Greg Hergott was texting with other Beechwood coaches Thursday about the exploits of football players on the track team at the state meet. Then he got the sad news. Hergott was sitting in his car in between sales calls at his day job when the text came in.
Former Beechwood High School football coach Mike Yeagle passed away.
“We were all wondering how some of the football players and the girls were doing at the state meet,” said Hergott, who played for Yeagle and coached with him. “Then one of the guys said he just heard coach died. It’s sad. Just really sad. He was a great coach, a masterful motivator, a giant among coaches. He impacted a lot of kids and a lot of lives. That’s why his passing is reverberating around the community.”
The news of Yeagle’s passing has already reached far out of state.
Former Highlands football coach Dale Mueller, a Yeagle coaching peer, was visiting his brother in Alabama when he received the news.
“I have had great respect, admiration, and love for Mike ever since I met him,” said Mueller, who won 11 state titles and retired from coaching in 2013. “He had such a strong work ethic and cared so much about his players. It’s a sad day for all of us who were blessed to know him.”
Hergott, Beechwood’s offensive coordinator, was a freshman on Yeagle’s first Beechwood squad in 1991. He was the starting quarterback in 1992, ’93 and ’94.
“We won state all four years,” Hergott said. “It was an amazing way to start a career.”
Yeagle’s coaching career at Beechwood spanned from 1991-2005. It was a record-setting stay that delivered eight Class A state titles including a record four in a row from 1991-94. He was the first Kentucky high school football coach to win four consecutive state championships. Two of those Beechwood squads finished unbeaten at 15-0. The Tigers repeated as state champs again in 1996-97, giving Yeagle six Class A crowns in seven years. The 1997 squad also finished unbeaten.
Yeagle added two more state championships in 1999 and 2004. He resigned as Beechwood head coach just before the start of the 2002 season, citing health reasons. He took a year off from coaching and returned to the football team in 2003 and spent three more years as head man. Yeagle coached briefly at Lloyd after Beechwood but stepped down citing health reasons.
A three-sport star at Beechwood and a 1979 graduate, Yeagle concluded his coaching career with a record of 183-27, a phenomenal .871 winning percentage. Â The Tigers won a Northern Kentucky record 38 consecutive games at one point during their magical run in the 1990s. They were the most successful football team in the state during the decade with 126 wins and a winning percentage of .893.
Among Yeagle’s many honors are induction into the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame and the Beechwood Hall of Fame. He’s also a Buddy LaRosa High School Hall of Fame inductee. Yeagle won several Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference coach of the year awards and was state coach of the year.
When local football historians draw up a list of the greatest high school football coaches in Northern Kentucky, Yeagle is usually on it. He’s right there with Mueller, Bob Schneider, Homer Rice, Owen Hauck and Lynn Ray as an impactful coach.
“I wasn’t going to coach after I played college football. I never had any intention,” Hergott said. “But coach Yeagle called me out of the blue one day and asked me if I wanted to be the quarterbacks coach for our quarterback that year, Jeff Wera. Eventually, I got promoted to offensive coordinator and I’ve been offensive coordinator ever since. This is going to be my 23rd year.”
Hergott says he owes it all to coach Yeagle.
“I’ve learned a lot about coaching football. For that, I thank him,” Hergott said. “Coach Yeagle was a big believer in running the ball and stopping the run and having disciplined teams. We might throw the ball all over the place now, but I still believe what he believed. I think we might have had eight basic plays when I played for him. We were tough on defense. For us to lose, you had to beat us because we weren’t going to beat ourselves.”