WESTFIELD TWP. — On the same day state auditor Dave Yost announced the Cloverleaf Local School District is in fiscal emergency, the Colts lost their football coach.

Doug Haas was named head man at Wooster, ending a three-year run at Cloverleaf.

Doug Haas

The 40-year-old Wooster resident was selected over seven other finalists. The list included notable names such as former NFL kicker Tim Seder, former Rittman coach Brett Besancon, Massillon defensive coordinator Luke Durbin and former Shelby coach Chris Solis.

“As I told the kids (Tuesday), I slept about six hours the past 48 hours dreading this talk,” Haas said. “I loved the kids at Cloverleaf. I have such great friendships and it made it really, really hard.”

While the local ties were the main reason behind Haas’ decision, he admitted Cloverleaf’s finanicial situation was too desperate to ignore.

“There’s some uncertainly, so that was a factor for sure,” said Haas, who will be added to the Wooster teaching staff at a position yet to be determined. “The fear of the unknown scares me. We all as a faculty got some assurances we would be safe for a year, but who knows exactly what’s going to happen a year from now.”

Haas’ connections to Wayne County are well documented. After beginning his coaching career as an assistant for the College of Wooster, he led Triway and Rittman to the playoffs before coming to Cloverleaf, where he compiled a 14-16 record.

Adding to the fluidity of the situation, his wife, Heidi, graduated from Wooster High School in 1997.

“There’s some natural progression there,” Haas said. “I had some community members asked if I was interested. All of those things fall into place. It was not a no-brainer, but ultimately I knew I as going to do it when the job opened up.”

Wooster is coming off a very disappointing 4-6 season, and has failed to make the playoffs since 2004 out of the rugged Ohio Cardinal Conference, which features perennial postseason contenders Orrville, Clear Fork and Ashland.

Haas took over Cloverleaf from Kevin Gault, who resigned for family reasons after leading the Colts to their only playoff appearance in 2008.

In Haas’ first season, Cloverleaf put forth one of the most heart-pounding seasons in school history, winning six one-possession games. The Colts came within a whisker of the Division II, Region 5 playoffs before falling off with back-to-back 4-6 seasons.

“I failed in my mission at Cloverleaf to bring us a Suburban League championship,” he said, “but I have no doubt in my mind with the kids coming back they are going to be in the hunt for the Suburban League championship.”

Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.

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