CIRCLEVILLE — Circleville officially has a new head football coach after a vote at Wednesday’s board of education meeting approved the hiring of Jay Sharrett to assume leadership of the program.
A 1984 Circleville graduate, Sharrett brings a long history of success on the gridiron with him to lead a new group of Tigers.
Sharrett spent 20 seasons as the head coach of the Pickerington Central Tigers until his retirement two years ago.
He and his wife, Lynda, were enjoying that retirement when longtime friend and current CHS principal Greg Lahr called to see if he might be interested in coaching again.
“My wife and I, we did a lot of traveling, and did things we’ve never been able to do, at least for 35 years,” Sharrett said. “We’ve got a lot of former players, obviously, playing in college and some in the NFL. We’ve got former players who are coaching and that’s kind of fun, too.
“Five or six weeks ago I was sitting out there getting ready to pick her up from work and Greg Lahr … he asked me how I liked retirement, and I said I like it a lot and I’m pretty good at it, too.
“But I kind of had a feeling I would coach again. The timing was right, and my wife is like, ‘Jay, let’s do this’ and here we are.”
During his tenure at the helm for Pickerington, his teams went 211-42, won 17 league titles and made 19 trips to the state playoffs.
Of his 211 wins, two resulted in the 2017 and 2019 state championships.
He returns to his alma mater to see if he can bring some of that success to these Tigers who haven’t had a winning season since 2015.
“When (Lahr) called me, Lynda and I talked about it,” Sharrett said. “Circleville holds a special place for me. It was great when I lived here in the ’80s and I was blessed with a bunch of really good, dedicated coaches. And if I can come back and do that same type of thing, I hope I can.”
He’ll meet the players, parents and community members for the first time tonight.
Even though Sharrett has yet to meet the players, he feels he’s gotten to know something about them from the game film.
“I coach a very physical brand of football, and I’ve watched their films, and they’ve got some physical kids – I should say we’ve got some physical kids,” Sharrett said. “I think they enjoy that part of the game. And the way we will run our offense, our defense, our special teams – it’s going to be very physical.”
His first challenge is getting the kids excited about playing football for the Tigers.
“Football takes numbers – it’s the biggest sport in the school. I look forward to meeting these guys tomorrow and getting that relationship,” Sharrett said. “I haven’t met the team yet, haven’t met the guys. I’ve watched their game film and watched the TV versions of the game films over and over again to kind of get a feel for them. There are some good football players there.”
And he wants to encourage new students to join the team.
“I think we just open up the door, make them feel welcome and make them want to be a part of it,” Sharrett said. “Maybe there’s somebody who played as a freshman, didn’t come back out his sophomore year and now he’s thinking he’s going to come out for his junior year.”
With dedication from the returning players and newcomers, Sharrett is looking to turn around a Circleville program that has gone 18-69 over the last nine seasons.
“I feel like I can convey to them that they can block an extra point to win the game, you can tip a pass and make the interception, you can recover a fumble, you can have a long run, a long pass — there’s a hundred different ways you can win a game. I just want to be here and convince them that no matter how desperate the situation is, stick your cleats in the ground, play another down and see what happens,” Sharrett said.
Going back to his own days as a Circleville Tiger, Sharrett can point to how that keep fighting mentality in his final game saw him kick a fourth-quarter field goal to beat arch-rival Miami Trace.
“Our first step is going to be the off-season strength and conditioning,” he said. “I’m not saying we’ll win every game, but when a team is done playing us, they’re going to know that they played us. They’re going to be sore on Monday and if we’ve done that, then I think we’re heading in the right direction.
“That physical part of the game, I think they’re going to embrace that, and I think I can help bring that out in them.”
Sharrett will meet with current students in sixth through 11th grades at 5 p.m. tonight in the high school’s Alumni Room and then meet with parents and community members at 6 p.m. in the high school gym.