Findlay High football coaches: A short history

Findlay High begins its 123rd year of football when Stefan Adams leads the Trojans onto the Donnell Stadium turf for their Aug. 20 opener with Perrysburg. Adams is the 36th head coach if FHS football history, and the program's third in three years. Mark Ritzler stepped down in 2019 after amassing a school-record 74 career wins. Matt Pees replaced him last season, but could not pass up the opportunity to rejoin his father Dean when the elder Pees was tabbed to be the defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons. In the early years of Findlay football, coaches rarely stayed on more than a season or two. Others couldn't stay away, with Fred Ross coaching the team from 1905 through 1907, again in 1910 and 1911, and coming back for yet a third stint as head coach in 1917 and 1918. Though not a continuous career, Ross did win 39 games and is tied with Hal Paul for the fourth most career wins on the FHS all-time coaching list. Here's a rundown of the coaches throughout out FHS history, ranked historically: COACH YEARS RECORD Matt Pees 2020 3-2Mark Ritzler 2006-2019 74-68Cliff Hite 1996-2005 68-40Jim Caserta 1990-1995 23-37Jerry Buti 1989 6-4Dick Cromwell 1985-1988 17-23Dan Evans 1983-1984 13-8Bill Jones 1973-1982 64-36-1Bob Bockrath 1968-1972 21-29Hal Paul 1960-1967 39-33-8Neil Schmidt 1955-1959 16-17-1Bob Harter 1953-54 4-13-1Howard Yawberg 1945-1952 33-38-2Carl Bachman 1942-1944 14-11-2Walter 'Pinky' Wilson 1938-1941 32-12-1Harold Dierenfield 1935-19-36 8-7-3J.J. Winters 1931-1934 24-11-3Robert Knode 1928-1930 22-9-2Wilbur Scantlebury 1926-1927 11-10Jim Aiken 1924-1925 13-3-3Bob Fletcher 1921-1923 22-7Fremont Shull 1920 3-7George Crane 1919 2-4-1L.M. Harper 1919 1-0Fred Ross 1917-1918 12-1-2Dwight Ginn 1916 2-5Dean Richmond 1914-1915 12-3-1Ben Barton 1913 2-3Fred Ross 1910-1911 9-3H.R. Vaughn 1908-1909 7-6-2Fred Ross 1905-1907 18-8John Kwis 1904 5-0-1William Sweet 1903 1-4Harold Hamnett 1902 4-3William R.R. Rhoades 1900-1901 11-2-1Carl Zeller 1899 4-1Tom Priddy 1898 0-1 NOTES: Findlay did not field a high school team in 1912