Football began for Kirk Heidelberg as a player at Woodward High School in the mid-1970s and literally took him around the world as a coach before he returned to his Toledo roots.
After an agonizing year away from the game, the 59-year-old will return to the sideline this fall as the new head coach at Waite.
“I’m very fortunate,” Heidelberg said of the opportunity. “I feel like it’s the best job in Toledo. It’s got great facilities and tradition, and the administration is good. [Previous coach] Dan Chipka did a really nice job laying a foundation, and I want to come in and do things to improve upon what’s been done.”
Heidelberg, a 1976 Woodward grad, played on the Polar Bears’ City League co-championship team in fall 1975, when they tied St. John’s 7-7 in the Shoe Bowl City League championship game.
He later attended and played football for Heidelberg College in Tiffin, and he finished his degree at Morehead State in Kentucky while working as an assistant there.
In 1981-82, he was an assistant at Whitmer, and he also spent time as a physical education teacher at Toledo Christian and as a football assistant at Perrysburg. He served as an assistant under Nick Saban and Gary Pinkel at the University of Toledo (1990-92).
By 1995, Heidelberg had taken a job as an assistant overseas for the Hamburg professional team in the German Football League.
He returned to the United States in 1996 and was an assistant at Tennessee State, Lehigh, and Kansas. He went back to Germany to coach for Hamburg and later Cologne, where he met German native Maria Mai. They were married 19 years ago.
Their son, Jason, now a 17-year-old junior at Southview, was born in Germany and is fluently bilingual. Jason played football for the Cougars last fall.
Kirk and the family came back to the United States again in 2006, and he was the athletic director and head football coach at Rockford (Ill.) Christian for five years (2006-11), posting a 40-14 record, and guiding the team to five playoff appearances.
Kirk, Maria, and Jason returned to Germany in 2012, then Kirk worked with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League in 2013. He resumed coaching in Cologne (2014-16), and the family moved to Sylvania last year.
Heidelberg has one goal in mind upon taking over the Indians program.
“Being a good mentor,” he said. “I just want to get them better, and get some of them to college.”
How did he wind up at Waite?
“I ran into another former Woodward player who said I ought to apply for the Waite job,” Heidelberg said. “I said, ‘No one’s going to hire me. Nobody knows me anymore.’ I had been coaching in Germany, and they had no idea what I had been doing.
“I had interviews at St. John’s and [Cardinal] Stritch, and it didn’t work out. But I ended up calling [Waite AD] Cristina Lorton, and she said, ‘It’s funny you called because today is the deadline.’
“I got my resume in, and about a week later they called me for an interview. I just connected with the committee and kind of poured out my heart.
“I went to Woodward, I grew up without a dad, and football has been really good to me. It has taken me all over the world. I’ve done clinics in Budapest, Hungary, and I remember thinking of the east side [of Toledo] when I was there.”
The Waite athletic committee liked what it heard and offered the football nomad his latest post in late February. He was approved by Toledo Public Schools in late April.
“I loved the experience and insight Kirk has,” Lorton said. “He connects life lessons through the sport of football, and will be a true asset to our east side students. He has coached with the best of the best, and I am sure he will bring that knowledge to our Waite athletes and the community.”
Heidelberg missed coaching last year.
“I love coaching football,” Heidelberg said. “It killed me last year going to my son’s games at Southview and I couldn’t coach. I just love the strategy and the competition, and I love working with kids.
“I’ve always said, ‘You play football, you don’t work football.’ We’re going to try to have fun, be disciplined, and be organized. For me, it’s a passion I have. I’m a football coach, and I’ve been wired that way for a long time.”
Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com, or 419-724-6461 or on Twitter @JungaBlade.
First Published May 6, 2017, 4:30 a.m.
