WEOL Insider: The Staudt Era Begins at Brookside

Back in February, Bobby Staudt was named the next Head Football Coach at Brookside. Staudt is a 2017 graduate of Green High School. He has experience coaching at his alma mater, as well as Jackson and Ravenna Southeast. At Brookside, he inherits a program that has won just five games in the last two seasons and is chasing its first conference championship in over six decades. "I think the number one most important thing when you're at a program that for whatever reason hasn't had the success it would have liked in the past is to instill belief and to get the team to believe that we can win," Staudt said on July 30 at WEOL Media Day. "I think the team overall has a belief that we can fix this." Since he's been on the job, in addition to building a repertoire with his players and teaching new systems, Staudt has been trying to identify the reasons the program has not been as successful. "I think that my job right now is to identify what the causes are, why this program hasn't necessarily reached the ceiling, really, not just in recent years, but ever. So, obviously my job is to try to identify that and there have been a few things that I think I've identified that it's on me to figure out how to fix it. and kind of go from there." Staudt will look to dip into the success of Larry Babic's boys basketball program as several of his football athletes have had success on the hardwood, winning Lorain County league championships. "I think we definitely have some guys that have been in basketball, been in the basketball program that have had success. I think that can carry over a little bit," Staudt said. "Obviously, not every player on our team is a basketball player, so I think there's still got to be an element of, we have to perform on the football team until we kind of convince everyone that we can kind of turn this around. But I think once we kind of do that for a year and once we kind of get this fixed, I think it can snowball, not just for our team, but also in the community and the youth program. It builds some excitement and wants people to be a part of our football program, that maybe we don't get right now just because of whatever reason, how the program has been in the past." 6-5 basketball standout Mason Waechter is back to run the offense for the Cardinals. Along with receiver Colton Casey and Alex Arra, Staudt will have weapons to work with. "I think we've got some guys that can make some plays in the pass game, and I think we've got the guys to be able to run the football as well," Staudt said. "So we don't want to be one dimensional, either one way or the other. We want to be able to take what the defense gives us, and if that means running the ball a lot on a given night, then that's what it's going to be, and if it takes it, we're going to have to throw it a bunch, then that may be what it has to be certain nights as well. "So we want to be balanced, be able to run and pass both." With scrimmages upcoming with Bay and Vermilion, Staudt knows his team will learn a lot about itself in the preseason, and will not be a finished product week one when they visit University School. Staudt is excited about his group, the talent he and his staff have and is looking forward to his first year as a Head Coach. "If I didn't feel we had talent, enough talent to win, then I probably wouldn't be here right now. Now I would say that in high school, talent isn't always the number one determining factor of winning. In youth it's the most important, in middle school it's the most important. When you get to high school, the team that's the most prepared and approaches the game the correct way is usually the team that comes out with the win on Friday night. We got some guys that can play, but we also know that's not the number one determining factor on how our season will go." "We have just to have a sense of urgency every rep, every drill in practice, every day in practice and make sure we're not wasting a day and make sure that every person, everyday is getting better and if we do that then I'm going to like where we're at week one."