By JAMES BROWN
WCLU Sports
Less than two months after taking the job, Richard Gatewood announced his resignation as boys’ basketball head coach at Caverna.
Gatewood released a statement Wednesday, July 30, on social media that said he was “stepping down …” due to his family going through health issues, “and I am not able to sustain the commitment needed to guide the program.”
Gatewood told WCLU Sports on Thursday that his mother is under going treatments. She lives in Louisville “in the house I grew up in,” he said.
“I feel like I need to be there for her as much as I can, and that was going to be difficult while coaching at Caverna,” Gatewood said. He confirmed he lives in Cave City, and said that it takes him about two hours to get to his mother’s house.
“It was weighing heavy on my heart,” Gatewood said. “I prayed about it and decided this was the best thing for me to do.
“I hate it because I was really looking forward to coaching this [boys’ basketball] team,” he said.
The former Taylor County and Moore head coach took over the Colonels on June 10, and coached the team through the last few weeks of summer camps. In conjunction with his arrival was that of several players who were not at Caverna for last basketball season. One was Davier White, who Gatewood said was his godson, and who played at Taylor County last season. Gatewood was listed as a volunteer assistant basketball coach at Campbellsville University prior to taking the job at Caverna.
Gatewood said he has encouraged the players who were already at Caverna, or who came to Caverna this summer, to stay and play for whomever coaches the team next. But White “will obviously be with me wherever I move,” he said.
Gatewood said he is looking to move closer to Louisville to be closer to his mother.
Gatewood coached at Taylor County for three seasons a decade ago. He coached at Moore Traditional High School in Louisville for one season prior to taking the Taylor job in 2013. He returned to Moore in March 2022, according to a WDRB article. Gatewood was arrested and charged with assault and strangulation in February 2023, but a Jefferson County grand jury refused to indict him in April of that year, and the case was dismissed, according to WDRB.
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