When Steve Specht was a senior at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 1985, one of the assistant coaches on the staff was Urban Meyer. More than 25 years later, Meyer has won two National Championships while at Florida and Specht was won two Ohio Division I State Championships as the head coach at his alma mater.
In fact, Specht was also the Ohio Division I Coach of the Year when St. X won the two titles in 2005 and 2007. This fall he is in his eighth season as head coach for the Bombers and 18th as a coach at the school. Specht played baseball and football at Earlham College and started his coaching career at Roger Bacon High School (OH) in 1989. He then coached at West Chester Lakota (OH) before returning to St. X as an assistant.
In 2004, Specht became head coach and has an overall 71-17 record. He also became a member of USA’s Football and Wellness Committee, a group designed to further promote the best practices for America’s youth and the amateur football community. Specht also ventured to Sao Paulo, Brazil this past spring and introduced many South Americans to American football. Funded in part by the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Education Development Program and Brazil’s American Football Federation, the two-day clinic benefited over 100 coaches of high school-aged and adult club teams across the entire country.
Specht is an English teacher at St. Xavier and teaches Freshman Oral Communication. He’s also a defensive specialist on the football field. Specht’s teams use matching zone concepts and employ a number of nickel pressure packages. Ranked among the prep elite teams this fall, St. Xavier held their first opponent to a total of 11 yards. Urban Meyer, to this day a friend and mentor to Specht, would be proud.