Jay Volker watched from the Beechwood High cafeteria Monday while the returning Tigers football players worked out on the field.
The 33-year-old could not thank administrators such as Beechwood principal Justin Kaiser, Director of Athletics Ryan Booth and superintendent Mike Stacy enough for the huge opportunity in addition to the support of wife Erica and daughter MacKenzie. The administration tabbed Volker to take over the vaunted Beechwood football program on Thursday that has won state championships six of the past seven years.
Volker hopes to continue the stability that Beechwood has enjoyed with the previous three head coaches. Noel Rash retired in February after leading the Tigers to a 193-46 record and winning eight state championships, 15 region crowns and finishing undefeated in district play all 17 seasons.
“I used to say all the things that everybody wanted to hear in interview processes,” Volker said. “It’s worked sometimes. It hasn’t worked for others. (I’ve) turned stuff down, got accepted for jobs and things like that. But honestly, I think it’s a next marriage. It has to be the perfect fit between a coach and a teacher into a district. But then the district has to have that exact same fit with that coach and teacher as well. I think everything just kind of worked out perfectly for me. I also believe being a great educator and having a lot of people at the different places that I’ve been before explaining how good of an educator I am and how much I care for student-athletes is kind of the last thing that hit a home run for me here.”
Volker hopes to continue the stability in the program from the top. Prior to Rash, Mike Yeagle led the Tigers from 1991-2005 and Bernie Barre led them from 1975-90. Beechwood owns 17 state championships overall, which is third in the state behind Trinity’s 27 and Highlands with 23.
“I’m excited, honored and incredibly humbled to be the next head coach at Beechwood because it is a top-tier school both athletically and academically,” Volker said. “(Barre, Yeagle and Rash) thrived and loved it. It tells you all you need to know about how special this place is and I can’t wait to get started.”
Volker comes to Beechwood with an extensive coaching and playing background. He served as the head coach of the Oxford (Ohio) Talawanda Braves the last two seasons leading them to a 3-16 record in what he called a five-year building project.
Prior to that, Volker served as an assistant at Kings High School (Ohio) in 2019 and ’20 and as the defensive coordinator for the Moeller (Ohio) Crusaders in ’18. Volker helped Moeller to an outright Greater Catholic League championship mentoring six players that landed on the first team all-conference. Volker also assisted Jim Hilvert from 2015-17 at LaSalle as the Associate Head Coach helping the Lancers to consecutive Ohio Division II state championships.
“Jay is a great leader of men,” Hilvert said. “He’s a relentless worker and a coach that will carry on the winning tradition at Beechwood.”
Volker worked as an assistant at Georgia State from 2013-15 with current University of Michigan Defensive Coordinator Jesse Minter. Volker’s brother PJ is the Defensive Coordinator for Navy.
“Jay is a very relentless and very passionate coach that cares deeply about all of his players,” Minter said. “He’s the most football-hungry person I’ve ever been around.”
Volker expanded on that comment stating that being football-hungry was soaking up as much football knowledge as possible. Volker said a lot of that comes from the weekly conferences with his brother.
“(It’s) just being able to take bits and pieces of what he’s doing and being able to implement that the best way that we can at the high school level,” Volker said of his brother. “When you see different things, you just want to try to grab it and try to learn and try to see if it’s going to work for Beechwood. Some things will. Some things won’t. But being innovative and trying to look at those things. Always changing and always getting better I think is probably what (Minter) meant by that quote.”
Volker played football and ran track for the Elder Panthers in the competitive GCL and served as a captain. He took his talent to play for Hilvert at Thomas More University serving as a three-year team captain for the Saints.
Volker said he plans to retain a number of the assistants on Rash’s staff. The Tigers tried to be balanced offensively making opponents defend the entire field. Volker said he’d love to run the 3-4 defense with the 4-2-5 personality. But schemes will depend on the personnel.
“From ‘Pride, Brotherhood and Unity,’ the moniker of the 1990s, to ‘Commitment, Sacrifice and Brotherhood’ of the 2000s, I am truly excited to see what this generation of football brotherhood grows into under Coach Volker’s leadership,” Kaiser said. “This is a great day.”
Beechwood loses 18 seniors from last year’s team including their leading rusher in Mitchell Berger at 1,119 yards rushing on on 121 carries and 21 touchdowns for an average of more than nine yards per carry. But sophomore quarterback Clay Hayden returns after completing 106-of-157 passes for 1,822 yards, 21 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
Beechwood stays in Class 2A this fall, but moves from District 6 to District 5 with five different opponents in Bracken County, Carroll County, Gallatin County, Owen County and Walton-Verona. Holy Cross and Newport moved down to 1A and Lloyd Memorial moved up to 3A.
