Bethel-Tate High School is searching for a new head football coach following the departure of longtime head coach Jeff Essig this month, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. The opening ends a tenure that began in December 2015, when Essig took over the program following its first postseason appearance, according to the Enquirer.
Essig was temporarily removed from the position on Oct. 6 as the Bethel-Tate Local School District began an internal review of his leadership of the program, the Enquirer reported. The removal became permanent following the end of the season on Oct. 23, after the Tigers finished 3-7 and did not qualify for the Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs.
The district began its review of the program because of “allegations of a lack of student supervision,” according to a district statement reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The Enquirer’s reporting did not detail specific incidents behind the allegations, and the district has not announced any further findings from the review.
Athletic Director Evan Shepherd said the district will search for a new head coach and will soon post the opening, according to the Enquirer. Norman Darnell, who took over as interim head coach during the final weeks of the season, told the Enquirer he hopes to get the permanent job.
Essig’s decade at Bethel-Tate made him one of the longer-tenured head coaches in Clermont County football. He arrived in December 2015 after the program’s first postseason appearance and led the Tigers through ten seasons in the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference, according to the Enquirer’s account of his tenure.
For Bethel-Tate’s players, the change comes at the start of the offseason, when winter workouts and next year’s schedule planning would normally be taking shape under a returning staff. An interim-led program now waits on the district’s posting and interview process to learn who will run those preparations.
What happens next is the posting itself: once the district advertises the vacancy, applicants will go through the school’s hiring process, and the board of education will have the final say on the appointment. NewsForce247 will follow the search as Bethel-Tate works to have its next head coach in place well before summer practices.
Photo: Aesopposea, CC BY-SA 3.0