New coach Robert Nickol, senior Stuart Klein look to change Revere's football fortunes

Stuart Klein has had a bit of a whirlwind high school football career.

A Revere senior captain, Klein has had to deal with more coaching changes than many NFL players do in four years.

"This is going to be my fourth head coach and my fifth coaching staff," Klein said.

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That said, Klein said he believes the new man in charge will be with the Minutemen long term.

Robert Nickol took over the program at Revere from Robb Karovic, who resigned after the 2021 season. Nickol arrives after serving as coach the past four years at St. Vincent-St. Mary.

Nickol knows his first job is to stop the coaching carousel in Richfield. He is committed to doing so, as he's also set to teach social studies at Revere after teaching in the Barberton district for years.

"Getting into the building was very important," Nickol said. "Not being there was killing me at St. V."

This season will be full of good-news, bad-news situations for the Minutemen's coach and captain.

In part because of all the turnover, Revere hasn't managed a winning season since 2018. Both Klein and Nickol acknowledged turning that around is likely to be a multi-level process.

The attitude of both seems to be, "Bring it on."

"He's told us that our senior class is going to be the one to lay the foundation for what's to come at Revere," Klein said. "The last four years, there's just been so many changes. We've got to lay the groundwork for the future."

"It's always going to take time," Nickol said. "Here will be a chance for these guys to start something new. It's not going to be an easy season, but what they do will be important moving forward."

Having seen the effects of constant change, Klein is anxious for Nickol to get his system in place, including a 4-2-5 defensive formation.

A middle linebacker, Klein sounds hopeful that future Minutemen will have experiences like other programs in the Suburban League American Conference.

"When you look at other schools in our conference, their kids are running their high school offenses in youth football," Klein said. "I've had to learn four different offenses in four years."

To get his system in place, Nickol said the biggest thing for Revere is to get more players into the program.

That could be difficult in 2022, but the future does offer some hope.

"We've only got 30 varsity players on the team this year," Nickol said. "It's awesome to see the younger kids coming out. We've got 105 kids in grades seven through nine."

Having worked as Barberton's offensive coordinator prior to his time at STVM, Nickol said he was happy to be back in the Suburban League.

However, both he and Klein realize the competition level in the American Conference will make rebuilding the Minutemen that much more difficult.

"The Suburban League is always tough," Klein said. "It just puts a lot of pressure on the guys we have to get it done. We have 30 guys varsity and we know teams like Aurora and Highland will have double that."

"I'm very familiar with what the league is made of," Nickol said. "We've got to get the kids out for football. We know this is going to be a three- or four-year plan. I'm lucky enough to have a great group of seniors who will help start this process."

Nickol said Klein will be the rock of this rebuilding program.

"He's the ultimate leader," Nickol said of Klein. "When we started here with our weight room program he was only guy that never missed a day. His work ethic is a big example. He's not a talker on the field, but he's got a high football IQ. He really has refreshed the attitude in the program."

For his part, Klein gave his new coach a full endorsement.

"It's really great that he's in the building," Klein said of Nickol. "That's something we didn't always have the last few years. It just shows that he really wants to be here and work with us."

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New coach Robert Nickol brings new attitude to Revere football