Buckeye Bucks Football

YORK TWP. — Less than a week before two-a-days start for area high school football teams, Buckeye has a new head coach. Due to the uncertainty of his teaching position in the school district, which has an emergency levy on the Aug. 7 ballot, Billy Burke stepped down after five seasons.

He will be replaced by Rick Schuler, a volunteer assistant basketball coach at the school. “I was informed that I would be one of a handful of teachers that would be rifted if the levy doesn’t pass,” the 35-year-old Burke said Tuesday. “It was awkward all summer and I kept trying to talk myself out of (stepping down), but I had to step back and let the program move forward as I further my education to make myself more marketable.”

Burke, who plans on retaining his position as a physical education teacher at the high school, is just a couple classes away from obtaining his administration degree from the University of Dayton.

In five seasons, he went 26-25 overall and 25-10 in Patriot Athletic Conference play. His best season was 2009, when the Bucks won their fourth PAC Stars Division title — and third in three years under Burke — and advanced to the postseason for the fourth time in school history. This past fall, Buckeye was 3-7, 3-4.

Knowing practice starts Monday and the regular season opens Aug. 24, Burke went to Buckeye Superintendent Brian Williams on Thursday to inform him of his intentions.

Bucks athletic director Glen Reisner, however, was caught off-guard by the move. “He never talked to me, so I can’t even tell you the reason for his decision,” he said.

When Reisner was informed of Burke’s resignation, the AD quickly started looking for a new coach.

He found his guy in Schuler, who started working with the Bucks basketball program when good friend Matt Saunders took over in 2008.

Schuler, a social studies teacher at Rocky River, is no stranger to leading a grid program. He had head coaching stints at Marion Catholic (1987-91) and Lorain Catholic (2003), along with coaching at various levels at Rocky River and Lakewood.

“This all came about in such an abrupt fashion, the last thing I was thinking of last Friday before Matt contacted me was that I would be working as a head coach this season,” said Schuler, who most recently served as freshman coach at Lakewood.

“I guess while brainstorming, Matt and Glen brought up my name. When Matt called me, I told him, ‘You’ve got to give me a minute to think it over,’ because this really came out of left field.”

After meeting with the players Tuesday morning in the weight room, Schuler now has the challenge of getting ready for practices, which start in just five days.

Saunders, who was Buckeye’s eighth-grade football coach last season, will assist Schuler with the play-calling duties.

Schuler, who was hired Monday night with the label of interim coach, has some talented players coming back.

Tailback Rick Monroe rushed for 500 yards on 98 carries, while offensive lineman/linebacker Colton Theus also returns for the Bucks, who open by hosting Medina County rival Cloverleaf.

“We’ll have to play a little catch-up,” said Schuler, an Avon Lake resident. “As I told the kids, this has created some obstacles, but it’s nothing we can’t overcome.”