Entering his 25th year of coaching football, Keith Fife acknowledged that his best chance to become a head football coach may have already passed him by. Opportunity knocked once more and Fife is finally realizing his dream of being a head coach when he was promoted from within to become the new Cardinal Huskies’ head football coach in January.
“I always wanted to be a varsity head coach at a high school,” he said. “I bring a lot to the table as far as knowledge and my teaching techniques and I like to surround myself with good people. I am one of those guys that says this all of the time, but I am only as good as I am as the people that surround me.”
Fife originally joined the program in 2022 as a varsity assistant after spending 15 years with the Ravenna football program. He was promoted to defensive coordinator last year when the Huskies hired Rich Turner to replace Chris Perroti, but with Turner leaving after only one season, Fife’s time has come.
According to Fife, he had interviewed at several high schools for a head coaching job over the last few years but had always come up short. While he still yearned to be a head coach, he was also at peace realizing that the boat may have sailed.. Although he is getting his first shot as a head coach at a later point in his career, he is not taking it for granted.
“It is going to be a challenge for the next couple of years being that it is a small school and that the numbers are low,” the first-year coach added. “When I was named the head coach, I started being in the hallways recruiting kids and a lot of people know that we only had 18 kids last year on the roster. I think I have got it built up to 25 kids now just by talking to kids in the hallways.”
Having two years of familiarity with the program under his belt, Fife said that what helped him stand out most from other applicants was simply the way he treated the players.
According to him, he has always treated players like they were his own children, wanting to know as much as possible about each player on and off the field and letting them know they had his full support.
Rebuilding a program is something that Fife is used too, as his first football coaching job was coaching the Field youth program when he completed his tour of duty in the military after 12 years of service. He coached several youth teams for six years before he moved on to coach the Ravenna youth program in 2007.
Having played high school football at both Ravenna and Field, Fife said he understood all too well what it took to succeed in Portage County level.
“There is a lot of competition in Portage County and a lot of good teams in Portage County, but I couldn’t stay in Portage County, that is why I ventured out,” he said.
One of Fife’s early goals will be to instill the scrappy nature that is Portage County football into the Huskies.
“We are going to be well-conditioned and well-prepared,” he noted. “We are going to be that team that you have to work to beat and that is what I am telling the kids now, we are going to be that team, we are going to be that team that is going to be gritty and hard-nosed.”
He also said that his 12 years of experience in the military has greatly shaped his identity as a football coach, including sharpening his awareness of everything that is going on. Even when he has primarily worked as a skills position coach, he has stayed current with the inner workings of a program.
“You have to have excellent vision when you are in the military and a sense of awareness, that kind of stuff I brought that with me to my coaching style,” he noted.
Fife rose through the lower levels of Ravenna football, serving as the Ravenna Youth Football’s Director for 14 seasons and also working with the middle school football team for 11 years and added varsity assistant coaching duties to his list of responsibilities in 2018.
When it comes to growing the roots of a local football program, Fife has not only mastered that art but now relishes it as well.
“I have done it before and this challenge is bigger than the challenge I have had before,” he said. “When I do leave the program and retire from football because this is where I am going to retire from, I want to leave a stamp there that is going to be a smooth-running machine.”
