Minerva coaching candidates bring pedigree

MINERVA  One of the smaller schools in Stark County has attracted young coaches with big names to be its next head football coach. Minerva High School has interviewed five candidates to become its next coach, and several have a pedigree.

Scott Campbell, the younger brother of University of Toledo coach Matt Campbell; former two-time All-Ohioan Jay Rohr; Luke Durbin, the son of veteran Lake coach Jeff Durbin; along with Wadsworth offensive coordinator Sean Flaherty and in-house candidate Jim Rittenhouse were all interviewed this week.

Campbell is an assistant coach at Perry High School and coaches tight ends and wide receivers. He also played on two national championship teams at the University of Mount Union under Larry Kehres, who has track record of producing good coaches. Rohr is the defensive coordinator at Tuslaw and will be inducted into the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame this summer. Flaherty has been at Wadsworth the last three seasons and was at Stow prior to that.

Rittenhouse has been an assistant coach for 30 years at various levels in Minerva’s system. He was an eighth-grade coach last fall. He is also employed by the district as a custodian.

“We felt very fortunate in our targets because we targeted some good people and we feel good about who showed interested,” Minerva Athletic Director Don Spinell said.

Campbell, Rohr, Durbin and Flaherty were all approached by Minerva about the job.

However, that does not mean the next head coach will come from these five. Spinell said the search committee meets again Wednesday and will decide if it wants to bring in other coaches who expressed an interest or have been targeted to apply.

“There are a couple of people we have targeted that we may want to speak with,” Spinell said. “There are some people on the board for us who are very good.

“Or we could decide to zone in on one of the candidates we’ve interviewed. That’s all for the committee to decide.”

That committee consists of Spinell, Superintendent Joe Chaddock, high school principal Michael Riley and the school’s assistant principal Alexander Albert.

With the exception of Rittenhouse, the other four candidates are all in the 20s or early 30s.

Durbin is a physics teacher and was named the teacher of the year at Washington High School a year ago. He has been at Massillon for three years and spent two years coaching with his father at Lake. Massillon head coach Jason Hall has said in the past Durbin is a good head coaching candidate.

Rohr, whose jersey was retired at Jackson and starred in college at Akron, is an intervention specialist at Tuslaw High School.

Campbell, a kindergarten teacher in Perry, is the son of former Jackson head coach Rick Campbell, now the athletic director at Canton South.

Flaherty has coordinated impressive offenses the last three years at Wadsworth. He is a language arts teachers there.

Rittenhouse is also an assistant baseball coach for Minerva.

The next head coach will replace Dale Soles. He resigned a year after going 10-0 in the regular season and finishing 11-1. Minerva went 3-7 last fall.

Spinell believes the district could be in a position to hire a coach and a teacher. Not all districts are as fortunate with budget cuts made in recent years.

“We think there will be flexibility there,” Spinell said. “There’s no way of knowing until the spring when we find out all the retirements and who’s coming back. Our plan is to hire someone as a coach with the understanding that as soon as the opportunity is there, they can apply for a teaching job. The goal is to have that person on staff.”