Clear Fork – When the spring of 2022 rolled around Justin Cogar found himself in the same position he was a year ago.
The head coaching job for his alma mater, Westside, was vacant and primed for fresh blood.
This time he decided to follow through in applying and interviewing for the job he wanted a year a go, but couldn’t fully commit to at that time. A year ago he was in a different headspace, consumed by sports and coaching with everything else being secondary.
Like any good quarterback he assessed the situation and made a late audible
“For some reason it just didn’t feel right to me,” Cogar said. “I had a couple things to think about and it just didn’t ever feel – I just put my name in for the job and the day of my interview I woke up that morning and it just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t all in with it so I didn’t want to take the job if I wasn’t all in. That led to me pulling out and this year when it came open again it just felt like the right opportunity.”
Cogar applied and the rest is history as he was named the newest head coach of the football program in May, succeeding Tyler Dunigon who stepped down after a year.
Cogar’s path to the job required a refresh as the 2014 Class AA first-team all-state captain and Kennedy Award finalist felt he needed to line out his priorities. He did so by committing to his job as teacher where previously he had admittedly only viewed it as a way to collect a paycheck.
By stepping away and accepting a job in unfamiliar territory he was able to focus on being a teacher and impacting the lives of students on a different scale.
“It worked out perfectly,” Cogar said. “I took a job teaching in Cabell County and it was totally unfamiliar because I was away from everybody, I was away from home, I was away from coaching and sports altogether for a whole year so it gave me a lot of time to reflect on what was most important to me. I got better as a teacher and I think that helped me be better as a coach in that year. It really helped me get to where I am now.”
As a virtual math teacher in Cabell County, Cogar found his way and was never more reassured of that than when a student gave him a card, thanking him for helping them understand the subject they had struggled with.
Assured he had found his way, Cogar followed it back home, taking his interview and the rest to this point has been history. Though his new foundation has guided him in the early months of his latest journey, there were parts of it laid two years ago when former coach Herbie Halsey added him to the staff. He’s leaned on those lessons already.
“I learned a lot of things being on staff,” Cogar said. “I’m really thankful for Herbie Halsey who was the coach here and gave me my first opportunity coaching and gave me a lot of freedom. He taught me a lot of things about administration and football and he really helped set me up for now. A lot of things a lot of first year coaches don’t know, he taught me in that year and I really learned a lot that’s helped me so far.”
Cogar’s still learning on the fly, particularly when presented with choices big and small that impact his team.
“I think the main thing is managing situations,” Cogar laughed. “As the assistant coach you’re a suggestion maker and as the head coach you’re a decision maker. Making those tough decisions, really every day, I’ve got to make tough decisions whether it be fundraising, or managing injuries or practice times or just anything we do. But that’s definitely been the biggest thing. Coming through everyone told me when you’re a head coach you don’t realize how many non-football things you have to deal with but there’s been a ton of that and I’ve had great support from our administration and my assistant coaches so it’s been good so far.”
Trickling to the field, the early months of Cogar’s tenure have been positive, though his stature hasn’t hurt. Many of the players he’s now in charge of grew up watching his exploits as he helped lead the Renegades to a pair of playoff berths including a run to the semifinals his senior season.
That campaign was one of the most memorable of any player in recent history as he threw for 2,538 yards and 23 touchdowns but thrived as a dual threat, adding 2,038 yards on the ground with 37 rushing touchdowns to bring his final count to 60. His accomplishments have earned him some early respect around the facility.
“I think it has helped for sure and I’ve got that question a lot,” Cogar laughed. “It’s helped in relationship building with the players. There’s no getting to know me process because they knew me and I knew them. My brother would be a senior here so I’ve known these guys since they were five or six years old. We had a common relationship already and it’s grown from there.
“Id say they’ve bought in sooner than they maybe would have because there’s been some down years and it’s harder to get buy in at a place where you’ve only won a couple of games the last few years. It’s really accelerated the process because they’ve seen it and they’ve got confidence in me knowing I did it as a player, so they believe in me as their coach.”
Another hurdle Cogar and Co. will have to clear is learning how to win again. Westside has struggled to make the playoffs lately with last postseason appearance coming in 2015. Winning in of itself has been difficult with the program posting five victories combined over the last four seasons. Cogar understands he’ll need to build from the ground up and that success won’t always be measured in wins and losses.
“That’s something I have to work on personally because I hate to lose and love to win,” Cogar said. “Something me and my coaches have talked about though is improving and setting up a foundation during this first year. We don’t want to go in to win just this year. We want to win for years to come and get back to being a playoff team every year. This first year we want to improve every day and every week and we still want to win, but we want to set the foundation.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94