Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

SOUTH POINT — When he was young, Chad Coffman wanted to run around his voting district and pass legislation.

Now days, Coffman is still running and passing except it’s a football instead of the state’s budget.

With a law degree from the University of Dayton, Coffman had plans of a life in politics. Instead, he got bitten by the coaching bug and began a career as a history teacher and football coach.

That career will continue after Coffman was named the South Point Pointers new head football coach.

“I was focused on the idea of where we were going to raise a family. I wanted to find someplace that felt like home,” said Coffman.

Coffman and his wife, Carmen, have a son, Caden, 7, and a daughter, Belle, 4, with another child on the way.

Admitting that he always thought Chillicothe was really the deep south in Ohio, he said this area was great for raising a family and there was a passion for football. He said South Point offered what he was looking to find.

“I’m excited at the direction the school is going. It’s a great area for football. In the two days I’ve been here, I’ve seen a lot of passion for football,” said Coffman.

“I like the direction of the conference. Everybody has a chance to elevate their game. There are a lot of good teams. It’ll be exciting. The conference gives us a chance to achieve what we want.”

Coffman comes to South Point from Ashland Crestview where he was 26-26 in five seasons and led the Cougars to their best season in school history in 2011 when they went 10-0 in the regular season and advanced to the regional semifinals.

Coffman is a 1994 graduate of Fort Frye where he played for his father. It was his father who got him into coaching. After retiring, his father was asked to coach the junior high and he agreed but only if his son helped.

“My passion was politics. I was working for someone and he lost a race, so I took the time to go to law school. I found myself in the law library and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I liked seeing the kids’ improvement,” said Coffman.

After obtaining teacher certification, Coffman decided to bypass the saturated field in Ohio for more opportunities that were available in Texas.

He spent one year in Texas as the head girls’ basketball coach at Munday High School while coaching three other sports.

He returned to Ohio and was the head coach at Caldwell from 2005-08 and won the league title his first season — the school’s first in 13 years — and earned Eastern District Coach of the Year honors.

Coffman took an assistant coaching position at Columbus South from 2008-10 and then was hired as Crestview’s head coach in 2010.

While South Point has used a spread offense the past three seasons, Coffman plans to adapt an offense suited to the personnel. He said his teams have used offenses from spread to I-formation to the wishbone.

“I still believe that even with all the bells and whistles, football comes down to the ability to block, the ability to tackle and to see who will hit,” said Coffman.

“Football in Ohio and football in Southern Ohio you’ve got to be able to run the ball. The good teams I’ve had we’ve controlled the ball and scored.”

Defensively, Coffman will adapt much the same way but prefers a 4-3 alignment in today’s era of spread offenses.

“I’ve always been an attack guy. I like the 4-3 system for high school and college, but I used the 3-4 in North Carolina,’ said the new Pointers’ coach.

South Point finished 2-8 last season after going 7-3 the previous year.