The Washington City Schools have chosen the new coach to run the Blue Lion football program.

Chuck Williamson was approved by the WCS board of education with a 5-0 vote at their meeting Monday night.

Williamson succeeds former head coach Corey Dye, who led the program for the past seven seasons and who resigned from the job in November.

Williamson, 54, is a graduate of Westland High School, Galloway, Ohio (Franklin County).

He received a full scholarship to attend and play football for Ohio University where he was a free safety.

After being a business man for many years, Williamson has been the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Central Crossing High School in Grove City, Ohio.

“It was a unique set-up,” Williamson said. “Because when I took the job, they weren’t doing very well. They were the worst-ranked team in central Ohio. The head coach and I made a deal: I would run the program. I would run the practices and I would call the plays. He actually sat up in the box and I was down on the field.

“We made it to the playoffs the last two years,” Williamson said.

Williamson learned of the coaching vacancy from former Blue Lion assistant coach, Kevin Hyme.

“After I met the administration, I was all in,” Williamson said. “This is what I want to do. This is what I’m looking for. I was thrilled to death when they called me back.”

Williamson is very detail-oriented.

He will be presenting the players with a detailed outline of how the Blue Lions will build the program and achieve success moving forward.

“We have what we call a blueprint for success,” Williamson said. “It’s very detailed. We have a player’s manual. We try to be very detailed and very precise. This is what we want to do; this is how we want to do it.

“We are big on three to five seconds of relentless effort,” Williamson said. “We just want effort. You’re going to make mistakes, but do it playing fast.

“Offensively, we’re going to be a spread team,” Williamson said. “We’re going to spread you out. We don’t huddle, we go. We do a lot of run-pass options with our quarterbacks.

“Defensively, we’re very multiple,” Williamson said. “We like to bring pressure. We’ll man up a lot outside. You better get the play off quick, because we’re coming.”

As for the coaching staff, Williamson will be bringing two assistant coaches with him to Washington, including Kevin Mulvany, who was a kicker at Kent State.

“He will run our special teams,” Williamson said. “And he’ll work with the offensive line.”

“Bob Wolfe has been with me through three programs,” Williamson said. “He’ll be the assistant head coach. I haven’t defined his role yet.”

As for who else may remain with the program, Williamson mentioned Washington’s strength and condition coach, Mark Bihl.

“I just met with him,” Williamson said. “I’m very impressed with him. I’d like to get more guys inside the building. I would like to get young, energetic guys who just want to get after it. Honestly, I don’t care how much football they know. Sometimes, it’s better to teach them the way I want it taught and the way we do it.”

Williamson has worked with former Ohio State offensive coordinator (and now University of Houston head coach, Tom Herman).

“I was his right-hand man during the summer camps,” Willamson said. “He would say, ‘Chuck, you’ve got ‘em’. He would be gone for the rest of practice. I would work with the quarterbacks up there. He and I still communicate a little bit.”

What does Williamson hope to accomplish with the Blue Lion football program?

“I would like to do something special here,” Williamson said. “I would like to bring a state title to Washington Court House. I think we can do some special things here.

“I’m excited and ready to go to work,” Williamson said. “We’re going to talk to the kids. We’re going to talk to the community. We’re going to start at the lower levels and get involved with those kids; we’re going to get involved with the middle school programs. We want to start from the ground up.”

Williamson has been married to his wife Kelly for 26 years. They have three sons: Vincent, 24, who was All-Ohio in football at Westfall High School; Trenton, 21, is a sophomore attending West Virginia State and is a linebacker on the Yellow Jackets football team; and Deric, 17, who is a junior at Central Crossing High School.

Washington High School Athletic Director Jon Creamer spoke about the process of hiring the new head football coach.

“We had over 40 applicants for the job,” Creamer said. “We narrowed that down and we did some interviews the last couple of weeks.

“It was very clear to the committee — we had a committee put together — it was very clear to the committee that once Coach Williamson walked out the door, it was very clear that we wanted this man for the job,” Creamer said. “We were highly impressed.

“We look forward to what he’s going to bring to the program,” Creamer said. “We look forward to him building a whole new program here. We’re all very happy and very satisfied to have him here. He was the clear choice for this job.”

In addition to being the new head football coach at Washington High School, Williamson will be the coordinator of Alternative Educational Pathways.

That position involves assisting students identified as at-risk of not graduating due to academic performance, behavior issues and other factors that put students at risk of not completing the requirements of Washington High School, according to a press release from the Central Office.