West Carrollton fifth GWOC program to lose football coach

Derek Hauk, the youngest of the 20 Greater Western Ohio Conference head football coaches, has resigned after two seasons as the West Carrollton High School coach.

A West Carrollton alum, he’s at least the fifth GWOC head football coach to resign following this past season. None of the positions has been filled.

It also continues a trend. Since 2016 to the start of next season, there will have been 14 head coaching changes among current or former GWOC teams.

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Hauk, 30, cited a familiar theme as the main reason for relinquishing a passion for Pirates football.

“This is the window my wife and I are going to be having kids,” said Hauk, who became a father during Week 7 last season. “The head coaching aspects of things, it just is not conducive for being a family man and a father. I don’t want to miss out on those things.”

West Carrollton, 2-8 last season, has not had a winning season since the 2009 team was 8-3 and qualified for the Division II playoffs as an independent. Since joining the GWOC starting the 2012 season, the Pirates haven’t had a winning team and have won just nine total games in seven seasons.

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Hauk has coached football at West Carrollton for 10 years and before that was an assistant at Stebbins. He succeeded Doug Hatcher as the Pirates’ coach head.

Featuring 6-foot-6 senior quarterback Tristan Dillon, West Carrollton snapped a six-game losing streak by defeating winless Stebbins 21-20 in season finale. West Carrollton lost two other one-point games following two-point conversions.

Dillon (1,973 yards and 18 touchdowns) ranked second to Miles Johnson of Northmont in GWOC passing. Dillon and Fairmont senior running back Jesse Deglow played in the recent Blue-Grey All-American Bowl at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium.

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“We were able to do some things and compete,” said Hauk, a senior starter on West Carrollton’s 2005 team that qualified for the playoffs for the first time under then-coach Bob Brigati and won a Mid-Miami League divisional title, the Pirates’ first in 22 years. “I think people started watching our film again. I think teams thought, if we overlook them, they can beat us.”

West Carrollton will leave the GWOC American South with nine current GWOC teams to form a revised Miami Valley League beginning next season. Joining West Carrollton in the MVL are all the current GWOC American North teams (Butler, Greenville, Piqua, Sidney, Tippecanoe and Troy) and all but Trotwood-Madison of the GWOC American South (Fairborn, Stebbins and Xenia).

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Other GWOC coaches to resign since last season are Chris Roark (Fairborn), Aaron Shaffer (Greenville), Steve Channell (Miamisburg) and Joel Derge (Tippecanoe).

Hauk hopes to coach football again, just not as a head coach.

“Two years of being a head coach, and especially here, has been exhausting,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into it and if we wanted to be successful, we needed to get our numbers up and we needed to address the culture aspect. Culture has to be the No. 1 concern for whoever takes over.”

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