St. Vincent-St. Mary hires Marcus Wattley as football coach

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Marcus Wattley is returning to St. Vincent-St. Mary to serve as the head coach of the Irish football team.

STVM announced Wattley as its football coach via a news release Dec. 8. The decision to hire Wattley presents a homecoming of sorts as Wattley was STVM's football head coach in 2016 and 2017, and was an assistant on Dan Boarman's staff for nine seasons from 2007-2015.

Wattley was the defensive ends coach and academic liaison at the University of Akron on Terry Bowden's staff in 2018. Bowden and his staff were let go after the 2018 season, and Wattley served as Canton McKinley's head coach in 2019 and 2020 before a controversial situation during a workout in a gymnasium ended his tenure there.

Wattley was the defensive coordinator at Archbishop Hoban in 2025 on coach Tim Tyrrell's staff. The Knights finished with a 10-2 record and were a Division II, Region 5 finalist.

Wattley compiled a 17-9 record in two seasons as STVM's head coach, going 7-5 in 2016 and 10-4 in 2017 with two playoff appearances. He went 4-2 in playoff games and the Irish finished the 2017 season with a Division III state semifinal appearance.

Wattley graduated from Copley High School in 2000 and holds a bachelor’s degree and two associates degrees from University of Akron (2003, 2006, 2010). He played football at Copley for Boarman and at Akron for Lee Owens.

Wattley was an assistant football coach for 12 seasons under Boarman (three at Copley from 2004-2006 and nine at STVM from 2007-2015) before taking over as the Irish coach. Wattley was the STVM defensive coordinator his final five seasons on Boarman's staff, including the 2012 and 2013 Irish teams that won Division III state titles.

Wattley and McKinley assistant coaches Frank McLeod, Zachary Sweat, Romero Harris, Cade Brodie, Tyler Thatcher and Josh Grimsley were fired on June 3, 2021, after a discipline incident on May 24, 2021, that involved a former McKinley High School football player and a pepperoni pizza.

Wattley, McLeod, Sweat, Harris, Brodie and Thatcher were involved in lawsuits as plaintiffs and defendants centered around allegations a then-17-year-old McKinley football player was forced to eat a pepperoni pizza against his Hebrew Israelite religious beliefs.

Wattley and the other coaches have maintained they did not force the player to stay and eat the pizza, that they offered an alternative without pork, and that the discipline was intended to rescue a troubled player whose off-the-field behavior was negatively influencing his teammates and jeopardizing his future as a Division I college athlete.

Wattley guided McKinley to a 14-6 record in two seasons, going 9-3 in 2019 and 5-3 in 2020, when the season was abbreviated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bulldogs made the Division I playoffs in each season and went 2-2 in the postseason.

Marcus Wattley seeks to turn around STVM football team

Wattley will be tasked with trying to turn around a STVM program that has struggled in recent years after shining a decade ago.

Boarman’s STVM teams compiled an 89-26 record in nine seasons from 2007-2015, including a 60-10 mark in his final five seasons with Wattley as defensive coordinator. The Irish qualified for the playoffs eight times and won Division III state championships in 2012 and 2013. The 2012 team was 13-2 and the 2013 team was 15-0 with Parris Campbell Jr., Dante Booker Jr., Newman Williams and Travonte Junius playing starring roles each year.

Since Wattley left, the STVM football team has had three head coaches: Bobby Nickol, Terry Cistone and Doran Grant.

Nickol compiled a 24-16 record as STVM coach from 2018-2021 with three Division III playoff appearances (2019, 2020 and 2021). The Irish went 2-3 in the playoffs under his guidance. He led the Irish to records of 7-3 in 2018, 8-3 in 2019, 5-3 in 2020 and 4-7 in 2021. Nickol has been Revere's coach from 2022 to the present.

Cistone, a 1979 graduate of STVM, compiled records of 8-4 in 2022 and 5-6 in 2023 in two seasons as Irish coach. He led the program to two Division II playoff appearances and a 2-2 mark in the postseason before retiring after 42 years of coaching football. Cistone also served as an assistant coach at STVM, Firestone, Buchtel, Revere and Lake, and was the head coach at Revere from 2003-2009 and in 2019.

Grant, a 2011 STVM graduate, posted records of 1-9 in 2024 and 0-8 in 2025 in two seasons as Irish coach. Grant was a star player at STVM, a starter at defensive back on Ohio State's team that won the first national championship in the college football playoff era in January 2015 and played in the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015.

STVM has won six football state championships, with the first four coming under the direction of retired coach John Cistone, who is Terry Cistone's father. John Cistone, a 1950 St. V graduate, led STVM to a Class AA state title in 1972 and Division III state titles in 1981, 1982 and 1988. He posted a 207-115-6 coaching record as St. V coach from 1965-1971 and STVM coach from 1972-1996.

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: St. Vincent-St. Mary hires Marcus Wattley to serve as football coach

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