Thursday, March 7, 2013

Stratton named new Lions football coach

Joshua Stratton, a Columbus, Ohio native who has spent the last two years as the head football coach at Lloyd High School in Erlanger, Kentucky, has been selected as the new head coach of the New Richmond Lions pending school board approval.

Joshua Stratton
“Coach Stratton stood out to us among a deep pool of candidates,” said Supt. Adam Bird in announcing the hire on Thursday.  “He will continue the NR tradition of excellent leadership from the football coach. “I believe that he will have an outstanding impact on the lives of our football players and on the students he has in class.”

A graduate of Morehead State, Stratton replaces Scott Herman who coached the Lions for the 2012 season before deciding to return to Montgomery, Texas where he had coached for six years.

“I feel completely blessed with this opportunity,” said Stratton. “I’ve had my eye on New Richmond and when this job came up again, there was no way that I wasn’t going to pursue it. It’s not just football, it’s academics, commitment and everything that makes New Richmond a great place to coach and teach.”

Stratton was named the 2012 Owen Hauck Award recipient given by the Northern Kentucky Football Coaches Association given for turning around a struggling program after coaching Lloyd to an 8-4 record and a district runner-up finish. He was the Kentucky 2A District 6 coach of the year in 2011 and 2012.

“Josh will immerse himself into the community and the school and will be very supportive of all the programs at the High School,” said New Richmond athletic director Doug Foote, who led the coaching search which received more than 70 applicants. “I’m very excited to get to work with Josh as a teacher and a coach. Josh will bring great excitement and passion to the program and will continue the great tradition of winning football at New Richmond High School.”

“His enthusiasm for the classroom as well as the game of football will be extremely contagious with our students!” predicted New Richmond High School principal Mark Bailey. “Results of his work in the classroom show that he is a very knowledgeable and inspiring teacher.  Mr. Stratton's experience as a head football coach brings a wisdom and knowledge of the game that only comes from experience within that position.”

Stratton’s coaching experience also includes two years at Covington Holmes, where he coached running backs in 2009 and quarterbacks in 2010; two years at Herculaneum High School in Missouri where he was the offensive coordinator as well as the school’s varsity basketball coach in 2007 and 2008; three years at Grant County High School where he was quarterback coach and head freshman football coach as well as the freshman basketball coach. He was also freshman boys basketball coach at Gahanna Lincoln High School in Columbus from 2000-2002.

Lion football fans may see a few more passing plays next season, but Stratton doesn’t plan to do a major overhaul on offense.

 “I want to build on their prior success, but you can’t be one dimensional anymore in football,” said Stratton, who teaches social studies. “We will be very balanced and there may be games where we will pass more and other games where we will run the ball exclusively.”

Stratton’s defensive philosophy is to “cause destruction” which resulted in his Lloyd defense recording 19 interceptions last season.

“My philosophy is to get as much speed on the field as possible and get 11 hats on the ball,” said Stratton. “We will be aggressive and cause destruction. On each and every snap the goal of the defense will be to take the ball away from the offense.”