Bolden was announced the 2024 winner at the Dec. 28 game against the Denver Broncos but received his plaque Monday during the annual pre-training camp media luncheon. The Bengals also donated $10,000 to the Lakota West High School athletic department as part of the award.
“Been part a lot of great things, lot of special things, but this is really cool,” Bolden said Monday. “I teased, you know, I’ve been coaching for 32, head coach for almost 20, I said, guess maybe I won it by attrition, I don’t know. But no, the direction this program is going with the Cincinnati Bengals, how cool (meeting) Mr. Brown and getting a chance to see everybody and knowing Coach (Zac) Taylor from back in the days (when he was recruiting for the University of Cincinnati) and things like that, but, yeah, this is special. I am amped up about it.”
Bolden took over at Lakota West in 2019 and has led the Firebirds to the Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs in each of his six seasons. Lakota West compiled an 11-2 record in the 2024 campaign, which included the team’s fourth Greater Miami Conference title under Bolden and a berth in the OHSAA Division I, Region 4 semifinal.
Prior to his tenure, the Firebirds went 118-110 (.516 winning percentage) with five playoff appearances in 22 years, but Bolden holds a 61-13 overall record for an .824 winning percentage.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“I knew Lakota West always had a lot of great players, they just needed a little fine-tuning,” Bolden said. “Maybe that’s the rated G version to say it, but they just needed a little fine-tuning. I coach the kids hard. I love the kids even harder. And we’ve been very successful because of it. Listen, a lot of talented, great players, too. I’ll be the first coach to tell you, like, you got to have some dudes. There’s no question about that. We got a lot of them, but even those dudes need fine-tuning. But I get after them hard, love them hard, and we’ve been winning some ball games.”
Bolden spent 12 seasons (2007-18) as head coach at Colerain High School before taking over at Lakota West. He collected a 132-21 record there, leading the team to 12 Greater Miami Conference championships, seven undefeated regular seasons and a Division I state runner-up finish in 2018.
Asked what coaching means to him, Bolden said “everything.” He’s known by most people simply as “Coach.”
“It’s been pretty wild,” Bolden said of his career. “I grew up as a Colerain kid, played there, was an assistant, and became the head coach there, and transitioned over to West, and, you know, thinking back and seeing kids now that I coached that have their own children, they bring them out to practice, things like that. One, it makes me feel old, but two, it makes me appreciate this journey that I’m on even more to see those kids being so successful and, you know, get to do cool things, things like this. Yeah, it’s been a wonderful journey. Hopefully I got a few more years left in me. We’ll see.”
The Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award has been presented annually by the Bengals since 2002.
Bolden said it’s especially meaningful to him and his family because they grew up Bengals fans. He was able to attend the Super Bowl in February as part of the recognition, as well.
“Family’s always been huge Bengals fans, and this has been really cool, you know, everything that’s involved with it, getting to go to the Super Bowl and things like that, seeing the game of football at its highest level,” Bolden said. “This is special.”
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