“The kids have been great. 23 seniors, a good junior class, and they’ve done everything we’ve asked. They haven’t shied from anything. There’s a bunch of competitors on this team.” – Scott Broerman. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The first-year coach, the Athletic Director, and former protoge’ of Al Hetrick is now nine months fully immersed as the head football coach at Versailles High School – where Tigerball is played – and stands by the statement he made when he took the job.
Versailles, OH – Versailles Athletic Director Scott Broerman has, for a moment, stepped beyond the mindset and responsibilities of his administrative duties. You might say he’s broadened his scope.
Broadened? Consider.
Things changed last December when it was announced that the former Versailles tackle was being hired as the school’s seventh head coach in the modern era of Versailles football, succeeding within the legacy…John Lantz, Al Hetrick, Jason Schondelmyer, Bob Olwin, Adam Miller, and Ryan Jones.
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And if that wasn’t enough, in a Press Pros feature published in January, Broerman cemented his ascension to one of the state’s historic coaching positions by issuing what might have been the most eye-opening quote of the off-season.
“As an old lineman I’d love to line up in the ‘T’ [formation] and rip off first downs and long drives. It’s demoralizing for a defense,” said Broerman.
Yeah, baby! The full-house backfield in 2026? It’s thought-provoking. Of course he goes on to say that there’ll be other options. One would think.
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He added: “I told the kids…we’re going to be the best-conditioned and most disciplined team. We’re going to be tough, and we’re going to be known for defense. That’s how it was when I played, and we’re going to be that way again.”
Broerman is a good dude – tremendously committed to the Versailles community. Husband and father of four, he’s dedicated to the expectations and legacy of this position. And just five weeks from facing off with Harvest Prep in the Tigers home opener at Hole Field on August 20, Broerman smiled at being reminded last week. But he also shares that nothing he’s seen since December has convinced him that he and the Tigers can’t cash the checks he wrote with that January 19th statement.
“It’s gone well. We’ve had two seven-on-sevens now and I’m ready to get the pads on,” he said.
“The coaching staff’s come together, and that’s important. Things are starting to gel, it’s been fun to watch the kids compete, and August 20 will be here before you know it. But we still have a lot of work to do. We’re eager to see who we are. We’re eager to play.”
His hire raised a few eyebrows. The Versailles job, with its history, and as a member of the most competitive and talked-about conference in the state, should have attracted dozens of top candidates from all over. But in the end, it was Broerman who wanted the job, and got the job, perhaps to some as much a tribute to the past as an overture to the future.
He played as an offensive lineman under Hetrick. He, first-hand, experienced ‘Tigerball’, that Hetrick, himself, once described this way: “We ran a dozen plays out of six formations. People knew what was coming, and they still couldn’t stop us. We were the most disciplined and the best conditioned. We believed we were going to win.”
Sound familiar?
But the consistency of that dominance stopped when Hetrick retired in 2003. And, ‘Tigerball’ didn’t raise its head again until Versailles surprisingly won the 2021 Division V title game against heavily-favored Kirtland…18 years. Buoyed by standouts at quarterback, tackle, running back, and a defense that refused to be intimidated by Kirtland’s 55-game winning streak, then-coach Ryan Jones expertly prepared his football team for the mental and physical state of mind that was reminiscent of Hetrick’s best from the 90s.
The expectation as far as Frenchtown and North Star was for more of the same. They hoped the old days were back. Versailles answered with a 9-4 record in 2022, a good team, but not good enough, and lost to Marion Local in a third round playoff game.
In 2023 they improved to 13-3 and came close…losing an OHSAA Finals rematch with Kirtland in Canton, 32-15.
Versailles’ senior running back Landyn Knapke returns to carry the load and move the chains.
In 2024 graduation and injuries took a toll, limiting Jones and the Tigers to a record of 5-6, and an unexpected first-round loss to Indian Lake in the playoffs.
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In 2025, they never got beyond a sterilizing loss in the final seconds against Marion Local in the sixth game of the season. A blown call by the officials led to the winning score by Marion…and a five-game losing streak by Versailles to close out the season.
There were whispers. Close losses could have been close wins in the old days, and the old ways of Hetrick, now two decades removed.
“Last year was in no way a reflection on that coaching staff and Coach Jones, because they worked their butts off,” says Broerman now. “So it’s not fair to question the past, because they had had success doing what they’d done. It was just football and sometimes you win those games, and sometimes you don’t. Our focus is now on the future. We want to win those [close] games.”
So was there another way?
Broerman, twenty years himself removed from Tigerball, without previous head coaching experience in football, believed in the advantages of past invincibility – of being the best conditioned and the best disciplined team on the field. He believed he had that kind of kids…believed that they would buy in…and believed that all of it was closer than anyone knew.
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“The kids have been great,” he says with a nod. “We have 23 seniors, there’s a good junior class, there’s talent, there’s competition, and kids who want to play. As of now, they haven’t shied from anything at all…anything we’ve asked. We’ve been hard on them at times and they’ve been good with it. There’s a bunch of competitors on this team and I get goose bumps thinking about it.
“And when we get the pads on we might find a kid who does something we haven’t seen yet. Like, oh, where did he come from? Really, they’ve done everything we’ve asked, and that gives you confidence.
“We’re working hard. We’re changing the offense. We’re changing the defense a little bit. We’ve got enough on our plate to move forward, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves.”
He paused for a moment of reality.
“I know our early schedule is not going to be easy.”
Retro ‘Tigerball’ was known for playing until you heard the echo of the whistle. You finish plays, and you create doubt in the minds of the opponent.
What would Al say? “He’d be pleased. I know that he would still believe that being the best conditioned and the most disciplined was important,” says Broerman.
It is, perhaps, not the football of this day. But human psyche has never changed when things aren’t comfortable at the line of scrimmage. And all that Broerman is exploring, at this point, is whether that’s changed. Is reality still reality?
He’s not oblivious to the unforeseen bumps in the road, as a good administrator is want to be.
He draws from the confidence of having made good decisions in the past, administratively. He’s respected in his position as an athletic director, which he maintains.
All he’s doing now is fulfilling a notion that he’s had since his cap and gown day back in 2005.
And what would Al say? Hetrick, after all, always believed in his players. One would think he’d have particular support for one who actually walks in his own shoes.
“I know he’d be pleased,” says Broerman. “I know that he would still believe that being the best conditioned and the most disciplined was important.”
And he could, in fact, have an advantage with reality.
“It’s hard to play ‘T’ formation football and smash opponents because you just don’t see it anymore,” a coach in the area recently told me. “Kids don’t see it on television, so they don’t want to play that way.”
But if he can develop another Taran Tyo (starting lineman, University of Cincinnati)…senior workhorse Landyn Knapke (923 yards and 14 TDs, 184 attempts) returns willing and able to carry the ball thirty times.
And of course, defense. That’s where reality lives.
And that’s the goal – a once-upon-a-time moment, with the closest thing yet to Al Hetrick available to deliver the message. Someone who lived it.
More important…someone who believes.
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