Three weeks ago, Dan McGill began going to the weight room after school. He wanted to help the West Liberty-Salem football players with their offseason workouts during the period of uncertainty that comes with not having a coach.

“It took about five minutes and I felt like I was right where I needed to be coaching the kids — on the right technique, encouraging them to work hard and to trust this process,” McGill said Monday. “At that time I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I was assuring them that things will work out like they should. It felt like I was back.”

After tonight’s school board meeting, McGill will officially be back. Athletic Director Jake Vitt said McGill will be hired as head football coach to replace Toby Smith, who resigned earlier this year after 18 successful seasons to become the head coach at Bellefontaine. McGill has been a social studies teacher at the high school for several years.

McGill, 36, played football for the Tigers and is a 1994 graduate. After redshirting one year and playing one year at Liberty University in Virginia and three years at Campbellsville University in Kentucky, McGill became a coach. He was an assistant for one year at Bellefontaine, then eight years under Smith at WLS before taking the last five years off because of his young children. He said the time seems right to return to coaching because his youngest child is starting school.

Vitt said 30 applied for the job and seven were interviewed.

“It’s not going to be a big change transition-wise, and he portrayed a lot of the same characteristics of Coach Smith,” Vitt said. “If you can go with someone you know, you know what you’re getting.”

And McGill knows what the challenge is. The Tigers have won 26 straight regular-season games, two straight Ohio Heritage Conference titles and been to the playoffs in seven of the past eight years.

“I certainly respect what Coach Smith has done,” McGill said. “He’s established consistency for the past decade plus, and really changed the culture from mediocrity to one that expects to win and is willing to work to win.”

If the program takes another step, it would be to win a regional championship. But teams from the powerful Midwest Athletic Conference have dominated the region. McGill will not have the talented senior group that will graduate soon, but he is confident in the next group of seniors.

“I fully expect them to not only embrace this change, but to help take this program a step further,” McGill said. “I don’t want our school to just hope to do what we’ve done in the past. As a competitor you’re always looking to how can we take the next step. I think those guys are going to be instrumental in us trying to figure that out.”