Mike DeVol named next Belpre football coach
Led South to state title in 2003
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BELPRE -- Veteran Mid-Ohio Valley head football coach Mike DeVol now has another job in his resume, as he was unanimously named by a 5-0 vote Monday night as the new head football coach at Belpre High by the Belpre City Schools Board of Education.
"He brings with him 35 years of head coaching experience with many accolades and accomplishments," said Belpre High School principal Dennis Eichinger in introducing DeVol, who was recommended for the job by a committee.
"I'm excited to be here, and will finish up my career here as a head coach," said Devol, who has guided MOV grid programs starting at Caldwell, then at Parkersburg South (with a 2003 state championship), Warren and Caldwell again before given the Belpre reins Monday night.
Ironically, DeVol and his wife Connie moved to Belpre last fall. So when the Belpre job came open earlier this year when Greg Adams had to retire because of health issues, DeVol put his name in for the job along with 15 other entrants.
"I love coaching; I love football," said DeVol. "I know what coaches did for me and hopefully, I've been able to pass on those things to the kids that I've coached."
DeVol knows "there was never anybody that loved Belpre more than Greg Adams. He's probably done as much for Belpre as anybody could possibly do."
And DeVol is "anxious for the football season already," but not as a fan, but as he's always been -- a student of the game.
His first item as the Golden Eagles' head man now is to "meet with the players and hopefully meet with the parents too. I will tell them what I plan to do and how I coach, and then they've got some questions that they've got to ask me because they need to understand me as well as I need to understand them."
Plus, DeVol is already "in the process of trying to figure out what type of talent we have, so we can make sure we set up the right offense and right defense, as well as beginning to put the playbooks together."
In addition, he's "working really hard on putting together a staff. I've got a lot of names, and they'll all be excellent coaches," said DeVol. "My style of coaching is we're not going to run kids to death. We're not going to yell, we're not going to scream. We're going to teach them football, and we're going to teach them life lessons -- and if we can do that, we'll be successful."