When the University of Missouri in Columbia fired football head coach Barry Odom in November, A.J. Ofodile Jr. found himself at a career crossroads.
Ofodile was on Odom’s staff with the Tigers for four years, coaching the wide receivers in 2018 and the tight ends in 2019. Before joining Missouri, Ofodile (oh-fah-da-lay) coached at Rock Bridge High in Columbia for 15 years, the last 13 as head coach. In 2013, he led the Bruins to the Class 6 state championship game.
The Festus R-6 School District announced Friday that Ofodile was hired to be the high school’s ninth head football coach. The board met on Thursday (Jan. 30) in a special meeting and voted 6-0 to hire Ofodile, 46, as the school’s head coach. Board member Marcus Shepherd wasn’t in attendance for the meeting, but expressed his support for the hire.
“As great as an opportunity as coaching at (Mizzou) was, my heart had always been coaching high school football,” said Ofodile, who played college football for the Tigers. “It’s the level that my sense of purpose is most aligned with in terms of being able to have an impact on the lives of young people.”
Ofodile will teach strength and conditioning classes at Festus and will be paid a total of $89,208 to teach and coach. His coaching stipend is $9,131. Ofodile replaces Russ Schmidt, who coached the Tigers for 13 years before resigning in November. Ofodile’s contract begins on July 1.
“When we were let go as a staff (at Mizzou), I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Ofodile said. “I had a couple of opportunities to continue coaching at the college level. But I knew high school football was the obvious choice. I thought I’d want to relocate somewhere warm. I had been in Columbia a long time. But when I saw the opportunities being offered here, there wasn’t any place else I wanted to go.
“(The Festus administration) has a commitment to football, excellence as a school, willingness to put resources into the students; there wasn’t a better situation. The people I met here at my interview; their transparency made a good fit for me.”
After playing tight end at Mizzou for three seasons and finishing with 73 catches for 851 yards and six touchdowns, Ofodile was drafted in the fifth round (158th overall) in the 1994 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills. He never played for the Bills after sustaining a knee injury in training camp and ended up with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1995 on their practice roster. Ofodile was released from the Steelers’ training camp in 1996 and signed with the Baltimore Ravens, where he played in 24 games in three seasons (1997-1999). Injuries caught up with Ofodile, who retired after the 1999 season, capping a six-year pro career. Baltimore won its first Super Bowl in 2000.
“Even as a young kid, the dream was to play professional football and to make all the money in the world and then coach high school football the rest of my life,” Ofodile said. “I made it to the NFL, but I wasn’t good enough to make all the money in the world.”
Ofodile explained the realities of staying in pro sports.
“What happens when you’re not a star is each year you’re in the league your price tag gets higher,” he said. “Once your injury history versus your perceived ability level versus your price tag doesn’t match up, you’re not going to play (in the NFL) anymore.”
Ofodile takes over a Festus program that’s spent millions to upgrade its stadium and will replace the football field sometime this year. The Tigers lost 16-0 to Farmington in the Class 4 District 1 semifinals and finished 5-6 in Schmidt’s last season. Ofodile is just starting to familiarize himself with the teams Festus will play. He met the team for the first time Monday night. Ofodile and his wife Dianna are looking for a home to buy in Jefferson County. They have three grown children, the youngest being 23.
“There’s a genuine attempt here to do things the right way,” Ofodile said. “From a facilities-standpoint, there’s no cutting corners. When that’s the mindset, the sky’s the limit for what you can accomplish.
“It takes time to build something. This is a place with a strong foundation. My experience has been when you’re working with kids you become invested in them. Ideally, my plan is to find a place I can retire from. The goal is to do something special. If I was chasing the next job, I’d probably have stayed at the college level.”
Ofodile said all of students at Festus are welcomed in the school’s strength and conditioning program.
“You see all kinds of goals about what they want to get out of the class,” he said. “In terms of strength and conditioning, at this age, the process is universal. The whole goal in the weight room is to become stronger, more flexible and more resistant to injury. That’s universal across the board.”
Filling out his coaching staff is going to be “a work in progress,” Ofodile said.
“There were good men who worked good with the kids previously and I’d like those guys to continue to be involved,” he said. “When you go into a situation like this, you’d like to work with people you have before. When you’re operating three levels (freshmen, JV, varsity), you never have enough coaches.”
A veteran of high school, college and pro football, Ofodile said his job goes well beyond winning and losing. He said all coaches want their athletes to meet a certain amount of academic and social success and growth.
“As a college coach, if you’re not handling those things, your job’s going to be in jeopardy,” he said. “At the college level, winning is a bigger piece of the pie. Whether I’m fired or get to stay, that’s not something I concern myself with because it’s not my decision.
“The last thing I’m worried about in February is winning a state championship. The first thing I’m thinking about is each step it takes to get into position to have our best first offseason workout, our best first coaching staff meeting, and so on. If you think beyond that, you’re not being realistic.”