BRET PEARCE FILE
13: Seasons at Milton-Union head football coach.
77-63: Career record with Bulldogs.
6: Playoff teams.
11-2: Best season in 2006.
10-3: Record this season.
Bret Pearce didn’t quite grasp why high school football coaches would leave their passion. He does now.
“I’ve always heard coaches in the past say that they’re quitting to spend more time with their family,” he said after resigning as the head football coach at Milton-Union.
“That always seemed like a cop-out until I actually got to that position myself. Now I realize why so many people before me have said it.”
Pearce said that he will remain as a science teacher at the West Milton high school.
A Mansfield (St. Peters High School) native, Pearce was the Bulldogs’ head coach for the last 13 mostly successful years following six seasons as an assistant at West Carrollton. He compiled a 77-63 overall record and six of his teams qualified for the playoffs.
Pearce’s arrival at Milton — he succeeded current Wayne assistant Rip Engle — coincided with an expansion of teams that qualified for the playoffs. Following a couple of 1-9 years, the Bulldogs had their first playoff team in program history in 2002.
Milton’s last two teams also went to the playoffs. The Bulldogs (10-3) were eliminated by unbeaten Clinton-Massie 35-7 in last Friday’s Division IV, Region 16 final. Milton shared the regular-season Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye title with Carlisle, both at 5-1.
The 2006 and ’07 Milton teams lost just two games each.
Pearce said that team players took it hard but understood his reasons for leaving the program. “There were a lot of hugs afterward,” he said.
Milton-Union athletic director Tom Koogler wouldn’t comment until after the upcoming football banquet. Pearce is the first to announce his resignation from a SWBL team. Dixie (Sam Watson), Preble Shawnee (Matt Hopkins) and Valley View (Kris Ketron) all had new coaches this season.
Pearce also said that he wasn’t maneuvering for a position at another school.
“For right now, I’m done with football,” he said.
“Every coach wants to think that they’re going to leave the situation better than when they got there. I hope we’ve done that. I think we’ve gone from just a football team to a program that can sustain itself and that’s going to have a lot of success not just with us but in the future.”
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