Familiar faces in new places: Meet Cincinnati's new high school football coaches in 2024
Asif Reporter
Sophomore football action in the Greater Cincinnati area is less than six weeks away, with many teams kicking off their season officially the week of Aug 19. In high school football possessing Cincinnati area, there will be more than a dozen of new head coaches this year.
Here are the new or new-to-them coaches fans will see on the sidelines this fall:Here are the new or new-to-them coaches fans will see on the sidelines this fall:
Adam Kozerski, Bishop Brossart
Season 2017 will be a first time when Adam Kozerski will be a head coach and for years he was an assistant on his father Bruce at Holy Cross.
Previous position: Currently employing the position of an assistant coach at Holy Cross High School
Background: The promotion underlines an odd fact about Kozerski who is the son of Bruce Kozerski who retired after spending 20 years as the head football coach at Holy Cross; he will therefore be taking up his first head coaching role in 2024 . Kozerski was a member of the staff at Holy Cross from 2012-2024 and has had, different responsibilities in the team including junior varsity head coach, wide receivers and defensive line coach. He also teaches calculus, and algebra at Bishop Brossart High School.
What to expect: Korzenski has stated that his main focus when coaching is mainly on the offence of the game. He stated his side will be reactive and tenacious; He is hopeful about the team quarterback/running back match. The Mustangs were 5 - 6 in 2023.
Dan Court student of Boone County High School.
Previous position: Individual framing of a PE teacher as well as a tennis coach at Boone County
Background: Court went to Highlands High School and since participating in the school team under the famous coach Dale Mueller, he graduated in 2008. He then served for eight years as an assistant coach at Highlands through which the Bluebirds clinched four state championships. He has also tutored at Newport Central Catholic school as well as Scott High school.
What to expect: Court is certainly going to have his job cut out for him as Boone County has not been to the winning side of the tally since 2003 when it recorded a 9-5 victory.
Tucker Berger attending Deer Park High School
Previous position: An athlete at Deer Park, Offensive coordinator
Background: Berger has taken his staff appointment at Deer Park since the year 2020. Boyd is an alumnus of Wyoming High School and played for Cowboys ; in his last two years in high school, he was the lead tackler as a Linebacker. He later also went on to play club football at Miami University.
What to expect: Deer Park in the previous seven seasons before Johnson, has posted a 32-40 record as a team. In 2023 it was the worse season after the Wildcats was recorded to have achieved only 3 wins out of the 8 games played. The above analysis of Berger indicates that he has done most of his work on the defensive side of the ball, and, therefore, it is expected that the teams which he sponsors will have a strong defensive dimension.
Edgewood High School, played by Trace Reynolds
Previous position: Quarterbacking skills teacher/Heidelberg University
Background: Reynolds was also the starting quarterback at Edgewood covering the year 2013 and 2014 and he was awarded as an all-region player in the year 2014. He initially joined the Heidelberg coaching staff as the tight ends coach in the periods of 2019-2021. In 2022 this man served as a head coach teaching tight ends, and full back at Findlay university.
What to expect: Scott Clemmons left his position as the Edgewood football head coach to become the athletic director for the school. Reynolds will have the backup in his new position with his predecessor right next door. Reynolds has huge shoes to fill, admittedly. Clemmons was a head coach at Nevada for 12 seasons during which the Cougars played 129 games and won 74. Reynolds said he also wants his team to become a tough-nosed blue-collar group.
The male model chosen is Fred Cranford who is the athletic director and basketball coach of Bishop Fenwick High School.
Previous position: Volunteer assistant coach of boys basketball team at Fenwick
Background: Then, Cranford comes back to the same school for the second trying as the head football coach at Fenwick. All in all he is already currently in his 15th season of coaching at Fenwick. He worked from 1998 to 2005 as an assistant at the college and then moved up to head coach from the year 2006 to the year 2012. Cranford then Lara six years as the head coach at Loveland High School In 2009, Cranford took as position as head coach at Covington Catholic High School for one year where he accumulated a record of 8-3. Cranford’s first season at Loveland was very successful with the team winning 15 of the match and emerging as the Division II state champions. Cranford was 34-32 in six years at Loverson before resigning to be with family more.
What to expect: Fenwick has been Cranford all her life. Currently, the Falcons’ team performance is still modest: they ended the season 2023 in the lineup with the 5-5 record and have not been able to get to the playoffs since the season 2022. Crawford said he wants his players to play hard and play to win and I believe what he said about every body bleading red and gold.
Dave Brausch married with James N. Gamble Montessori High School
Previous position: Currently employed by Bellevue High School as the head coach of football team (up to the season of 2022).
Background: Brausch stood as a football coach at the high school and college goers for forty years (He served four years as the assistant coach at Mount St. Joseph University). Their Lebanon Warriors in the same year of 1998 emerged Division II state champions after having been defeated in the state semi-finals the previous year 1997. He was also the defensive coordinator in 1992 in Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education; the school clinched the Division IV state champion.
What to expect: Indeed, the current season had lots of changes for the team of Gamble Montessori. Melanie ‘Robert’ Rachel resigned in January after serving the team for eight years as a coach. In February, basketball’s Chris Mobley Jr, agreed to take up the role for head coach but he declined the position in less than two months to take up the Purcell Marian job. Brausch has the experience to steady this tem. The team only played 4-5 last season and has not qualified for the playoffs for the past two years that were in 2021 and 2022.
Football star Curt Spencer studying at Holy Cross High School
Previous position: Middle school team head coach- Holy Cross
Background: Spencer is the first new Hometown Holy Cross head coach since Bruce Kozerski departed after 23 years and known Bengal assistant coach during the 2023 campaign. Prior to stepping down, Spencer was a football official in Northern Kentucky region from the year 2008 to 2017. Between 2017 and 2021 he served as the Linebackers coach at Holy Cross and later made a head coach at Holy Cross Middle School.
What to expect: Spencer the biggest achievement is that he coaxed the team of Holy Cross eighth-grade to victory last season. Wild encouraged by what he did and HC fans expect him to do the same with players which are a few years older. Since Kozerski has taken over Holy Cross the last 20 years it has met with some measure of success, it won the 2011 Class 2A final.
Arryn Chenault, student at the Little Miami High School
Previous position: Salary and Salary vacations: The coaches are paid a relatively attractive guaranteed amount of $306,142 and the directors have guaranteed salaries of $244,094 while the special teams coordinator at Winton Woods receives $229, 133.
Background: Chenault has been coaching since the year 2016 at Walnut Hills, Sycamore, Norwood, Lakota East, Winton Woods. He was a captain for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in the years 2013 and 2014 as a defensive back. Chenault who is 31 years of age was a football star at the Fairfield High School. On Little Miami side, Darryn Chenault, Chenault’s uncle, will take the position of the associate head coach. Fish receive a kidney from Doug last year.
What to expect: This year foes outpoint the Little Miami club by a staggering 333-142 score, a situation that Chenault will wish to change. Words have been said to ensure he has been able to foster a family natured environment around his team improving his chances of turning his players into men. Yielding for, in the field, he demands from his team only one thing, relentlessness, smart and disciplined play.
All the best Get Buckner Sincerely, Brian Damewood Loveland High School
Previous position: Loveland has an assistant coach.
Background: The undermentioned year, when prior head coach of Loveland High School, Andy Cruse, transferred to the Miami University as a tight ends’ coach, Loveland elected to appoint longtime assistant, Brian Damewood. On his LinkedIn page, Damewood listed him to have worked at Loveland City Schools since the year 1998.
What to expect: Although given the current status of the team it’s rather difficult to determine the actions and expectations of first-year coach Damewood. Loveland with a record of 5-7, was the last season recording. The team was one of the better offenses in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference, but just didn’t get enough stops on defense. Most of Damewood’s coaching exposure was as a defensive backs and special team’s coach which means that he will seek to correct this.
Kali Jones, Middletown High School
Previous position: Head coach at Withrow 21 a persimmon tree b a carrot c a cabbage d a football
Background: Jones has twice won the best coach of the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference. Last season he managed Withrow team to 12-2 and the team played in the Division II regional finals. The school has never reached the level of a regional final before that year.
What to expect: The person that Jones was talking lots about was himself since he associated a lot of his success at Withrow in rebuilding the culture there into a winner. He wants to do the same at Middletown, where football only managed a 3-8 record in 2024. He referred the Greater Miami Conference to the SEC which has very little margin for error.
Paul Wiggins Jr. , Student, Newport High School
Previous position: The head coach at Bishop Brossart
Background: Relatedly, Wiggins is a 1986 social actor who graduated from Newport High School. In playing career, he was a defensive end and outside Line Backer for wildcats college football team. In 2014, Wiggins inherited a Brossart football team that at the time only had 21 players. During the academic year 2015/2016, Wiggins together with his team managed to taste victory in the district championship for the first time in the school’s history. He was the champion of the district tournaments in 2021 and 2022 and concluded the decade long active period with a win-loss record of 67-43.
What to expect: From 2014 his Brossart teams were 67-43 and won three times District Champions. A little more will be made of what he can offer to Newport – the side that had compiled an 8-4 record in the previous year. Once hired, Wiggins focused his players on valuing the team more than self and the consequent gain.
Chris Mobley Jr. , the Purcell Marian High School
Previous position: He was defensive coordinator at Dixie Height High School before he was offered briefly the head coach of Gamble Montessori School for two month.
Background: Mobley’s coaching experience is in head coaching position which amounts to seven seasons. He was the Hughes team’s head man for six years and recorded 26-28 win/loss record and for the first time, Hughes recorded three winning seasons consecutively. He enrolled at Kent State University and also played football for the Indiana State University being the defensive captain in the year 2007. During the year 2023 for the team Dixie Heights, he acting as the defensive coordinator, the team topped all other teams in the state of Kentucky in sacks per game.
What to expect: ’Even the 10-3 Purcell Marian team that replaced the 2019 state contenders lost several players to graduation and transfers. It should come as no surprise to see the Cavaliers being mostly concerned with defense, this coming from Mobley. If such a pattern is repeated, then it means that his influence in the said area could be as swift.
Justin Franklin, Scott High School
Previous position: OL & OL coach Open Date: Coach North Oldham High School 7-12 June 16, 2014, to June 30, 2017, as the mentioned positions such as the Associate head coach/defensive coordinator.
Background: In Franklin’s managerial career he has served as a head coach twice in his career. He was the head coach for Trimble County between 2012 and 2015 with a win/loss record of four wins out of thirty-seven games before being a head coach of Carroll County in 2019 to 2021. His teams in Carroll County came up to 20-14, and they had first-round playoffs in 2020 and 2021. Franklin’s career football’s experience involve; He played football at Carroll County high school, beginning from linebacker, then defensive end and at last quarterback. He too played at the college level for two years as a long snapper at the University of Louisville.
What to expect: In the first press conference after signing with Delaware State, Franklin set his Scott Eagles against real eagles. He said eagles have excellent eyesight, are incredible architects and are the only birds that dive into the storm. He is demanding his Eagles to project those images inside and outside football fields. Scott is in a very tough league and the team was actually 2-8 last year. As a manager, Franklin underlined that discipline and people’s willingness to follow him and his ideas were more than crucial.
Ben Moorman went to West Clermont High School.
Previous position: Coaches west clermont at the defense primary coordinator
Background: Moorman attended Moeller until his graduation in 2007, and played football for Mount St. Joseph’s Griffins team as a wide-receiver and a kicker. He was the defensive coordinator of West Clermont team during the last two seasons before being given the position of the head coach. A college football coach before coming to West Clermont, he was a defensive back coach for Loveland and Madeira high schools and an assistant for Moeller High.
What to expect: For the last thirteen years the West Clermont has recorded only one year with a winning record. According to Moorman, his main agenda will be to foster winning and ensure that the athletes have a good personality.
Tony L. Berry, High school of Withrow University
Previous position: Originally, AHC and DC for Withrow
Background: Berry was in Withrow from 2006 to 2010 and later went to Notre Dame College as well as Mount St Joseph for college football. His coaching experience was beginning in 2016 at Woodward High School where he held co-defensive Coordinator and Linebacker’s Coach position. If you go back to records from 2017 to early 2020, he has been a coach at Taft High School and got a better assistant job at Withrow.
What to expect: Withrow which bagged 12 wins in the 2023 season, a record, at the school has been one of the most vigorous outfits in the state the previous year. That defense then registered five shutouts and on average, teams scored only eight points against this squad. Berry becoming the new head coach, it is for this reason that tweaking of the league’s strategy to feature a formidable defense will be the new trend.
