Roncalli High School hadn’t had to conduct a search for a head football coach in nearly three decades. When Bruce Scifres retired this winter after leading the Rebels to a state championship for the seventh time, the school didn’t have to reach out too far to find a replacement.
Scott Marsh, who served as the defensive coordinator under Scifres this past fall, was officially named as the new head coach Thursday.
“I feel like I’ve really hit the lottery,” Marsh said.
In a statement announcing the hire, Roncalli athletics director David Lauck touted Marsh’s extensive football experience — and indeed, Marsh’s résumé has some meat on it.
A three-year starter as a player at Morehead State University, Marsh worked as a graduate assistant there in the late 1990s. He was a defensive coordinator at Boyd County High School in Kentucky and Lake Gibson High School in Florida before coming to Indiana and joining the coaching staff at Warren Central.
In 2006, Marsh was the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator for the Warriors’ unbeaten state championship team. He served as the defensive coordinator the following year before taking his first head coaching position at Indianapolis Howe.
Following one season there, he took over a Perry Meridian team coming off of a winless season and steered it to first-round sectional victories in 2009 and 2010. He departed for Roncalli after seven seasons with the Falcons, having posted a 27-45 record during his tenure there.
Now, he’ll be taking over a considerably more prestigious program — but with that comes the pressure of replacing Scifres, one of the winningest coaches in Indiana football history.
“I think with any legendary coach — and Coach Scifres is a legendary coach; he’s on the Mount Rushmore of Indiana high school football coaches as far as I’m concerned — I don’t think you follow that,” Marsh said. “You just have to be yourself.”
Marsh will teach advanced physical conditioning at Roncalli beginning in August, when his wife Missy, a graduate of the school, will be entering her 10th season as the Rebels’ volleyball coach. The couple has four children.
