completely different occasions throughout greater than 30 seasons, and retired in 2017. He was Stark County Coach of the Year 5 occasions. Standout diver Jake Roberson and four-time state-qualifying swimmer Kendra Colby had been amongst his high achievers. Rotthoff’s mantra of being at house within the water is mirrored in his longtime competing on the highest ranges in Masters swimming.  

Ridgley turned a standout diver in highschool within the Nineteen Sixties in Wherry’s Massillon program. He started working as a coach on the Massillon YMCA in 1974 en path to a long term as one of many high diving instructors in Ohio. He coached many divers from a number of Stark County excessive colleges. He continued his personal aggressive profession lengthy after highschool, at one level inserting seventh within the World Masters Championships.

Wherry and Ridgley are being honored posthumously. Both had been 77 after they handed away, Wherry in 2002, Ridgley in 2025.

The Canton Repository sports activities division might be contacted through electronic mail at sports activities@cantonrep.com.