C.J. Westler takes 'leap of faith' and ends up back home, coach Spartans football

MARION — C.J. Westler has turned an old coaching cliché on its head.

"I told them in the interview process I’m probably the only coach applying for this job that’s going to get to spend more time with the family if I get it. It’s a perfect situation and I'm excited. It’s something I always wanted to do," Westler said.

The 2006 Marion Harding graduate officially was approved by Pleasant's school board Monday night to become just its sixth head football coach since the school introduced the sport in 1962. This comes after spending a year as a college football coach at Capital University in Bexley.

"It means a lot and it was something I always wanted to do," Westler said of becoming a head coach for the first time. "It was something I pushed myself toward. I had two goals with coaching. One was to coach in college, and one was to be a head coach. I got to do the college experience last year. I enjoyed it a bunch. I knew it would be tough on my wife, but it was a lot tougher on my kids than I expected."

Since he literally lives just down the road from Pleasant's campus, he won't be traveling like before.

"I loved my last job and I’d still be there, but I felt like when I saw the Pleasant job opened up, it was the perfect time and perfect opportunity so close to home," he said.

He knows the history, tradition of Pleasant

But it's a lot more than convenience. Being a lifelong Marion resident who spent more than 10 years of coaching football at his alma mater for John Brady and Jerrod Slater, he knows what football means to Pleasant. He knows its history and the tradition.

"I plan on being here until I retire. My kids are young and in elementary school and preschool. I’m in it for the long haul and I’m excited," he said.

In high school, Westler played two seasons for Tim Hinton and two under Brady. As a senior quarterback, he set the program's single-season passing record that stood for more than 20 years, then he went to Urbana to play.

After two seasons, he transferred to Chowan University in North Carolina, an NCAA Division II school where his Urbana coach landed.

Chowan was the first non-historically black college and university to play in an HBCU conference, and Westler started both seasons and set more records, becoming inducted into Chowan's athletic hall of fame in 2019. After a season on the staff as a student assistant helping with quarterbacks, he returned to Marion to work for the city schools as a physical education and health teacher as well as join Brady's football staff.

He eventually rose up the ranks to become the offensive coordinator for both Brady and Slater.

Took a leap of faith and landed at Capital

After the 2020 COVID-marred football season, Westler took a break from football for a year.

"Over the course of that break, I talked with my wife a little," he said. "We were lucky to be in a situation where we got the house paid off and were in a good spot. I told her I always wanted to coach in college, so she told me I had two years to figure it out.

"I took a leap of faith. I resigned from teaching. I was set to make for the city schools $60,000, and I took a job at Otterbein for $5,000. I took a huge leap of faith. I was actually going to go back and get my masters in case it didn’t work out. A month into that process, the job at Capital opened up as a full-time quarterbacks coach and I was able to get that."

So last year he worked at Capital and over the course of the season became their top recruiter, bringing more kids onto the roster than anyone else on the staff.

"I was driving an hour every morning and an hour every evening back and forth. I loved it. It was a ton of fun and a dream job," he said of his gig at Capital.

But soon another dream job opened up when two-year Pleasant football head coach Kevin Kline was non-renewed in April.

"I don’t want to move my family around," Westler said. "It’s a great program rich with tradition and not only in football but a lot of sports. You have that tradition and the expectation of how things need to be done and it is already in place. It’s had a few down years, but I can tell from the summer lifting and conditioning, you can see everybody has bought in and everybody wants to work hard. Almost all the kids show up every day.

"It’s that tradition and the expectation of winning the right way, and I feel like I fit right into it."

Pleasant is the most storied football program in north central Ohio whether measured by its four state championships or its 26 playoff appearances, but since going 9-3 overall and 4-2 in the Mid Ohio Athletic Conference in 2019, the Spartans have won just five games and three in the league.

Not a job for just this year, he's looking five, 10, 15 years down the road

"I think there’s a lot of talent," he said. "It’s a good group of kids. They’re working hard. They’re studying the plays we put on Hudl for them, so when we’re reviewing things, they’re starting to pick up on it before we get into July and August and have our official days.

"I’m excited. I think we have a bright future. I told everybody through the process that I’m not interested in this job for this year. I’m interested in it for what’s going to come in five years and 10 years and 15 years. I want to be a part of building the program to where it was for so many years."

According to Athletic Director Mike Lindsey, he interviewed eight candidates and then the group was pared down to four.

"He interviewed well," Lindsey said. "We had a parent committee and a student-athlete committee and a coaching committee and an administrative committee, and it was down to him and a (Cincinnati-based coach)."

Westler's familiarity with Pleasant and its situation coupled with his background intrigued Lindsey (who worked with him in the Marion City Schools) and others.

"He knows the history of Pleasant. He’s been at different levels. As far as kids going on to the next level, he’s going to be great at that because he’s got the experience," Lindsey said. "He knows what type of paperwork parents have to fill out because he had to do it himself and helped parents at Capital do that, too. You’ve got parents who ask how am I going to get my kid into college? Well, he’s a perfect example of how to do it."

Westler will have Chris Brady, John's brother and a longtime staffer at Harding and last year at Pleasant, remain as the defensive coordinator, and that will be augmented by Mike Carroll who is returning as a part-time assistant. Carroll coached defense for decades at Pleasant and Clear Fork before retiring.

Also on the staff will be former Harding standout and longtime Pleasant wrestling assistant Bret Thomas, Hayden Hamilton who played for Westler at Harding, Cory White who is the girls basketball coach at Harding but has years of experience on football sidelines, plus Jason Clark who will be in first year of coaching. Others may be joining, too.

Westler said his strengths are organization and practice planning and that he will bring a disciplined approach to the job by doing things the right way and insisting on the same.

"Holding people accountable. As I went through the process, the teachers, the players, the parents, everybody talked about discipline and accountability. To me those things are right in my wheelhouse because that’s how I was brought up in football," he said.

And that's why Lindsey feels Westler is right for the job.

"The commitment is there," Lindsey said. "We’re hoping we can get the ball rolling again and bring Pleasant back."

rmccurdy@gannett.com

419-610-0998

Twitter @McMotorsport

Instagram @rob_mccurdy_star

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Marion native C.J. Westler is home to coach football at Pleasant