"I'm excited," said Printz, a West Liberty resident who was an assistant football coach at Minster last season. "I stepped away from being a head coach for a year and it became evident to me I need to be a head coach and be the one in charge. … It's a great challenge. When I got to Triad, it was the same situation. I surrounded myself with good people and I'm going to do the same thing. I want a staff that buys into what we're trying to do."
Printz had a 15-year run as Triad’s coach, ending after the 2015 season. His Cardinals were a combined 86-72 and appeared in the playoffs five times. In 2013 the North Lewisburg program was 10-0 in the regular season and 12-1 overall. Southeastern and Triad are Ohio Heritage Conference rivals.
“It was unfortunate to lose Greg, but he had an exciting new opportunity to go to,” Bell said. “It was a time to reset our program and try and find a quality person to push our football program forward in the positive direction. We did not expect a candidate of (Printz’s) experience and caliber to apply for this position.”
A Division VII, Region 28 program, Southeastern was 3-7 last season. That’s the most wins for the Trojans since the 5-5 squad of 2012.
Southeastern graduate and former Trojans volunteer assistant A.J. Woods was among those who applied for the position. That was expected since Woods recently resigned after two seasons as Graham’s coach and still resides in South Charleston.
“The last couple years have been pretty tough on my family,” said Woods, also a teacher at Graham. “Being a head coach you lose time with the family. There was no ill will or nothing on Graham. It’s a family decision to be closer to home.”
Woods couldn’t snap a streak of losing teams at Graham. The Falcons were 3-7 in 2015 and 2-8 this past season.
Graham hasn’t won more than three games in any of the last seven seasons, combining for 15 wins in that time. Graham’s last winning team was the 8-2 squad in 2009 when senior Nick Vanhoose was the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division offensive player of the year. The Falcons were No. 9 in Division III, Region 10 that season, narrowly missing the playoffs.
Woods was promoted to succeed John Tullis as the Falcons' coach in 2015. Tullis was the coach for just one season, but had been a Graham assistant the previous 26 years.
“What I wanted to do at Graham was make sure when I stepped down to give them enough time to find a good, quality head coach to get in that program,” Woods said. “Obviously, it wasn’t an easy decision. Those decisions are never easy. Being closer to home and closer to the family is always key and always comes first.”
FACEBOOK: For more high school sports you should like Marc Pendleton
PAYTON PRINTZ
What: Expected to be approved as Southeastern football coach.
2016: Assistant at Minster.
2001-15: Triad head coach; 86-72 combined record.
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