[Iggyfan]

Link to his BIO at Tiffin is below. 

https://www.gotiffindragons.com/sports/f...y?view=bio

[TheOracle]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

[IAM22]

From the website he looks to have great teeth.....his dad is/was a dentist

[plantmanky]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

Didn't he tell them he wasn't interested?

[Bull got out!]

Looks like a good hire!

[A Tribe Called Quest]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

[Big Daddy Bull]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

Yes seems like a great hire, but I seen LC play a couple of times last year and it just doesn't seem like they have the talent to have a good defense, you can bring in Kirby Smart, but if you do not have the players a Coach can only do so much. Good luck to them.

[A Tribe Called Quest]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

Yes seems like a great hire, but I seen LC play a couple of times last year and it just doesn't seem like they have the talent to have a good defense, you can bring in Kirby Smart, but if you do not have the players a Coach can only do so much. Good luck to them.

Well what I can about a good hire or a good coach to a program, is that It might bring in other student- athletes from other programs ( I'm sure there are plenty programs out there that you and I know about that makes that a common practice lol). #TransferPortal hahahaha.

[HurryUp1001]

Seems like a very good hire but it will be tough to make it out of their district having to play Boyle every year.

[Big Daddy Bull]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

Yes seems like a great hire, but I seen LC play a couple of times last year and it just doesn't seem like they have the talent to have a good defense, you can bring in Kirby Smart, but if you do not have the players a Coach can only do so much. Good luck to them.

Well what I can about a good hire or a good coach to a program, is that It might bring in other student- athletes from other programs ( I'm sure there are plenty programs out there that you and I know about that makes that a common practice lol). #TransferPortal hahahaha.

[IAM22]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

Yes seems like a great hire, but I seen LC play a couple of times last year and it just doesn't seem like they have the talent to have a good defense, you can bring in Kirby Smart, but if you do not have the players a Coach can only do so much. Good luck to them.

Talent to score points but no talent to play defense?

[Iggyfan]

People seem to forget but from 2012 -2016 LC dominated Boyle and went to 4 consecutive state semi - final appearances. It was only when Chuck Smith returned that Boyle's fortunes changed. I will say this, I do not believe outsiders understand how little time Nigel Smith put into developing the program. Always the 1st guy out of the building; demonstrated very little leadership and even less enthusiasm for the role. At one point he told the kids he was named head coach only because he was black. That comment crushed their confidence the last 2 years. Talent wise, the last 2 classes were maybe the best Catholic has had in 5 or 6 yrs. Unfortunately Boyle was better coached. In 2020 and 2021, Catholic only lost to 2 schools - LCA and Boyle.

Catholic made a strong hire this past week, don't know how it will transfer to the field in 2022 because the senior class will produce only 4/5 starters but I would be very disappointed if you did not see them play with greater intensity. Catholic will make some noise again in 2023 as the current sophomore and and freshmen classes (will be seniors and juniors in 2023) have some very good players.

[Big Daddy Bull]

Great hire for LC, especially on the defensive standpoint. We all know they can score, but their defense has been 'bend but don't break' to just being awful at times. Congrats to coach Bathiany and LC.

Yes seems like a great hire, but I seen LC play a couple of times last year and it just doesn't seem like they have the talent to have a good defense, you can bring in Kirby Smart, but if you do not have the players a Coach can only do so much. Good luck to them.

Talent to score points but no talent to play defense?

Yes- If you have a good QB(which they usually do) and spread the field you can score some points, Sure there are other factors linemen, rec...., but defense is different, there DB's and LB's were like tiny and slow and I didn't see one athletic person on there def. Only seen them play twice, and that was my take. On the flip side, they are a private school so thing's could change rather quickly.

---

People seem to forget but from 2012 -2016 LC dominated Boyle and went to 4 consecutive state semi - final appearances. It was only when Chuck Smith returned that Boyle's fortunes changed. I will say this, I do not believe outsiders understand how little time Nigel Smith put into developing the program. Always the 1st guy out of the building; demonstrated very little leadership and even less enthusiasm for the role. At one point he told the kids he was named head coach only because he was black. That comment crushed their confidence the last 2 years. Talent wise, the last 2 classes were maybe the best Catholic has had in 5 or 6 yrs. Unfortunately Boyle was better coached. In 2020 and 2021, Catholic only lost to 2 schools - LCA and Boyle. 

Catholic made a strong hire this past week, don't  know how it will transfer to the field  in 2022 because the senior class will produce only 4/5 starters but I would be very disappointed if you did not see them play with greater intensity. Catholic will make some noise again in 2023 as the current sophomore and and freshmen classes (will be seniors and juniors in 2023) have some very good players.

Wasn't Coach Smith there DC during 2012-2016? Hard for me to believe Coach Smith told the players that, I know him well, it was more than likely other people saying that the only reason he got the job was because he was black being around some of those LC parents at the games, but thats a different story. I also have seen there JV and Freshman play. Freshman do have a few play maker's. QB is really good, but JV looks like the Varsity to me. Good luck to them and the new Coach

[Iggyfan]

He was the DC from 20212-2016, but priorities change over time. The comment re: why Smith was hired actually happened. Won't get into the backstory as to what led to it being said.

From everything I understand, Nigel Smith is a very smart man, a good teacher and is a man of great integrity. I believe that 4 yrs ago he was asked to take the HC position by the administration and did so but I do not believe he wanted the position.

---

I think there were as many as 6 sophomores who played significant minutes on the varsity; none of whom played JV. The JV team is usually a made up of freshmen playing up, a few sophomores and a couple of Jr's. It is difficult to get a read on the level of talent for any class unless you look at the program as a whole.

[DarthVader]

Seems like a solid hire for the Knights. Big adjustment coming to the high school game from college, but a place like LC has advantages that most of the state don't. I predict they will keep on, keeping on with a very successful football program!

[Iggyfan]

Interesting that ppl believe Catholic / private schools have some sort of athletic advantage. The pool of students is very limited as not every family has the ability to pay the tuition and even fewer have the desire. In addition, the culture is just different than that of the public school system (attire, hair length, religion, acceptable behaviour). The success rate of students that come to Catholic from the public school system solely because of athletics is very low: many leave after their freshmen year.

[DarthVader]

Interesting that ppl believe Catholic  / private schools have some sort of athletic advantage. The pool of students is very limited as not every family has the ability to pay the tuition and even fewer have the desire. In addition, the culture is just different than that of the public school system (attire, hair length, religion, acceptable behaviour). The success rate of students that come to Catholic from the public school system solely because of athletics is very low: many leave after their freshmen year.

You said it, it's culture. The ones that are able to pay the tuition and get their students there, are doing it because they want what's best for their students academically, socially, and athletically. These schools generally get high quality kids from high population areas. It definitely has it's advantages. Of course it has it's challenges that are specific to that type of school environment, but it's hard to argue that model isn't more successful on a broad scale over time.

[TheOracle]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

Didn't he tell them he wasn't interested?

I don't think he did. Sphire was the first call by the AD once Weinrich was gone and Wolfe was the second. Both turned it down because of money. I don't think Bathiany was even interviewed the first go round. Eddie James got the job because HHS didn't have enough money for Sphire or Wolfe. Then they went digging for more money once James backed out and started round two. Bathiany interviewed that time, but the sights were still set on Wolfe and Sphire. They weren't able to get enough money for Wolfe but Sphire was willing to accept the offer in round two.

[IAM22]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

Didn't he tell them he wasn't interested?

I don't think he did. Sphire was the first call by the AD once Weinrich was gone and Wolfe was the second. Both turned it down because of money. I don't think Bathiany was even interviewed the first go round. Eddie James got the job because HHS didn't have enough money for Sphire or Wolfe. Then they went digging for more money once James backed out and started round two. Bathiany interviewed that time, but the sights were still set on Wolfe and Sphire. They weren't able to get enough money for Wolfe but Sphire was willing to accept the offer in round two.

Pretty sure that Sphire was not part of it until James backed out. Then when a high school coach(Lex Area) called Sphire to ask about using him as a reference. That is when Sphire heard about the opening. At the end of that conversation with that coach, Bill said to not put him down as a reference because he was going to put in for it.

[A Tribe Called Quest]

People seem to forget but from 2012 -2016 LC dominated Boyle and went to 4 consecutive state semi - final appearances. It was only when Chuck Smith returned that Boyle's fortunes changed. I will say this, I do not believe outsiders understand how little time Nigel Smith put into developing the program. Always the 1st guy out of the building; demonstrated very little leadership and even less enthusiasm for the role. At one point he told the kids he was named head coach only because he was black. That comment crushed their confidence the last 2 years. Talent wise, the last 2 classes were maybe the best Catholic has had in 5 or 6 yrs. Unfortunately Boyle was better coached. In 2020 and 2021, Catholic only lost to 2 schools - LCA and Boyle. 

Catholic made a strong hire this past week, don't  know how it will transfer to the field  in 2022 because the senior class will produce only 4/5 starters but I would be very disappointed if you did not see them play with greater intensity. Catholic will make some noise again in 2023 as the current sophomore and and freshmen classes (will be seniors and juniors in 2023) have some very good players.

I wouldn't go as far as saying "dominated". 1. you will p!ss off BC fans that are on here lol. 2. yeah I agree that they beat them in those years, some were very close and a very entertaining games. Coach Letton and then Coach Perry had something going on at LC. Unfortunately Letton moved on to Georgia and Perry left to Troy U. and LC was kind of in a bind with coach Smith.. Who really did not do anything to promote, upgrade the program and yes I had been told that he is the 1st one to leave practice everyday.

[TheOracle]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

Didn't he tell them he wasn't interested?

I don't think he did. Sphire was the first call by the AD once Weinrich was gone and Wolfe was the second. Both turned it down because of money. I don't think Bathiany was even interviewed the first go round. Eddie James got the job because HHS didn't have enough money for Sphire or Wolfe. Then they went digging for more money once James backed out and started round two. Bathiany interviewed that time, but the sights were still set on Wolfe and Sphire. They weren't able to get enough money for Wolfe but Sphire was willing to accept the offer in round two.

Pretty sure that Sphire was not part of it until James backed out. Then when a high school coach(Lex Area) called Sphire to ask about using him as a reference. That is when Sphire heard about the opening. At the end of that conversation with that coach, Bill said to not put him down as a reference because he was going to put in for it.

Not correct.

Highlands AD Wes Caldwell played football at Lex Cath for Sphire and I can confirm that Sphire was the first call Caldwell made about the job when it came open the first time.

[ItSortOfDepends]

Strong hire. Lots of Bluebird fans would've liked to see Bert get the HHS job last year instead of Sphire.

Who was OC last year at LexCath?

Didn't he tell them he wasn't interested?

I don't think he did. Sphire was the first call by the AD once Weinrich was gone and Wolfe was the second. Both turned it down because of money. I don't think Bathiany was even interviewed the first go round. Eddie James got the job because HHS didn't have enough money for Sphire or Wolfe. Then they went digging for more money once James backed out and started round two. Bathiany interviewed that time, but the sights were still set on Wolfe and Sphire. They weren't able to get enough money for Wolfe but Sphire was willing to accept the offer in round two.

Pretty sure that Sphire was not part of it until James backed out. Then when a high school coach(Lex Area) called Sphire to ask about using him as a reference. That is when Sphire heard about the opening. At the end of that conversation with that coach, Bill said to not put him down as a reference because he was going to put in for it.

Not correct.

Highlands AD Wes Caldwell played football at Lex Cath for Sphire and I can confirm that Sphire was the first call Caldwell made about the job when it came open the first time.

You are basically correct. Wes did call Sphire and asked him to apply for the job. Sphire chose not to do so. Bathiany did apply and make the short list. He along with about 8 others were interviewed. From what I understand the only thing missing on Bathiany was no prior head coaching experience. Some felt that having prior head coaching experience was a prerequisite for the next head coach at Highlands. Highlands is not an easy place to coach; the job is made even harder when you've got no prior head coaching experience and the whole town knows you. Poor guy would have been told relentlessly what he needed to be doing by family friends and former teammates! As we all know, James ended up being offered the job. It won't surprise me one bit if Bathiany ends up as the head coach at Highlands some day. I also think he'll do a great job at LexCath. He might not beat Boyle the first couple of years, but it won't surprise me if that changes in a few years. Super smart; very hard working; and very charismatic. Reminds me of a young Dale Mueller. Seriously.