Matt Rosati will leave West Geauga to become the head football coach at Grand Valley, according to people familiar with the situation.
Matt Rosati will leave West Geauga to become the head football coach at Grand Valley, according to people familiar with the situation.
Rosati’s hiring will need to be approved by the Grand Valley Schools Board of Education at its regular Dec. 16 meeting. Athletic Director Frank Hall said Rosati is a role model who makes his students better people, and he will teach in his new position with the school district.
“He’s a small school guy, and he’s gonna build a program,” Hall said.
The decision comes after Rosati, West Geauga’s all-time winningest football coach, was placed on administrative leave in October. The decision was determined to have insufficient evidence after Superintendent Richard Markwardt investigated the matter.
By the time it was reversed, Rosati, a social studies and government teacher, had missed 36 days of school.
Through a lawyer, Rosati blamed “the cliché of a few disgruntled parents and players who are unhappy about playtime and roles on a football team. This has resulted in an appalling attempted character assassination and witch hunt impugning Mr. Rosati’s stellar reputation and integrity as a teacher, coach, and leader in the community.”
The community came out in support of Rosati at the Nov. 18 West Geauga Schools Board of Education meeting. Rosati spoke to the board about how the experience affected him to a standing ovation.
“An allegation by an unhappy parent or player can take a teacher or coach out the classroom,” Rosati said. “What does that say about our society? If it happened to me, 36 years as an educator with a spotless record, if it happens to me, how many times has it happened to other coaches at West Geauga?”
Rosati’s Wolverines football teams won 69 games from 1996 to 2006, leading to the school’s first playoff appearance and victory. He then spent 14 seasons with the Perry Pirates and retired after the 2020 season before returning to West Geauga in 2021.
