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Perrysburg coach Matt Kregel led the Yellow Jackets to a 10-0 regular season and the NLL title.
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Kregel establishes toughness

THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCH

Kregel establishes toughness

Guides Perrysburg to No. 1 state ranking, regional semifinal

As Perrysburg yearned to join the upper echelon of high school football in northwest Ohio, the Yellow Jackets needed a coach like Matt Kregel.

He was an assistant in 2001 and became head coach in 2006. Since that time, the program has been on a steady climb to excellence.

Kregel has posted a 70-26 record overall, including 48-15 in Northern Lakes League play with three league championships, and has guided the Jackets to all four of their playoff appearances.

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“Everybody has a different personality, and I think they needed my personality,” Kregel said. “A guy who could have a sense of humor and could make it fun for the kids. Yet when I got them on the football field or in the weight room, I could really hammer them and keep them on my side.

“You don’t want kids turning against you. As hard as we’ve worked our guys, it takes a special type of kid to go through that.”

For his role in guiding Perrysburg to its second straight NLL title, third consecutive playoff appearance, and a No. 1 ranking in the final Division II state poll, Kregel is The Blade’s 2014 coach of the year.

Other candidates were Port Clinton’s Beau Carmon, Central Catholic’s Greg Dempsey, Bowling Green’s Scott Seeliger, Eastwood’s Jerry Rutherford, Wauseon’s Travis Cooper, and Liberty-Benton’s Tim Nichols.

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“We’ve had a great run of kids, and we’ve had our system in place long enough that our kids know what’s required,” Kregel said. “They know on June 1 we’re going to start hammering them with workouts. Then two-a-days are going to be extremely difficult.”

As the climb continued, Kregel believes Perrysburg took another big step in its growth process a few years back when it added Whitmer and Central Catholic to its nonleague schedule. The Jackets defeated the Panthers 48-24 and the Irish 35-28.

The Yellow Jackets were led by Division II district offensive player of the year Gus Dimmerling (quarterback) and district defensive player of the year Chaz Westfall (linebacker). They were the area’s top team from the start of the season to their disappointing exit in the second round of the playoffs, losing 56-52 to Macedonia Nordonia.

“It’s forced our kids to work at that level,” Kregel said. “Over the last three years, our kids playing that schedule has forced them to step up another notch. It got them believing they could be one of the better teams in the state of Ohio.”

Kregel, 45, was born into a football family and was toughened by a childhood family tragedy. Along with some natural ability and the skills he honed through hard work, this coach’s son grew up loving the game.

He became a standout player and twice earned All-City League and Division I all-district first-team honors as a guard at Central Catholic (1987 graduate), then played at Bowling Green (1987-91) under coaches Moe Ankney and Gray Blackney, including three seasons as a starting offensive tackle.

In 1992 he earned his education degree, then began his teaching career in Toledo Public Schools. After an ill-fated 0-10 first season as a head coach at Bowsher in 2000, Kregel arrived at Perrysburg.

“It’s what my dad did, and as a young kid, I loved going to football practice, hanging out during two-a-days, and being around the players,” Kregel said of teaching and coaching. “My dad always seemed to enjoy his profession.”

His father, Dave Kregel, a Woodward standout, played at the University of Toledo in the early 1960s. He coached Bowsher to Shoe Bowls (City League championship games) in 1978 and ’79, winning the latter year.

That was not long after Dave’s younger brother, Jim Kregel, played for Woody Hayes at Ohio State during the glory days of Archie Griffin, Pete Johnson, and Cornelius Greene in the mid-1970s.

But life for Dave and Matt and the rest of the Kregel family would never be the same shortly after that Shoe Bowl victory in 1979. Matt, then 10, had an older brother, Jeff, who died after developing a brain tumor at age 13.

“He had flu-like symptoms for about a week,” Matt recalled. “They found out he had a brain tumor on a Friday, and he died that Saturday.

“You grow up fast when you’re a 10-year-old kid and something like that happens. You’re forced to be a man before most people are ready to. Obviously, that probably instilled some toughness in the way that I normally do things now.

“My dad coached one more year at Bowsher. But he just didn’t have the drive or the energy to do it after that. He retired after the 1980 season. When things get tough in football, I tell the kids, ‘This isn’t tough. I can tell you about tough if you want to listen.’ ”

It was the opinion of some, before Kregel’s arrival, that Perrysburg’s football program lacked toughness.

“For years, that was the biggest knock against Perrysburg,” Kregel said. “When I told my dad I was thinking of taking the head coaching job here, he told me, ‘You don’t have enough tough kids there, and you’re not going to win games without tough kids.’

“It was one of those things where I felt I had to take a shot at it and try to do it my way. But I give a lot of credit to the kids. They took my system and my way of doing things, and they developed toughness over the years.”

Toughness is no longer an issue at Perrysburg.

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com, 419-724-6461, or on Twitter@JungaBlade.

First Published November 27, 2014, 5:00 a.m.

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Perrysburg coach Matt Kregel led the Yellow Jackets to a 10-0 regular season and the NLL title.  (THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCH)  Buy Image
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