After two years of life in one of the toughest public school football conferences in America, John Rodenberg decided to head back to his Catholic school roots.
Rodenberg, who won three state championships in Ohio and Kentucky before spending the last two seasons at Lawrence Central, was named Roncalli’s new head coach on Wednesday morning.
He replaces Scott Marsh, who resigned after three seasons to take a coaching job in Kentucky.
Rodenberg, who owns an overall record of 174-132 in 26 years as a head coach, has enjoyed plenty of success at Catholic schools in the past. During his 10 years at Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati (2008-17), he won Ohio Division 1 state titles in 2012 and 2013 and coached 28 Division I scholarship players.
He also won a 3A state title in 2006 at Covington Catholic in Kentucky. Prior to that, he had a successful 11-year run at Archbishop McNicholas in Cincinnati.
“This fits better for me, and that’s probably a big part,” Rodenberg said of coaching at another Catholic school. “The other thing that I was intrigued with was the tradition of excellence at Roncalli. It reminds me a lot of Covington, and it’s got some similarities to Moeller. Roncalli is a very respectable school, so really, when you talk about the fit that I’m used to and the tradition, I couldn’t pass it up.”
Both Rodenberg and the Rebels will be trying to bounce back from a couple of subpar seasons, at least by their standards. Rodenberg was 6-14 in two years at Lawrence Central; Roncalli, though it won a sectional title last year, is just 10-13 over the last two seasons, including 0-4 starts both years.
The new coach is hopeful that he can get the Rebels back to the success that they’re accustomed to, but he says no coach can do it by himself.
“I’m confident in the things that I’ve done,” Rodenberg said, “and if we can get a quick buy-in from the players, we can have a quick turnaround. But it’s going to be hard work, plain and simple.
“Roncalli’s got a ton of tradition. My question to the players is going to be, ‘Are you going to lean on that tradition, or are you going to take responsibility for that tradition?’ And if the kids are really ready to take responsibility for that tradition, then we’re going to get things turned around.”
Rodenberg, a Cincinnati native with a degree in exercise science from the University of Cincinnati and a teaching certificate from Xavier University, will teach advanced physical conditioning at Roncalli and also run the school’s strength and conditioning program beginning in August.
