Cincinnati Cobra

I've always felt like Cooper is one or the best jobs in Northern Kentucky almost solely on account of the fact that Tim has made it so. And I think a lot of that is also part and partial to the fact that he is there at the helm. However, Coach Sullivan also strikes me as the type who will make success happen wherever he ends up. I personally would count Dixie's basketball team as the most historically under-performing basketball program in Northern Kentucky and potentially one of the most historically under-performing programs in the state. As AD, Derek Bosse seems like he managed to find a promising but relatively un-accomplished coach to step in and make some moves with the football program. I am very interested to see if he makes a similar hire here, or if he manages to lure in Tim. Or I guess he could always make another flop of a hire. Which would be a very Dixie thing to do.

The word in my neck of the woods has been that Scott and Amy have been putting in work beating some pretty big bushes but haven't come near to shaking anything loose from any of them.

Presence within the building is definitely a big deal at the high school level, especially for a sport that involves a very large commitment of time and effort like football does. From looking at the sidelines, I'd say Brossart has probably been in the mid-forties for roster numbers in the last few years under Wiggins. The roster at Holy Cross, where Kozerski is coming from as a coach, has been more around mid-thirties in the same timeframe. Holy Cross did have a head coach coach in the building who also happens to be the biggest personal mentor to Adam Kozerski. Holy Cross also has had a good stream of athletes coming across from Ohio, historically. I don't see many people traversing the river and then going up and 27 to play at Brossart, though. I'm assuming that Adam Kozerski will bring in "Big Koz" as an assistant coach now that he has retired as a head coach.

My sources tell me that Brossart initially reached out to Eviston and he promptly turned the job down. I don't know about Eviston's participation on the the hiring committee, but from what I heard it didn't sound like he formally interviewed, nor did he really entertain the idea of taking the job. I was told there were two more who turned the job down before it was offered to Kozerski.

It did not. I came away from the call with the feeling that the Brossart powers that be may have gotten a little too big for their boots back around New Years. It sounds like the last 6 weeks may have really humbled them.

Coach Koz is staying on as a teacher, which does leave Holy Cross in the precocious position of having to hire a head football coach who will only be making the head coaching stipend plus whatever the boosters can kick in. I'm not sure that the boosters' boost is very large at Holy Cross. Adam Kozerski would have made a potential candidate for the job, as he could have stayed on at Brossart while coaching at Holy Cross, but it sounds like most Holy Cross folks (excepting Bruce, naturally) were not very enthused by the idea of that hire. And now that point is moot with him getting the Bishop Brossart job. Paul Wiggins would have made for an interesting choice if he was interested. He is a Newport Independent employee, and was already only making a coaching stipend at Brossart. Again, there is the unknown contribution amount of the boosters, so that dollar sign is unclear. I would have to think Holy Cross has reached out to Coach Wiggins. And with the amount of time that has passed since Wiggins was oustered at Bishop Brossart, my gut says that he must have turned the job down at Holy Cross if he was ever approached for it. He was fired for no apparent reason by one Holtz brother. Could you really blame him for not wanting to take a job working for the other Holtz brother? This is tough sledding for Holy Cross right now.

I heard "not our ideal candidate" and "not one of our first offers" both mentioned in the phone conversation I just had. I think Chris and Ron elected to enter themselves into the chess tournament that is hiring a football coach, and I do not think they finished as well as they had hoped.

I think that will more than likely come into play if the Reed family continues to pursue other options for Blake and Cayden. What was the exact 'ruling,' so to speak, that AD/Coach Kirk used to back his dismissal of the boys. I spent a few moments reading through the bylaws on the KHSAA website and it looks like there is a clause that would more than likely prevent them from playing elsewhere. By my own volition I'm not always the best at disseminating legalese. But if I'm reading correctly section 3 of bylaw 6 says that the waiver of ineligibility (the KHSAA's ability to wave off an athlete's requirement to sit after a transfer) is not required if there is documentation that "the student in question or family, before transferring to the new school, expresses dissatisfaction with the philosophy, policies, methods, or actions of a coach or administrator about interscholastic athletics" and also if "the change in schools is to nullify or circumvent a conflict with the philosophy or action of an administrator, teacher, or coach relating to sports." I think this whole situation is a pretty cut and dry example of one, or really both of those instances. Seems to me that it would be more than enough to keep the Reed boys from playing any more this season.

You're entitled to think as you would like, of course. But I would encourage you to talk to Tony Watts about what you think.

I don't know about colleges being interested, but Newport Public is pretty interested in them. What does the KHSAA say about eligibility to play at other schools if a kid is kicked off of a team at another school?

The number of players living in Boone County and playing at CovCath seems like it has been somewhat of a constant over the years, despite Boone County opening up two new schools that have shown their own major athletic successes. Ryle and Cooper have both made appearances in the football state finals, and Cooper actually became a big player in football and basketball, both, in an awfully short window of time. St. Henry is jumping in the football pool after watching everyone take the plunge years ahead of them. That seems like it may leave them playing the little brother role for a long while. I'm not positive of past districts, but NewCath and Beechwood have been obvious obstacles for Brossart, present and past, to make a deep stab into the postseason. They have struggled at times against Newport and Ludlow's better teams as well. St. Henry will have to contend with Beechwood in district and in the playoffs, plus Walton-Verona which has a mix of strong years. Carroll County occasionally has had solid teams. Obviously Beechwood is going to be a major obstacle for St. Henry to ever get a district title with Beechwood competing at a level that keeps them contending and even notching occasional wins against CovCath. I would guess they will also have some battles with Walton-Verona, and with the likes of NewCath, Ludlow and Newport if they schedule that crowd in the first few years out of the gate. If you ask me, the likelihood of Beechwood being the the early playoff finale year in and year out for St. Henry's foreseeable future doesn't help them draw players. And looking at new teams drawing away players, Holy Cross and CovCath both have players coming from the same area in Independence, but Holy Cross in its 25 years of football is yet to really draw many football kids away from CovCath. I forsee things going the same route for St. Henry and their ability to draw football kids away.

With the information that was posted in the CovCath thread about Coach Eviston moving to take back his strength and conditioning program from the S&C coach that was hired by the school, that seems like a lot of stirring the punch bowl at CovCath for someone who's allegedly eyeing this job. I don't buy it. Would Brossart consider calling up Lee Teegarden about having another try with their program though? He seems to be doing well with Eviston at CovCath, as does Terry Brown.

Assistant coaches are not any easier to come by than head coaches these days. If you look at programs from the 50s and 60s, most had a head coach and one or two assistants. Maybe three or four if they were lucky. Then staffs started to get bigger in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Most successful programs these days still maintain a bevy of assistants, and that could get you into a real chicken or the egg discussion. But the fact is, small and/or struggling programs struggle to get assistant coaches. My guess is that Casey decided to hold tight and let the new coaches he's hired decide whether or not they were going to clean house and bring in their own new coaching staff. And also guessing, I'd have to say that the new coaches worked with what they were offered on-hand because it's so tough to come by new assistant coaches these days. A good AD doesn't usually mandate who is or isn't the best suited for any program's assistant coaching staff, assuming there isn't anyone among them who's a major problem with the kids on the team or within the school. That's left up to the head coach. (See my comments in the Beechwood Coach B thread.) As was stated above, if Coach Turner didn't get rid of problematic assistants during his four years at Scott, then that's on him. If Casey wasn't allowing him to let assistants go, I would have to assume that Eric would have been the one deciding to leave the Scott job rather than Casey deciding that Eric needed to leave. And word about town with Coach Turner was that he had a lot of difficulty getting along with his players in his latter two years, and that bubbled up into trouble with assistants who felt like he needed to change his approach with his players. After that really came to during Turner's 4th season, as AD, Casey had to pull the plug on Turner.

Haha and a lot of guys who have known them otherwise will join in on telling you too.

I completely missed out on all of those career stops, haha.

I never realized he left the staff. Thinking out loud, did he possibly stay off of the staff until he had handed over the reins as athletic director? I know Bob and Noel have always been close friends. And Bob was the one who hired Noel as head baseball coach at Beechwood, long before Noel got the job as head football coach.

You were told correctly then. From what I've seen and heard about things at Holy Cross and Brossart, it sounds like there is always an over-abundance of opinions about how things need to be done in order to get a new football program up and off the ground. I could see that developing into a problem for Tim if the opinions of the movers and shakers within the St. Henry community and administration don't align with his own. I would assume all of that was discussed at length between the administrators and Tim prior to his hiring, but if things don't go as planned or if there is any major personnel change among the school administrators, I can see some potential for major friction.

Bob lives in the house right next to the driveway at Beechwood. Does he still end up having a pile of pumpkins stacked in his yard by Beechwood students every year on Halloween?

Bob is one of the greats. He came in as athletic director at Beechwood the same year that Coach Yeagle took over from Coach Barre. He was a head coach at Dixie for about a decade prior to that. Bob was on Coach Yeagle's staff and he and Noel Rash both applied to replace Mike. When the hiring committee decided to go with Noel, Bob willingly and humbly joined Noel's coaching staff. While Beechwood was in the process of finding a replacement for Coach Rash, the current AD asked Coach Hergott and Coach Berger to stay on in order to provide continuity within the program. Greg was willing to stay in order to coach Clay Hayden through the end of his high school career, and Brandon agreed to stay if Greg was staying. They have both been open about their intent to step down at the end of next year's season. Sometimes even the best of coaches just don't mesh well together, even if they would like to. From the sound of things that may well be what happened between Coach Volker and Coach Burnett. It isn't easy being a head coach and managing the desires and expectations of administrators, assistant coaches, players, parents, and fans all alike all while trying to move the program forward in a positive direction. Sometimes there isn't any escaping looking like the bad guy to some individuals even when you have the program's best interest at heart. I know that Coach Burnett understands that too. I would guess he has relatively little ill-will about their parting of ways.

That's the one I'm referring to. I couldn't remember if he told me he had played at Beechwood or at CovCath. I don't know anything about Walton-Verona, but Scott's daughter Grace was a track star at Brossart and graduated last year. His son Joe was a junior this past season on the football team. If that's true about the entire football staff being dismissed by the school administration, I'd have to imagine Scott is sorely disappointed about being shown the door while heading into his son's senior year.

Assuming Bezold and Schroeder would have been interested to stay on as assistants, that is a very poor decision on the part of Brossart's administration. They were both quality coaches and members of the community. The Bezold name has been around Brossart for as long as there has been a Bishop Brossart High School, and Scott Schroeder and family have very involved in the St. Joe's parish as well as the St. Joe's elementary community and the Brossart community since moving to Campbell County in the mid-2000's.

Sorry, I was not given any names for any of the applicants. I think most of the time athletic directors try to protect people's names when they are applying elsewhere. Employers don't usually get warm and fuzzies toward their current employees when they find out they are shopping around to find new jobs, so I've always understood there to be an unspoken rule about playing it close to the chest when it comes to AD's naming applicants. If names get out there, it's usually the result of the applicants discussing it themselves.

As a high schooler, Tim famously went over and played at Moeller in the era when Ohio still allowed students who lived out of state to participate in athletics. Then in '78 or '79 the OHSAA created a new bylaw, nicknamed "the Moeller rule" because of the national powerhouse status Moeller football had earned, largely as a result of Gerry Faust getting the top athletes from NKY to add to his Ohio athletes. There was a lawsuit filed by the parents of some NKY students attending Moeller and St. X, and it made its way all the way up to Federal Appeals Court before the new bylaw was finally upheld. Tim's name made its way into the court proceedings several times since he was a Kentuckian who made the All-American team as an Ohio player. As a result, Tim's younger brother Steve wound up going to Dixie where he played baseball and football. Tim coached wrestling at Dixie and was also the linebacker coach and defensive coordinator at Dixie under Bob Burnett. He was the position coach for his brother Steve, who graduated in '90 and headed off to WVU on a football scholarship. Tim left at the same time to take over as head coach at Simon Kenton. Simon Kenton struggled while he was there, still losing by 5 and 6 touchdowns whenever they played good opponents like Highlands, Dixie and CovCath. His goal was always to end up coaching in Ohio so left there to become head coach at Glen Este. Glen Este perennially had bad problems with discipline and Tim struggled to get that turned around so he left after a year to be defensive coordinator at Moeller under Steve Klonne, and made no secrets that he had his eyes on succeeding Klonne as head coach. Odom was moved to offensive coordinator after a season or two. I want to say he left either when Moeller dismissed Coach Klonne, or else he was not kept on by Coach Crable when he replaced Klonne. Odom resurfaced at Lakota West as a defensive line coach when his son Jake was playing there. Jake got a scholarship to Eastern Illinois but ended up playing at Georgetown College, and has been an assistant at Lafayette in Lexington for the last couple of years. I'm not sure whether or not Jake is interested to relocate his family up to NKY to join dad at St. Henry. As a coach, Tim has a definite reputation for being somewhat abrasive. Basically everyone I know who coached either for or against him has said at some point or another that they found him to be kind of a difficult personality to handle. Hopefully he has mellowed with age, but I've also found that many people's personalities can seem to distill down with age and turn them into more potent versions of what they were in younger days. Hopefully with Tim, it's the former and not the latter.

Much appreciated. I'm glad to finally join in the party.

Good question. I'm not sure. I believe I was told sometime in the past year or two that the entire football staff at Brossart from Coach Wiggins on down was non-faculty. The only names I know of from the assistant coaching staff are Nate Bezold, who is a Brossart grad, and Scott Schroeder who I believe played high school ball in Kenton County. Your guess is as good as mine as to who stays and who goes, but the fact that none of them are working in the school makes me think that factor would make them much more inclined to head elsewhere if they weren't happy with Coach Wiggins being booted.