Steve Daulton finds a home on Lancaster's football coaching staff

LANCASTER – Once a coach, always a coach.

After serving as head coach at Amanda-Clearcreek for the last five seasons, Steve Daulton resigned, but he knew he wasn’t through coaching.

Instead of taking a year off or getting out of the profession altogether, Daulton’s passion for the sport never wavered. He felt he still had a lot to offer.

Daulton had been a head coach for 10 years – he was the head coach at Berne Union for five years prior to taking the A-C job. Sometimes, becoming an assistant coach after being the main guy does not go over well with some coaches, but that never bothered Daulton. He just wanted to coach somewhere.

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After taking a teacher’s position at Lancaster High School, he called head coach Bryan Schoonover to see if he had any openings on his staff. The two met and meshed right away. Schoonover offered Daulton the job.

He is thrilled he will be roaming the sidelines this fall for the Golden Gales.

“The title (of head coach) never meant a whole lot to me,” Daulton said. “I was fortunate to get some opportunities and coach Schoonover gave me another one here and I was fortunate to get hired at the high school. I’m having a blast. Just getting to know the kids has been a lot of fun. There are a thousand ways to skin a cat and there is no difference in coaching football.

“There are a lot of ways to do it and be successful at it. The staff has allowed me to come in and help contribute with things that I’ve been able to do before and it is a lot of fun. It’s fun just getting to coach football and not worrying about taking care of all the head coaching duties.”

Daulton finished with a 28-25 overall record with the Aces. In 2019, Amanada-Clearcreek posted a 9-3 mark, including a share of the Mid-State League-Buckeye Division title, the Aces’ first since 2011. However, the program returned only four starters in 2022 and went 0-10.

Daulton is excited that he is getting to coach at a bigger school like Lancaster, but the path to success is the same no matter the size of the program.

"To be honest, it hasn’t felt that much different,” Daulton said. “When you get down to it, regardless of the level, football is football. You have to block, you have to tackle, and while the level of abilities is obviously much increased here, so is the competition we go against.”

When Daulton resigned from Amanda-Clearcreek, he wasn’t sure what the next step would be.

“I really didn’t know what was going to happen,” Daulton said. “I considered going the administration route because I’ve had my principal's license for several years now. I’ve always told the kids that if you work hard, good things will happen and work out for you. If you treat people the right way, something good will happen, and things happen for a reason. It went fast. I reached out to coach Schoonover and introduced myself. I had an interview at the high school and wondered if he had any spots on staff by chance. We met two days later, and our coaching styles seemed like they would mesh well together and so far, it has. I’m grateful to him for the opportunity.”

Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at [email protected] for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.