The city of Lorain officially began its sports restructuring Tuesday afternoon with the announce­ment that Todd Auvil will be the first head football coach at the consolidated high school next year.

Auvil was the coach of the Southview program and Mike Akers was the coach at Admiral King. They were the two finalists for the job.

“It was an extremely difficult deci­sion as both Todd and Mike have positioned both programs to have success both next year and into the future,” Lorain Schools athletic direc­tor Bryan Koury said. “The ultimate goal moving forward is for the new coaching staff to meet with the ath­letes from both schools in an effort to create a smooth transition.”

Although both candidates said Koury didn’t list his reasons for pick­ing Auvil for the job, the new coach believes his history with the schools and city probably weighed heavily.

“I’ve been a football coach at Admi­ral King three different times,” said Auvil, who teaches at Southview. “I was there with Terry King a year after the consolidation (of Admiral King and Lorain High in 1995), I was there with Bill Jones and I was there with Mark (Campo). The last time (I was there), the kids that are seniors now were freshmen. So I still have a rela­tionship with some of the families and some of the kids.

“Maybe just being a Lorain guy might have come into play, too.”

Akers also has ties to the city. He was also part of the 1995 Admiral King staff, coached at Southview for four years and has taught in the school dis­trict for 20 years, and plans to con­tinue teaching at the new high school. “I had head-coaching experience from before, and a pretty good record,” Akers said. “So I don’t know why they chose Todd and not me. Record-wise, mine was better.

“But that was their choice, and Bryan didn’t tell me why. He just said that’s the way he chose to go.”

Akers won’t stay with the new pro­gram, and plans to coach elsewhere next season. He said he’s not upset with the decision, yet he wishes he had more time to prove himself.

“I just didn’t think I had a real chance to do anything,” Akers said. “I wasn’t there long enough to make an impact. I wouldn’t really call seven months an opportunity.”

Akers was excited about what his for­mer team is bringing back. He said he had 16 returning starters, and Auvil will have a deep pool of talent to shape a team.

“I’m excited, I really am,” Auvil said. “One of the things we were always lacking at Southview was those big offensive and defensive linemen. So when this whole thing started, I started picking my brain about which kids from each team might fit in where in the new lineup.”

The coaching announcement is just one of many Koury will be making over the next few months. According to atten­dance numbers on the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Web site, the con­solidated Lorain high school will become the second biggest in the state behind Fairfield in Butler County.

Koury said his search for coaches in each sport will be extensive because of the potential the new teams will have.

“We’re working through the fall sports one position at a time,” said Koury, who listed volleyball as the next sport that should have a coaching hire. “I don’t want to create any drop-dead timeline because I need to do my due diligence in each sit­uation. I will go from one sport at a time, and the sports that I’ll have to finalize first are the ones that have bargaining mem­bers that express interest.”

Koury and the coaches will be working without a school name, nickname, mas­cot or colors for the time being.

Auvil said it won’t matter because he and his staff will immediately have to start working on taking two sets of players and making them into one team. He plans on having players from each school lift in the opposite school’s weight room, and having meetings with players and parents from both schools.

“We’re going to stress that it’s Lorain football,” Auvil said. “We may not have colors and we may not have a mascot — we don’t care. All we know is that for the first time since 1961, we’re going to have one city team. I know those kids have gear that say ‘King’ or say ‘Southview’, but one of my first goals is they’re going to get ‘Lorain Football’ T-shirts and ‘Lorain Football’ shorts to work out in.

“I love Lorain High … I played there and I was loyal. It’s the same thing for (players from) Admiral King and Southview, but right now we have to let that go and take on the task at hand, which is Lorain football.”

Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

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