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FRANKFORT — Adena didn’t have to look very far to find its next football coach. Truthfully, it just had to turn back time a bit.
22 years after stepping down from the helm of the program to become Adena’s long time athletic director, Scott Hurtt is returning for his second tenure as the Warriors’ football coach.
“I got back into coaching a couple years ago after being the AD at Adena for so long. I felt that spark come back and this situation felt as good as any to come back,” Hurtt said. “This stage of life for me is very different since my boys aren’t playing anymore. But Ethan is going to be one of my assistant coaches as well. I don’t know how long I’ve got, but I feel good and I’m going to go hard until I can’t anymore.”
Hurtt takes over the program following the resignation of Doug Miller after one season. The Warriors were 2-8 last season.
He will be Adena’s fifth football coach in the last five seasons. The Warriors have gone 17-23 in those five years — eight of those wins coming in the shortened 2020 COVID season.
“These kids have been put through the ringer a little bit with so many coaching changes and styles they’ve dealt with for the past four years,” Hurtt said. “Being from the community, I know what everyone expects. I graduated from here, and every coach on the staff also graduated from here, so there’s a mutual understanding of what needs to happen. There’s still people from the 60’s and 70’s who regularly show up on Friday nights, so there’s a standard we have to get back to.”
If you go back that far, Adena always prided itself on running the football, being physical in the trenches and wearing teams down for 48 straight minutes.
While that trend will certainly continue in Hurtt’s system, there’s also new wrinkles he’ll put in to give the Warriors the best chance of winning.
“At the end of the day, we have to play to the kids’ strengths and figure out what they do best. It’s trial and error, but things have been pretty smooth since I took over,” Hurtt said. “We’ve had good numbers at camp and great numbers in the weight room, and that’s been a welcome sight. We’re excited to finally get on the field and see how everything comes together.”
Adena opens its season on Aug. 23 in Frankfort, hosting McClain — a program that Hurtt is more than familiar with.
“Ethan teaches at Greenfield and we both were on the coaching staff for the last two years there, so that will certainly be very interesting,” Hurtt said. “There’s a lot of history between the two programs that dates back to the 70’s, and we know those kids really well. That game begins the journey and we’ll see how we fare this season.”
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