Ontario tabs Aaron Eckert as new football coach
ONTARIO — It didn't take long for Ontario to find its guy.
Less than a week after Chris Miller told his team he would be stepping down as football coach to become the new middle school principal, Ontario approved the hiring of Aaron Eckert as the Warriors' new coach during a Tuesday night school board meeting.
"It happened extremely fast, and once the job came open I was extremely interested, especially with the group of kids we have coming back," Eckert said. "I've been here a couple of years and know the boys well, so I applied for it and the position seemed to close rather quickly so we could keep going with the momentum into the spring and eventually into the fall."
Eckert, a 2006 Crestline graduate, was previously the coach at Bucyrus High School from 2012-2018. His first season at Bucyrus, he went 4-6 before posting a 5-5 record in 2013 and a 7-3 mark in 2014, the only winning season at Bucyrus in the last decade and just the sixth since 1999.
He left Bucyrus in 2018 to take a teaching job at Ontario and quickly became the offensive coordinator for the Warriors. He went 24-46 at Bucyrus and made an immediate impact on Miller's staff.
In 2019, the Warriors went 3-7 in the first season under the new coaching staff. The following season, Ontario went 6-4, winning the first playoff game since 2001 as Eckert's air raid passing offense helped Ethan Snyder break nearly every passing record at the school.
Last season, the Warriors went 3-7 with mostly underclassmen taking the field.
Eckert said he is excited about bringing back a group with a lot of varsity experience.
"Anytime you are able to bring back 22 starters from last year, you get really excited," he said. "On offense, we bring back all 11, and when you bring that type of experience back after they took their lumps as youngsters it is an exciting thing. I've seen the progression in the weight room, and the majority of the kids are working very hard so it is hard to not be excited about what we have coming.
"The job that coach Miller and the middle school coaches have done with getting number up, it is a bright future here. We had like 60 kids in the middle school program in those two grades, so there are fantastic things going on with the Ontario football program and I am proud to be the next head coach."
Eckert brings back the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference's leading rusher in Chase Studer, who ran for 1,065 yards and seven touchdowns, along with promising quarterback prospects Bodpegn Miller, Quinton Frankhouse and Peyton Dzugan. So his offensive mind has already been hard at work getting the Warriors offense ready for their Week 1 matchup at home against Lexington on Aug. 18.
Of course, it helps when the people in charge make swift decisions about the future of the program, which makes Eckert want to get to work right away.
"Anytime you have a group of people who believe in you and want you for a certain position, it is flattering and nice to be considered for a position like this at a school like Ontario," Eckert said. "I am hoping I can do that justice and continue on with what coach Miller has started to build here and continue on with getting better and better in everything we do."
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Former Bucyrus coach and Crestline grad tabbed Ontario football coach
