Rootstown considers firing its Coach of the Year, leaving some ‘confused, sad, baffled’

Natalie Wolford/The Portager

Rootstown considers firing its Coach of the Year, leaving some ‘confused, sad, baffled’

- Tom Hardesty

Jason Opritza led the Rootstown girls soccer team to its first league championship in eight years and a berth in the district finals in his first season as Rovers head coach last fall.

There were no internal problems on the team as the Rovers finished 12-5-1 overall and 7-0 in the Portage Trail Conference in 2021, according to interviews with people knowledgeable about the season. With that kind of success, Opritza had assumed the Rootstown Board of Education would easily renew his one-year supplemental coach’s contract for 2022.

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