BY JOSIE DECARO (‘19)

Craig Wenning has been involved with coaching for 17 years and continues coaching for the Granville football team for his second year.

“I’ve been involved with football since I was twelve,” Coach Wenning said. “You learn a lot about your work ethic, and you learn when you get knocked back down you get back up again.”

With much experience of youth football, high school football, two years in college and briefly joining a semi-pro football team.

“In college I was a strong safety and a cornerback in high school,” Wenning said. “In semi-pro, I started out as the running and moved up to quarterback.”

In college, Wenning played for Ohio Northern and the semi-pro football team he was a part of was the Mercer County Cougars semi-pro football team.

“We didn’t get paid it was just a bunch of guys out on the field hurting ourselves,” Wenning states about being apart of a semi-pro football team.

Wenning began his coaching career at various schools including his second year at Granville as the defensive back coach.

“I started my coaching at St. Henry right out of college,” Wenning said. “I just coached mainly defensive backs. After that I went to Fort Larmy, then at Minster for awhile and I was the offensive coordinator.”

At St. Henry, they are carrying about seven states titles and also coached Todd Boeckman, who went on to become the quarterback for Ohio State. At Minster, Wenning coached Ethan and Eli Wolfe, who currently play for Tennessee.

“It is a real life application because you learn from football,” Wenning said “You learn multiple times everyday that you need to get back up and go after it again.”

Wenning likes to help his players and himself learn from the everyday lessons that football provides to an individual physically and morally. He reminisces on his football days to remind himself daily in life to get back up and try harder.