Kregel leaves Bowsher just before football starts

7/13/2001

After one winless season as head football coach at Bowsher, Matt Kregel resigned on Tuesday to accept a teaching position at Perrysburg, where he will serve as an assistant coach for the Yellow Jackets.

Kregel, who last year followed in the footsteps of his father, former Rebels football coach Dave Kregel, leaves family friend and Bowsher athletic director Dave Erdman in a bind just 23 days before the start of two-a-day practices.

Erdman said he was aware that Kregel had applied for the Perrysburg teaching post, which is a special education position. Kregel had been teaching in the Toledo Public Schools at a non-TPS facility, serving as a special education instructor at Central Catholic High School.

“I wasn't blindsided,” Erdman said, “but it was wishful thinking on my part that he'd still be here. As of Monday, he was still in the weight room with the players trying to get the team ready.

“I don't blame Matt for the career change. He lives near Bowling Green, he's going to a new multi-million-dollar facility and he only had five years in with TPS. But it's putting us behind the eight-ball big time.”

“Financially it was a pretty good deal,” Kregel said. “And the teaching job is what pays the bills. I'm at a point in my career that if I'm going to make a move I'd have to make it now.

“The hardest part about it was after going 0-10 they could have had a big turnaround year. They put in a lot of hard work over the winter. And telling the kids was really, really hard.

According to TPS union guidelines, the coaching position must be posted for two weeks before a hiring decision can be made. Erdman said City League commissioner Ed Scrutchins will make the posting on Monday, 19 days before practice begins.

Interested applicants can reach Erdman at Bowsher Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon, at 385-6042.

Erdman said the short timeframe involved may lead him to opt for an interim head coach.

Kregel's exit follows the resignations of two of Bowsher's four paid assistants from last season - Chris Schilling and Merick Moldowski - leaving the Rebel staff with assistant coaches Mike Jewel and Roland Tatum.

If Erdman goes the interim route, he said Jewel and Tatum would be considered for the post.

Jewel, a former Rebel player who spent one season as head coach at Libbey, has been a Bowsher assistant under three coaches - Tom Zientek, Mark Gysan and Kregel. He currently teaches at Bowsher.

Tatum, who starred at the University of Toledo, started as a Bowsher assistant last season. He is a TPS elementary school teacher.

Whomever succeeds Kregel will likely tackle a similar uphill battle to what he waged last season when the Rebels had only five seniors on a 44-member varsity, three of whom hadn't played football since their freshman year. The Rebels finished 0-10 and were outscored 484-74.

As if Kregel's late resignation weren't bad enough, one day later Erdman received the resignation of softball coach Jim Hall, the CL's coach of the year the last two seasons who guided the Rebel girls to their first league championship last year.

“Jim did a great job for us,” Erdman said. “But he's not a teacher and he took a new job and it was going to be too much time away from his family along with the coaching, so he decided to step down.”