Football has been a part of Bruce Kozerski’s life for over 50 years, 20-plus playing, 20-plus coaching.
On Wednesday, he informed his Holy Cross team and administrators it was time to step down as the head coach of the program. The 2023 season was his 20th as head coach of the Indians.
“The conversation was coming, had it for several years with my wife, 20 years was a nice round number,” Kozerski said. “The circumstances were right, program is in decent shape.”
Kozerski helped start the football program up at Holy Cross in 1998 with John Wysong, who was the head coach the first six seasons of its existence. Since then it’s been “Koz”, the former Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman who was a key part of the line in the 1989 Bengals Super Bowl run.
He guided the Holy Cross program to reach its pinnacle in 2011 when the Indians won the Class 2A state championship. He’s coached many to continue their careers in college and even the NFL, Derrick Barnes currently a starting linebacker for the 10-4 Detroit Lions. What Kozerski did best wasn’t necessarily about the X’s and O’s or the 88 wins.
“You’re always searching for that role model as a person before all things. Bruce checks all the boxes for that as a person, father figure, coach, mentor and colleague,” Holy Cross Athletic Director Anne Julian said. “Bruce doesn’t back down from a challenge and is always willing to fight for the common good.”
The challenges are a plenty for Kentucky small school football. Not only with numbers, but Kozerski recalls when they had to spend days in the program’s infancy picking up glass off the practice field along the riverbank just to be able to provide a somewhat safe practice field.
The Indians have certainly had their peaks and valleys as a program over the last 20 years and Kozerski certainly wasn’t scared to take a challenge on, even with a limited roster. Often times he took kids under his wing and not only taught them about the game of football, but life in general.
“As a coaching staff and administration you teach them how to work hard for someone else other than themselves,” Kozerski said. “It’s all about turning kids as productive members of our community and get them ready for adulthood.”
Kozerski is a valuable member of the Holy Cross administration teaching physics and calculus. He’ll stay on as a teacher and plans to be a part of the board to help aid the decision as the next head coach.
As many can imagine, playing offensive line for that many years and doing so at the highest level will take a toll on the body. He played in 172 NFL games, starting in 138 of them over a 12-year span. He was dubbed “Mr. Versatile”, but Kozerski’s body has been feeling those effects for many years now and has some knee procedures scheduled in the coming months.
“I spent the first part of my career getting beat up and loving every minute of it and spent the last half coaching it and teaching people what I’ve learned over the years,” Kozerski said. “I have some things I need to take care of physically and need to spend some time preparing for that type of procedure. I can’t do that and be on the field and figured I’d bow out while I can, take care of some things physically and help them anyway I can.”
Julian said the opening will be posted after Christmas break in early January. The Indians are coming off a 5-6 season and had nine seniors on the 34-man roster. The future looks promising with numerous underclassmen producing at a high level in their first year of varsity football.