ONTARIO, Ohio — His last coaching project required a complete rebuild. By comparison, Chris Hawkins’ new venture is more reconditioning effort than total overhaul.
Pending board approval, Hawkins will be introduced as Ontario’s new football coach early next week. He will succeed Scott Kreger, who stepped down after last season.
“I’m excited for this next chapter,” Hawkins said. “Ontario is a sleeping giant. They are not that far removed from competing for championships.
“There is some work to do, but the athletes are walking the halls.”
For the past nine years, Hawkins has been the head coach at Galion. During that time he orchestrated one of the greatest revivals in area history.
Before Hawkins arrived in Galion in 2007, the Tigers had won just three games in the previous five years combined and were winless in 2003 and 2004. Three years later, Galion was 10-0 and captured its first Northern Ohio League title in more than a decade.
The Tigers were 61-34 in Hawkins’ nine seasons. Galion won a pair of North Central Conference championships in 2012 and 2013 to go with its 2009 NOL crown and qualified for the playoffs five times, including the past four straight seasons.
“It was a complete team effort,” Hawkins said. “I was the CEO, but we had great coaches. We had kids who bought in and parents who were very supportive.
“You always ask yourself, ‘Is the program better off now then when you got there?’ We went from the laughingstock of north central Ohio to four straight playoff appearances.”
The 2015 season was a challenging one for Hawkins. The Ohio High School Athletic Association suspended him for the first two games and placed the athletic department on two years’ probations for recruiting violations. Hawkins appealed the ruling and the suspension was later reduced to one game. The Tigers were 8-3 last fall, falling in the opening round of the Division IV, Region 16 playoffs to top-seeded Edison.
Ontario was 2-8 last year after going 6-4 in 2014. Kreger was 38-33 in his seven seasons and piloted the Warriors to the postseason for the second time in school history in 2010.
“We had about 30 applicants and we whittled that down fairly quickly,” Ontario athletic director Chris Miller said. “Chris’ resume speaks for itself. He’s a local guy and he’s won a bunch of football games. It made a lot of sense.”
For Hawkins, the decision came down to logistics. For the past nine years the Bucyrus resident has commuted from Willard, where he teaches, to Galion. He also will have a teaching position at Ontario, cutting down on his travel time considerably.
““I am happy teaching at Willard and I was happy coaching at Galion, but to do both was becoming unbearable,” Hawkins said. “It’s doable, but over the last couple of years it has gotten harder and harder.”
“It’s hard to build a rapport with the players when you only see them during practice. I feel like I need to be in the building.”
Before taking over at Galion, Hawkins was the head coach at Wynford from 1994 to 1998 and Willard from 1999 to 2004. He was 41-10 with two NCC titles (1997, 1998) and one playoff appearance (1994) at Wynford and 41-25 with one NOL crown (1999) and three postseason berths (1999, 2001, 2002) at Willard, where he coached former Cleveland Browns quarterback Charlie Frye.
In 20 seasons as a head coach, Hawkins has a record of 143-69. His teams have won six conference crowns and qualified for the playoffs nine times.
He is looking forward to his new challenge.
“At Wyford, we went from 2-8 the year before we got there to 8-3 and at Willard we went from 3-7 to 10-2. It took a little longer at Galion, but we went from 1-9 and three years later we were 10-0,” Hawkins said. “People are already asking how long it will take to get it turned around at Ontario and I tell them it’s not easy. There are no short cuts.
“It takes a lot of hard work. I always to the parents and the kids, ‘You can be part of the problem or part of the solution.’ ”
