By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Covington Catholic football coach Eddie Eviston received the Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award from the Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday.
The annual award recognizes an outstanding high school football coach in the region. Last season, Eviston guided CovCath to the first undefeated season in team history and the Kentucky Class 5A state championship.
CovCath football coach Eddie Eviston guided the team to its first undefeated season in 2017.
The Bengals also donated $5,000 to the CovCath athletic department in conjunction with the award during a ceremony that took place at the team’s annual pre-training camp media luncheon.
“Eddie Eviston has been a presence in the local football world for most of his life,”Bengals president Mike Brown said during the award presentation. “His coaching record is extraordinarily successful, and there’s going to be a lot more to come. He is certainly worthy of receiving the Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award.”
Eviston has a 64-20 career record in six seasons as a high school head football coach. In three seasons at Newport Central Catholic, his teams were 35-8 and won two Kentucky Class 2A state titles. He’s going into his fourth season at CovCath with a 29-12 record.
As a player, Eviston was a standout quarterback at NewCath and recruited by Georgetown College, where he was a three-time NAIA National Player of the Year and three-time All-American. He compiled a 41-1 record as Georgetown’s starting quarterback and led the Tigers to national titles in 2000 and ’01.
He left the NewCath head coaching job to become offensive coordinator at Georgetown for the 2013 and ’14 seasons. He was hired at CovCath’s head coach in 2015.
Eviston is the 17th winner of the Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award. The list of previous winners includes three other Northern Kentucky coaches whose teams won state titles — Noel Rash of Beechwood (2016 season), Bruce Kozerski of Holy Cross (2011) and Dale Mueller of Highlands (2008).
