Hilliard Bradley: Jaguars make key additions to coaching staff
Hilliard Bradley needed three individuals to replace two coaches who announced their retirement during the spring sports season.
Brian Rawlins takes over the wrestling program for John Riggs, who coached the Jaguars in all 13 seasons since the program began as well as leading the programs at Darby and the original Hilliard High School.
Kyle Heinlen will lead the boys track and field team, and Dean Stewart is the new coach of the boys cross country team. Ben Gadfield had led both for eight seasons.
Also hired late in the school year was Mike Crosky, who replaces boys soccer coach Chad Snider after four seasons.
All four have been approved by the school board.
Rawlins, a former assistant athletics director at Bradley, coached middle school wrestling at Memorial the past two seasons under Brad Ruffener. The two will switch roles at Bradley, with Rawlins running the program and Ruffener assisting.
“The No. 1 goal is recruiting in the school,” said Rawlins, an English teacher at Bradley. “COVID crushed everything (in terms of participation), and wrestling is such a numbers game. We have been feeling it for a couple years, but we need to get the kids from middle school to come up and wrestle.”
Rawlins graduated in 1991 from Garfield Heights Trinity, where he competed in football, basketball, baseball and track. He graduated from Ohio State, received his master’s in education from Antioch McGregor and his principal’s license from American College.
“Brad and I already have a list of kids from seventh through 12th grades that Brad and I recruited in middle and high school,” Rawlins said. “We had 70-plus kids sign up when we were recruiting during finals week and we would like to have more. We have been mass emailing and personally calling kids trying to get them out.”
Heinlen had been an assistant to Gadfield in boys track for four seasons. The 2014 Davidson graduate earned degrees in math and math education at Miami University.
“I ran hurdles at Davidson, and sprinting is more of what I coach,” Heinlen said. “I’m really passionate about teaching kids what I love to do.
“Ben is a distance kind of guy, and I was an assistant in cross country to learn more about that. I knew that would make me a more well-rounded coach if I took over the (track) program.”
Heinlen’s wife, Kristina Heinlen, was hired as the new girls cross country coach, replacing Izzy Dawes after one season. Kristina was an assistant track coach for the Jaguars girls the past three seasons.
Stewart comes to Bradley after having success at Division III Anna over the last 37 years as boys and girls cross country coach, and he also coached boys track. The Rockets won state titles in boys cross country in 1994 and 1995 and were state runners-up in track in 2011.
After retiring from teaching, Stewart moved to Marysville and wanted to coach closer to his new home.
“I knew I wasn’t done coaching, and I wanted to coach in Division I,” said Stewart, who competed in Division I at Marion Harding. “Division I schools usually average 30 kids or more (for the roster) so that means I would have a better chance of filling the program if I wasn’t teaching at the school.”
Last fall was Crosky’s only season leading the London boys soccer team, which finished 4-12-1.
A 2002 Grandview graduate, Crosky was an assistant for the Liberty girls program before going to the Red Raiders.
“For me it was about getting into a great district like Hilliard, and I live in Galloway, so it’s also close,” said Crosky, who is a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness. “We have hired a good staff and have a great group of athletes. We’re going to work on being one of the best in a really tough conference. We want to battle the best teams in the area and show what we can do.”
The Jaguars finished 6-9-2 overall and 2-2-1 in the OCC-Central Division last fall.
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