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Prep Football Previews: Brossart football coach says ‘pieces in place’ for more success this season


The NKyTribune will be offering focused coverage of NKY high school football throughout the season, thanks to support from St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine. See all our pre-season features on each of NKY’s 21 high school football teams and follow our coverage, including roundups each week at Northern Kentucky High School Football.

By Brett Bibbins
NKyTribune contributor

Before the start of last season, the Bishop Brossart Mustangs football program had a future full of questions.

Who would fill the newly vacated head coach position after Lee Teegarden resigned? Would they have enough players to field a team? Would the football program be discontinued?

Paul Wiggins provided answers to all those questions.

Paul Wiggins

Brossart head football coach Paul Wiggins (Photo by Jackson Sports Photography)

Wiggins, coach of the Brossart Colts middle school team for five years, accepted the varsity head coaching position last summer and brought new excitement to the Mustangs’ program, including a rise in how many players wanted to be on the high school team.

“A lot of guys were saying, ‘I’ll only play if coach Wiggins comes,’ because he’s just that good and people like him that much,” said Griffin Goepper, a senior middle linebacker and tight end for the Mustangs. “A bunch of seniors that hadn’t played in a while came back and helped get a team together.”

Several seniors who had played for the Colts in middle school and didn’t continue decided to come out for one final season under Wiggins. That gave the varsity team the numbers it needed to continue.

“He really kind of came in and saved us last year.” said Frank Cetrulo, a senior who will play running back, safety, kicker and kick returner this season. “With coach Wiggins coming in, he brought a few kids with him that were loyal to him from the old Colts program, which is a benefit to him being around this Brossart program for so long.”

However, Wiggins’ familiarity with the program did not lead to immediate success on the field for the Mustangs. Last season’s team finished with only one win and the average margin of defeat in their eight losses was over 21 points.

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With so many players who had been away from the sport for multiple years, the team was behind the curve going into last season. That lack of experience was hard to overcome, according to senior fullback and outside linebacker Logan Schoulthies.

“I think last year’s team lacked IQ,” Schoulthies said. “We had a lot of new players and it’s tough to teach them the game in such a short amount of time. We really had a limited amount of time to teach them how to play their position. It really made it tough.”

The Brossart coaching staff, including Wiggins, expected the struggles the team faced during the 2014 season, but there was one major accomplishment.

“Last season was a savior season for all of us, it was a survival situation,” the coach said. “Without the seniors who came out, we probably don’t have a football program here anymore. We knew we were going to take it on the chin from our (Class) 2A opponents. We just weren’t ready to compete at that level.”

The Mustangs will drop down a class from 2A to 1A this season, which should put them in a position to be more competitive and find more success on the scoreboard. Their district opponents include Berea, Bracken County, Nicholas County and Paris.

“Our district play will include teams we have beat before,” said Cetrulo, who led the Mustangs in rushing last season. “We know we can play with them, so it’s no longer like David vs. Goliath. These are schools that are the same size as us, that we can go out on the field and compete with.”

The players on this year’s team have set a firm goal to host a playoff game this season, as well as to win the first-ever playoff game in Brossart team history. Wiggins believes those goals are attainable.

“We have the pieces in place,” Wiggins said. “These guys have to believe they can do it, and I know some of them do, because they are pushing hard. The bottom line is that they have to embrace the belief in themselves that we can do this. We have athletes, we’ve got speed and we’ve got experience, but now they’ve got to put it together on the field.”

The team’s level of success is yet to be determined this season, but at least the Brossart football program is back on solid ground. And Wiggins wants to keep it that way.

“I love the people here,” he said. “When they called me and said they needed this, this program wasn’t going to die if I had anything to do with it. I’ve put too much time into it and so have a lot of these boys. I could go on and on about my football players, the work ethic here is amazing to me. They have to work to be a part of this program, and why I care so much, is because they do.”

BISHOP BROSSART MUSTANGS

COACH: Paul Wiggins (1-8 in one season).
2014 SEASON: 1-8 record, did not qualify for Class sA playoffs.
THIS SEASON: Class 1A, District 5 with Berea, Bracken County, Nicholas County, Paris.

2015 SCHEDULE
(Home games at Campbell County Middle School)

Aug. 21 – DAYTON, 7 p.m.
Aug. 28 – at Aiken (Ohio), 7 p.m.
Sept. 4 – at Bellevue, 7 p.m.
Sept. 11 – TRIMBLE COUNTY, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 25 – NICHOLAS COUNTY, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 2 – at Ludlow, 7 p.m.
Oct. 9 – at Bracken County, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 16 – at Paris, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 23 – BEREA, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 30 – at Pendleton County, 7 p.m.

See the previous prep football stories here:
Ludlow High School
Campbell County High School
Highlands High School


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