Brush head coach Reid Kahl chats with his assistants during football practice. (Photo courtesy of Scott Hodgson/Brush High School)
Reid Kahl is no stranger to defending state championships. Kahl was able to secure Class 4A titles in 2006 and 2008 while he was the head coach at Wheat Ridge.
Now he has the task of defending a 2A championship. Only, unlike those at Wheat Ridge, this is not a state championship that he won. This offseason, Kahl was hired by Brush to take over for Randy Dreitz. Dreitz left the team in March after leading the Beetdiggers to the 2A state championship.
“After the season was over last year, everybody pretty much knew that Randy was going to retire,” Kahl said. “I didn’t think much about it until later in the spring when the job opened up. I had a lot of people from the community reach out to me and show a lot of interest in me doing it.”
The start of Brush’s title defense is a more interesting story for Kahl himself rather than the team. The Beetdiggers kick their season off by traveling to Fort Morgan on Sept. 4. Kahl was a standout football player for the Mustangs, who happen to be the Beetdiggers’ rivals.
“I’m going to be completely honest with you, and I’m not just saying this, it’s been a much bigger deal for everyone else than it has been for me,” Kahl said. “It’s been since 2001, which was my last season in Fort Morgan.”
Karl left the Farmers after the 2013 season and took last year off before taking the job at Brush. It was a summer of turnover at the school as a new principal and athletic director were named at the same meeting.
To echo the sentiment of Kahl, it was really the community support that brought his name into the coaching search since there wasn’t an athletic director to include him in it.
“None of us that hired Reid were here,” said athletic director Scott Hodgson, who is also in his first year at the school after coming over from Holly. “Once we found out that was the choice, we were really happy. He’s had great success everywhere he’s been.”
Karl comes in this season with the task of defending a state championship that he was not a part of. The Beetdiggers also lost a big senior class, including 2A player of the year Kyle Rosenbrock.
Fair or not, this young Brush team comes into the season, not only with a new coach, but also with a target on its back.
“It’s a different situation and it’s not an easy situation,” Kahl said. “They graduated a ton of seniors last year and I have a really inexperienced team. We all know that there’s a big target on our back and I talked to the kids about it when I first met with them.”
But that won’t matter to the teams on the opposite sideline. They’ll only see “Brush” on the jerseys and they’ll know that was the last team to walk away as state champions.
Besides, Brush opened up as preseason No. 1 in 2A on Monday.
Karl knows the expectations are high and that he is walking into a program that will expect him to win. His track record at Wheat Ridge indicates that he can find success. His plan is to just run the systems that he’s comfortable running and hope that it translates into wins for the Beetdiggers.
“I’ve installed a lot of the same offense that I run wherever I’m (coaching),” Kahl said. “We spent a lot time on it over the summer and the kids have done a nice job picking it up.”
He gets his chance to see just how well they’ve picked it up when Brush travels to Fort Morgan on Sept. 4. Kahl has plenty of good memories from when he was with the Mustangs but knows once the ball kicked-off, it’s time to focus on his job as the coach of the Beetdiggers.
“After 26 years of coaching, it’s not like I was there yesterday,” Kahl said. “I think it seems to be a big to people on the outside and not so much for me.”
Small-school football preview
Defending champions:
- 2A: Brush
- 1A: Paonia
- 8-man: Caliche
- 6-man: Arickaree/Woodlin
- 2A: Cole Bryant (Sr.) La Junta, Connor Dooley (Sr.) Kent Denver, Anthony Ibarra (Sr.) Platte Valley, Parker Joens (Sr.) Platte Valley, Brett Loyd, (Sr.) Moffat County, Mitchell Martin, (Sr.) Strasburg, Will McKissick (Sr.) Kent Denver, Ty Percival (Sr.) Gunnison, Victor Perez (Sr.) Montezuma-Cortez, Zane Phelps (Sr.) Bayfield, Carl Schmidt (Sr.) Kent Denver, Clay Shaver (Sr.) Brush, Joao Thives (Sr.) Denver North, Brady Wilson (Sr.) Gunnison, Luke Wilson (Sr.) Kent Denver, Zeke Zuelke (Sr.) Bennett
- 1A: Beau Beckman (Sr.) Wray, Hank Bode (Sr.) Platte Canyon, Bryce Buhr (Sr.) Crowley County, Devin Christian (Sr.) Limon, Luke Cross (Sr.) Resurrection Christian, Sabyn Diamond (Sr.) Buena Vista, Austin Dinis (Sr.) Wiggins, Cooper Eggleston (Sr.) Buena Vista, Jayden Hilferty (Sr.) Limon, TJ Shelton (Sr.) Meeker, Taylor Walters (Sr.) Paonia, Cooper Ward (Sr.) Resurrection Christian, Trey Zupancic (Sr.) Rye
- 8-man: Alex Davis (Sr.) Vail Christian, Spencer Gatlin (Sr.) Dove Creek, Jason George (Sr.) Simla, Rafe Hutches (Sr.) Springfield, Tre Jensen (Sr.) Granada, Anthony Payne (Jr.) Hoehne, Mitch Sides (Sr.) Dayspring Schristian Academy, Bruce Taylor (Sr.) Caliche, Matt Thieman (Sr.) Simla, Joey Younkerman (Sr.) Sargent
- 6-man: Jaxon Crawford (Jr.) Kit Carson, Dylan Dixon (Sr.) Eads, Luke Duggan (Sr.) Pawnee, Caine Farmer (Sr.) Kit Carson, Chase Flynn (Jr.) Stratton/Liberty, Tristan Headrick (Sr.) Cheraw, Ben Lambrecht (Sr.) Fleming, Reagan Lane (Sr.) Eads, Trent Leoffler (Sr.) Arickaree/Woodlin, Jordan Nelson (Sr.) Peetz, Tanner Patterson (Jr.) Otis, Marco Solis (Sr.) Kit Carson, Joesph Stahley (Sr.) Fleming, Alex Vandenbark (Jr.) Fleming, Cody Wilson (Jr.) Peetz
Regular season begins: Sept. 3
Postseason begins: Nov. 7
State championship: Nov. 21 (6-man), Nov. 28 (8-man, 1A and 2A)