Ekart takes football post at Gering

In a strange turn of events, former Sidney High School head football coach Todd Ekart will be on the opposing sideline of a district rival next season.

On Thursday night, Ekart was named the head coach of Gering High's program.

When Ekart resigned in November, it was all based on family decisions, he said. His wife, Tami, had accepted a job in hotel management in Kearney, and it was a chance for him and his family to be closer to other relatives in that part of the state. She started that job in December.

Ekart said he had intended to try to find a teaching and coaching position in the Kearney area. Nothing panned out immediately, and meanwhile, Ekart said his wife's job didn't turn out to be what she had expected it to be. Tami Ekart is returning to Sidney this weekend.

"It's an odd situation the way it all shook out," Ekart said on Friday. "There's no animosity with anyone here."

The Gering post opened when head coach Jimmie Rhodes resigned in January after finishing 0-9 this past fall. He was 2-7 in 2013, 5-4 in '12 and 5-5 in '11.

Gering Athletic Director Glen Koski said he's extremely excited to land a coach of Ekart's caliber.

"We happened to be in the right place at the right time on this one," Koski said. "Things really worked out for us with Todd's hiring. It's very fortunate for us."

Koski said he originally received about 10 applications for the position after they began advertising for the job. However, they didn't have a teaching position at the time. Earlier this month, a teacher submitted their retirement papers and, thus, a teaching spot became available.

"Todd only reached out to us a couple of weeks ago," Koski said. "He obviously wanted to stay in coaching and be a teacher. It all worked out and we were able to pursue him and line him up with a social studies position as well.

"He took over a program in Sidney that had struggled and turned things around," Koski added. "He's done some very good things there. We're pretty excited about that part of it."

Ekart spent five seasons as the head coach of the Red Raiders and compiled a 16-32 record. But 14 of those wins came in the past two seasons when he guided Sidney to back-to-back state tournament appearances. He was 7-3 this past fall.

Chris Koozer, previously an assistant coach at Grand Island Senior High, was hired to take over the Sidney football program in late December.

"Chris had already been hired when everything started changing (for our family)," Ekart said. "It wasn't an option to try and stay here and be an assistant. It would have been very awkward and not fair to him.

"I'm now looking to the next stage in our life," Ekart added. "There are a lot of similarities in taking over the Gering program as when I started here in Sidney. I'm hoping to have some of the same success there. We've really enjoyed our time in Sidney and now we're looking forward to a new challenge."