Temple excited for opportunity

CELINA - Trent Temple was expecting to resume his duty as the defensive coordinator for Celina's football team this fall but instead he will get his second opportunity to be a head coach.

Temple was named the interim head coach of the Bulldogs on Monday morning after the unexpected resignation of Jared Rolfes, who accepted an offer to be the offensive coordinator at Northern Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"It's kind of bittersweet for me. I'm excited to have this opportunity but I also hated to see Jared leave," said Temple. "Jared was a good leader with good character that helped turn this program around, and I will do whatever I can do to keep this program moving in the right direction."

Celina posted its best record since 1998 with a 7-3 campaign a year ago and Temple is focused on building a consistent winner.

"Our goal as a staff is to continue the success that Jared helped build and create a consistent winning atmosphere," said Temple. "Celina hasn't had back-to-back winning seasons since the 1990s (1997-98) and that's a goal of ours."

Temple has 19 years of experience coaching football. He began as an assistant coach at Van Wert in 1994 and remained with the Cougars until becoming the defensive coordinator at Crestview in 2005. Temple returned to Van Wert in 2008 as a defensive coordinator before being named head coach at Crestview in 2010. After a 2-8 campaign with the Knights, Temple went back to Van Wert as the defensive coordinator in 2011 before serving as Celina's defensive coordinator last year. Temple was on Van Wert's staff when the Cougars finished as the state runners-up in 2000 and was also a part of Crestview's playoff squad in 2005.

Celina's coaching staff will remain intact, although Temple is in need of an offensive coordinator.

"Coach Rolfes did a great job with our offense here and that's the only spot we are still looking to fill," said Temple, who added that he isn't looking to change the Bulldogs' offensive spread approach. "We have guys in-house that are capable of filling that role and I have several contacts outside of the current staff that I may turn to. Not sure as of yet who will be the offensive coordinator. It's my job to find the best fit for that job.

"I'm really lucky to have the group of assistants that I have here. We may shuffle a few guys around with different duties, but it's a luxury to keep this group together because it's one of the best groups of coaches that I've ever been around," added Temple.

Celina's defense had a major turnaround under Temple last year. After allowing 35.8 points per game in 2011, the Bulldogs surrendered 24.7 last season.

"The reason we were so much better on defense last year was because of Trent's scheme and the fact that our kids bought into his mentality on defense. He preaches to be aggressive and likes to have organized chaos with defensive stunts and blitzes.," said Rolfes. "We probably had our best defense in the last 15 years at Celina last year and that was against some very good competition in the WBL (Western Buckeye League)."

Familiarity with the kids should help the transition from assistant to head coach go smoothly.

"They know me and know what to expect from me as a coach, especially the defensive guys," said Temple. "The familiarity between the kids and me will be a benefit because July is loaded with 7-on-7's and the start of two-a-days isn't too far away. There won't be that transition to where the kids have to learn how myself and the staff want things done."

Temple is employed by Van Wert city schools and works in several different capacities (in-school suspension supervisor, attendance officer and middle school athletic director). He and his wife Amanda reside in Van Wert and have been married for 10 years with a son, Mitchell (9 years old), and daughter, Marlee (3 years old).