TUSCARAWAS TWP. — Tuslaw High School is turning to a coach with quite a recent pedigree to turn things around for the Mustangs football program.
Pending school board approval, Tuslaw is hiring Broc Dial — a Northeast Inland District Coach of the Year two of the last three seasons at Dalton — to lead its football program. The board meets Monday. He would replace Matt Gulling, who went 6-24 in three seasons as Tuslaw’s head coach.
“Coach Dial’s ability to instill a winning culture and philosophy matches with the goals of Tuslaw Athletics,” the school district wrote in a press release Tuesday.
According to the Tuslaw news release, Dial also will be hired as a teacher in the district.
The Tuslaw football team has not had a winning season since 2018 and the Mustangs have really struggled within their own league. They are 1-25 in the PAC-7 since 2020.
In nearby Dalton, things were much different under Dial. In seven seasons at Dalton — split over two stretches, 2016-17 and 2019-23 — his teams went 68-18 and won five Wayne County Athletic League titles. His teams made the state playoffs all seven seasons.
Dial resigned as Dalton’s head coach Jan. 11a little over a month after guiding the Bulldogs on a memorable run to the OHSAA Division VII state finals. Ohio small-school powerhouse Marion Local beat Dalton 38-0 in the title game in Canton.
Dial owned a 12-4 playoff record over the last four seasons and was 14-7 overall in the postseason.
Dial is a 2004 graduate of Northwest High School, where he was an All-Ohio offensive lineman. He helped Northwest to a 10-0 regular season his senior year. He also coached Dalton to a 10-0 regular season in 2017.
He earned a teacher’s degree from Baldwin Wallace in History and master’s degree from Concordia University in School Leadership.
The 2023 Mustangs went 2-8, losing their final seven games of the season, all league games. They have not won more than one league game in a season since going 2-5 in the PAC-7 in 2019. Since 2019, the Mustangs are 11-37 overall.
Their last winning season came in 2018, when they finished 6-5 after a first-round playoff loss to Orrville, a league rival. Tuslaw went 4-3 in PAC-7 play that year.
2024-03-05 17:37:32
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