‘The right fit.’ Lexington Catholic hires Fort Thomas native as next football coach.
Lexington Catholic has turned to a Kentucky native who will make the Knights his first high school head coaching job.
On Thursday, the school announced the hiring of Bert Bathiany, a longtime college assistant who spent the last three years as the defensive coordinator at Tiffin University, a Division II school in northwest Ohio.
On Friday, Bathiany and his family were in Lexington shopping for a new home. “We can’t wait to put down roots,” he said.
Bathiany and his wife, Haley, are the parents of four children — Bert VI (8), Sawyer (6), Aniston (3) and Georgia (1).
“I’m from Kentucky and this has always been home for me,” Bathiany told the Herald-Leader. He grew up in Fort Thomas and played high school football for Highlands. “My wife went to the University of Kentucky, my brother went to the University of Kentucky — half my family. …
“We got to the point where we started thinking, ‘Would we want to go back to high school and make that move with our family?’ — because we want to spend more time with each other and be a part of a community, and we were waiting for the right fit. Lexington Catholic came open, and we jumped on it right away.”
Bathiany (pronounced bath-ee-ahh-nee) succeeds Nigel Smith, who led Lexington Catholic to a 29-15 record over four seasons and had the Knights consistently ranked in the top 10 in Class 4A. Smith announced his resignation at season’s end in order to free up time to pursue a law degree.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Coach Bathiany and his family to the Lexington Catholic community,” Dave Nurnberg, LexCath’s athletics director, said in the school’s announcement. Nurnberg also served as the team’s offensive coordinator last season. “His love for the game and commitment to developing men of character will make him a great asset to our athletic department and football program.”
One of the challenges Bathiany will face at Lexington Catholic will be residing in the same district as 10-time state champion Boyle County. The Rebels have knocked Lexington Catholic out of the playoffs each of the last three years on their way to the state finals.
Bathiany has some history with the Boyle County program as a high school player. As a senior, Bathiany was a wide receiver/safety and team captain for the 2004 Class 3A state champion Bluebirds who defeated Boyle County at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. His team finished runner-up to Boyle the year before.
“We played Boyle a ton, and I actually ended up becoming good friends with a lot of guys on that team when I moved down to Western (Kentucky) as a graduate assistant,” Bathiany said.
While that history gives Bathiany some perspective on the rivalry, he’s more concerned about making Lexington Catholic the best team it can be regardless of the opponent, but he doesn’t mind the comparison.
“I think that’s the exciting thing about the job. You want to compete against the best. You want to challenge yourself,” Bathiany said. “I think competition brings the best out of all of us. That would be one of the core values we have here at Lexington Catholic. We’re going to compete like crazy and, to be honest, work.”
And Lexington Catholic has its own championship pedigree, having won state titles in 2005 and 2007. Coincidentally, LexCath’s 2005 title came under Coach Bob Spire, who was hired last year at Bathiany’s alma mater, Highlands.
“We’re not going to be concerned about, you know, this results-oriented mindset,” he said. “We’re gonna have a process-oriented mindset. We’re going to focus on individual wins along the way. And if we keep doing that over a consistent period of time, good things will happen.”
Bathiany played college football at Denison University, where he earned a degree in physical education with a concentration in sports management in 2009. He earned a master’s degree from Western Kentucky in 2012.
Bathiany inherits a LexCath team that graduates its all-city quarterback of the last two seasons, Jack Gohmann, along with 12 other seniors, including standout offensive linemen Jake Nash and Quentin Duffy and skill players Blake Busson and Jack Monday.
But the Knights are expected to return a lot as well, including 1,100-yard rusher Walker Hall, all-city offensive lineman Joe Schlarman and some other skill players who made major contributions last season, including Sam Clements, Tanner Pedroche, Hunter Foster and Max DeGraff.
“I have nothing but confidence in the players that we have and nothing but confidence in the coaches that we have,” Bathiany said. “If we can put them in the right position to make plays and tailor our scheme to fit their needs. We’re going to be fine. … We definitely have talent walking the halls at Lexington Catholic, so, we’ve got to cultivate it, we’ve got to develop it, and when we get out on Friday nights, we’ve just got to let it shine.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2022 at 11:08 AM.
