Calvert tabs veteran coach Kubuske for top job

Call it an opportunity to scratch the head coaching itch.

After 27 years as a head football coach, Jim Kubuske had spent the past two seasons as a Perrysburg assistant.

When Keenan Leichty was named the coach at Sheffield Brookside in Lorain County earlier this month, ending his three-year tenure as Calvert's mentor, the opening struck Kubuske's interest right away.

"Being a Heidelberg guy, I knew it was a strong tradition, a strong program," said Kubuske, who this weekend was named the 16th football coach in Calvert history. "I know some of the (coaches) that came through there. I knew at this late date, and I knew because they were looking for someone who wasn't looking for a teaching position, it was a good fit for me."

Before he left Calvert, Leichty learned his teaching position was being cut to part-time. Kubuske, a 1976 Heidelberg graduate, is an elementary teacher at Millbury Lake and will continue to teach in the northern Wood County district.

"I missed the head coaching part. Once you've run you're own program, you miss it," Kubuske said. "They were good to me at Perrysburg, but this was a good opportunity to get back into it."

Kubuske's time at Perrysburg came after a nine-year tenure at Lake where he compiled a 45-43 record, plus playoff appearances in 2000 and 2001 and a league title the latter season.

Before he was non-renewed following the 2006 season, Kubuske piloted the Flyers through a period of financial turmoil in the school district. Twice, in 2004 and 2005, the Lake sports programs were initially cut in the summer before being reinstated. Despite the massive uncertainty and a few player defections, the Flyers went a combined 9-9 those seasons.

"One year we missed the whole first week of football practice," Kubuske said. "We survived and got through it - that was the big thing."

Kubuske coached two seasons at Indian Valley South (since consolidated into Gnadenhutten Indian Valley), three at New Lexington, four at New London and nine at Brookside before leading the Lake program.

All that experience helped Kubuske stand out among 15 applicants and six interviewees, said Pat Herron, Calvert's incoming athletic director and a member of the search committee, as well as the Senecas' coach for two seasons before Leichty.

"He's got great communication skills, and his background is extensive," Herron said. "He's been helping at Ohio State football camps for years, and he's got the whole round of experience.

"He's built programs - not that we need to be built - but that's [a credit] to his organizational skills."

Kubuske inherits a program that went 3-7, 6-4 and 5-5 in three seasons under Leichty. Twelve seniors graduated, and last year's roster had 13 juniors, six sophomores and 12 freshman.

Given the short time frame he's working with - the season opener is two months away - Kubuske said he is considering ways to simplify offensive and defensive schemes.

"I want to make sure it's a smooth transition," he said. "I've the run the spread [offense]; we've the run a power, double-wing. We've run the gamut. I've learned there's more than one way to skin a cat, more than one way to be successful."

Kubuske and his wife, Jessie, also a 1976 Heidelberg graduate, have four children: sons Jere (a football graduate assistant at Bemidji State in Minnesota) and Jacob, and daughters Joy and Jayna (a senior-to-be at Lake).

"My family's excited; I'm ready to go," Kubuske said. "Calvert's had 468 wins (prior to 2008), and they're gonna be playing their 800th game this year. That shows the strength of the program. I'm just gonna be a torchbearer."