St. John’s football star new Cougar coach

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A Delphos native who played football in a program with a lot of tradition is excited about the opportunity to bring back the traditional success of the Van Wert football program.

Keith Recker, a 2002 Delphos St. John’s graduate who has been an offensive coordinator for Oak Harbor the past three years, was hired Wednesday as the new Cougar head football coach.

A linebacker for the Blue Jays, where he was a member of two state championship teams and also played on the 2002 boys’ basketball state championship team, Recker then played four years of football at Hillsdale (Mich.) College. After graduation, he was wide receivers coach at Hillsdale for a year.

“I got a real good chance to dig deep into really the whole program, the Xs and Os part of it,” Recker noted. “It really was a good learning experience.”

After a year as head coach at Marion Catholic, Recker took a job as offensive coordinator and weight room advisor at Oak Harbor High School east of Toledo under former St. Marys Memorial coach Mike May. That team went from 2-8 his first season to seasons of 7-3 and 6-4 the past two years.

“I really got to see how to build a program from where we were to where we ended up on the brink of the playoffs,” the new Cougar coach noted.

Recker said the tradition of Van Wert football was one of the things that drew him to the head coaching position.

“The obvious thing is it’s the area that I love, the area where I grew up I always in high school admired Van Wert,” Recker said of his reasons for taking the coaching job.

Looking at the tradition, second in league in number of football championships

“It will definitely take some time,” Recker noted. “Our goal is we’re going to improve every day, that’s going to be the biggest thing. If we do that, the wins and losses will take care of themselves.”

As a firm believer in the power of the weight room, the new Van Wert football coach said that’s where he plans to start work for this coming season.

“The biggest thing is getting into the weight room,” he noted. “You want to become bigger and stronger and faster, but it also builds the accountability, builds the discipline in the guys, the team attitude and hopefully we can make it competitive … so when we come in the fall, they have already been in competitive situations and have learned to win.”

Recker also noted that he’s excited about the opportunity to turn around a program that has such a storied tradition, but also added it won’t happen overnight — especially after an 0-10 season last year.

“It’s going to be a challenge, and I’m really looking forward to that,” he said. “I just can’t wait for that day (when the program becomes successful).”

Recker said he would be talking to the current coaching staff and would be making some decisions down the road on who will join his staff for the fall.

Athletic Director Kent Smelser says Recker came highly recommended by his former coaches and was also impressive in interviews conducted for the coaching position. Smelser said he received approximately 40 resumes for the position, and he and a search committee that included three members of the community pared that number down to 10, of which five were given interviews.

“When we finished all the interviews and we sat down as a group, he was the No. 1 choice of each of us,” Smelser said. “People who knew him playing, people who have coached with him; (Oak Harbor Coach) Mike May was very complimentary of him.”

Superintendent Ken Amstutz also noted that the process was “very thorough” and said he was excited about the “opportunity to build on our football program.”

Recker and his wife, Jodie, are also looking for a home in the area, while Mrs. Recker, an accountant, will seek employment in the area. The couple has a 5-month-old daughter, Molly.