MIDDLEBURG – The newly launched Midd-West varsity football program has its new head coach…but not without the program’s first controversy. During Monday’s public meeting, the Midd-West School Board unanimously approved Brad Hatter as its first varsity football head coach.
Midd-West Superintendent Rick Musselman says Hatter’s good character was a key quality they were looking for, “We saw a lot of our questions dealing with how you build character in some of the young men you’re going to be coaching, or females if they decide to come out. But we looked at some of those issues when we were talking with some of our applicants, and we felt he was going to provide that for us.”
But some other people associated with the program have concerns about Hatter, specifically his losing record of 22-32 in five seasons at Millersburg that included an 0-10 season.
Some were also concerned about apparent “internal issues” within Millersburg’s program at the time. Musselman says you can’t judge a coach based on one bad season, “One of the things he talked about was some of the real struggles he had in that season. We’re not chalking that up to bad coaching or anything else. It was something that happened. There were some internal issues that happened. In looking at his whole record in his five years, he had some successful years, and he had some non-successful years.”
A stipend for Hatter will be determined at a later date. It was also announced the assistant coach positions will be posted soon.
