The high school is welcoming three new varsity head coaches for the baseball, girls tennis and football teams starting this spring and next fall.
Bexley alumni Brett Counts will coach the baseball team, middle school teacher Heath Goolsby will head the girls tennis team, and Mike Kerr will coach the football team.
Counts graduated from the high school in 1999 and played baseball at Ohio Dominican University, he said. He added that since being inducted into the Bexley Athletic Hall of Fame, he has been an assistant varsity and a junior varsity baseball coach at the high school.
Counts said he’s enthusiastic about this coaching position because he wants to bring stability and consistency to the program.
“I want to create a culture and an identity for the baseball team,” he said. “I want this to be a program where the players are doing the right thing on and off the field and in the classroom.”
Counts explained that he has the goal of creating a culture of passion and discipline. He said he plans to achieve this by playing a challenging schedule.
“We are going to be highly tested this season, and that is where having that culture as a foundation will prove how well we can deal with adversity,” Counts said.
The hard work of the baseball team is what he most looks forward to seeing this season, Counts said.
“I believe the coaching staff that I have assembled is giving the players the opportunities to improve their game like they would never have had before,” he said. “I’m excited to see them improve and grow from last year.”
Goolsby said he has been playing tennis from a young age.
“I played every sport imaginable growing up,” he said. “Tennis was my better sport growing up, but I grew up in an age where tennis was a sport my peers made fun of me for playing.”
Goolsby has a long history of coaching tennis, serving as the Bishop Hartley boys varsity tennis coach, the Columbus School for Girls varsity assistant coach, and the Bexley middle school girls tennis coach, he said.
Goolsby said one of the reasons he coaches is due to the love he has for tennis and the desire to be part of something bigger than himself.
He added that he wants to incorporate a strong schedule into this season to challenge the players and prepare them for postseason play.
“Bexley has a rich history of making it to the districts, and it is a goal of mine to advance past the districts and go to the state tournament,” he said.
Goolsby said he looks forward to the team beginning the season and getting to work.
“I look forward to rigorous practices and some tough competition,” he said. “I’m not going to measure success through wins or losses. I will measure it through commitment and reaching full potential.”
Kerr first started teaching and coaching at Upper Arlington High School and now teaches at Mount Vernon High School as a career-based intervention teacher.
Kerr has also coached football at Otterbein University, Mechanicsburg High School and Delaware Hayes High School, he said.
He added that he has always had a passion for coaching because he values the relationships he builds with kids outside of the classroom.
“I told my dad as a sixth-grader that the only thing I wanted to be in life was a coach,” he said. “Coaching has allowed me to create lasting relationships and impact lives.”
Kerr said that his three core values of family, grit and commitment to win will shape his team.
“I want to make sure everyone that comes out for football is treated like family and feels connected,” he said. “I want all of the players to work hard and overcome adversity, and I want them to do everything in their power to win games.”
Kerr added that he is most looking forward to the first game of the season.
“We open up at home and hopefully we can generate some enthusiasm and get kids and the community out to watch us,” he said. “With that enthusiasm, we’ll be able to give all the people that support us a quality product on the field.”
