Noel Rash steps down as Beechwood head football coach

The Beechwood High School football program, three-time defending Class 2A state champions and third in KHSAA history with 17 state titles, will go for more championships with a new head coach.

Noel Rash met with the football team Monday morning to announce that he will be retiring, effective immediately, as head coach of the program. Rash plans to continue on as a social studies teacher at Beechwood.

In 17 years at the helm in Fort Mitchell, Rash won 200 games and eight state championships, including the current three-peat in Class 2A from 2020-22.

Rash is stepping down due to the ideal timing in his career and for health reasons.

“I want everyone to know that nothing is drastically wrong with me health-wise,” Rash said in a press release. “But the time and stress involved in coaching football can take its toll and I want to make wellness a priority in this next phase of my life.”

Rash joined the program as an assistant coach in 2000, took over as head coach in 2006 and took the championship pedigree that predecessors Bernie Barre and Mike Yeagle established in Fort Mitchell to new heights.

In the release, school administrators praised Rash for placing a premium on developing young men and using football as a vehicle to instill life lessons that his players still implement well into adulthood.

“I am just overwhelmed with gratitude because Beechwood means so very much to me and my family. I love it here,” said Rash. “To everyone who has been associated with and supported our program, thank you. And especially to the wonderful players I’ve coached - you all are amazing.  We created great memories on the field. But watching the impact you’ve had long after leaving Beechwood is the true measurement of our success together.”

“Coach Rash galvanized an entire community to rally around a special group of young people every fall during football season,” said Justin Kaiser, a 1998 Beechwood graduate and the current principal of Beechwood High School, in the release. “Beechwood football is more than a program or individual, it is a culture of commitment, sacrifice, and brotherhood that Coach Rash inherited and enhanced in his time here. Combine that with an incredibly successful run as head coach, for mentoring our student-athletes the right way, and for representing Beechwood in a first-class manner on and off the field - you have a coach that ventures into legendary status. Coach has solidified that legendary status over the past 20 years.”

The school will have a press conference at 4 p.m. Monday.

Several current and former Beechwood players tweeted congratulations to Rash on Monday.

Luke Slusher, a 2022 graduate playing for Western Kentucky: "Greatest coach to ever come in and play for. Thank you for everything coach. Won't ever forget everything you’ve done for me."

Landon Johnson, a senior on this year's team: "The best coach I’ve ever had. Thank you for everything you did for me, I would run through a brick wall for you, love you coach."

Aiden Justice, a 2017 graduate: "One of the best to ever do it. Taught me so much more than just the game of football."

Xavier Campbell, returning standout on both lines: "Enjoy it coach, thank you for everything you have done & taught me. Love you coach."

Kaiser said Rash and his staff leaves the program in great shape, with a pipeline of talented and hard-working players coming through the ranks. “Although you can never replace the person, we must fill the position,” Kaiser said.

Coach Rash departs with nothing but fond memories of his time on the sidelines in Fort Mitchell.

“There is nowhere quite like Beechwood,” he said. “The Friday nights are special, and so too is the community support of everything that goes on at school, both academically and with extracurricular activities. I am so humbled to have been part of such a special place. Beechwood is my home and without these players and families, we don’t accomplish any of this.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Noel Rash steps down as Beechwood head football coach