St. Ignatius is one of the proudest high school football programs in the state of Ohio, but the last few years have been rough for the Wildcats.
They now have their next coach, hoping to turn the program back to its glory days.
On Monday evening, St. Ignatius announced that it has hired Tom Kaufman to be the program's 24th head football coach.
He takes over for Ryan Franzinger, who coached the Wildcats for three seasons.
Kaufman is a graduate of Mentor Lake Catholic and played college football at John Carroll University.
He was a defensive coordinator at both John Carroll and Kent State before being the head coach of Gilmour Academy for two seasons, including a 12-win season in 2024.
This year, Kaufman was head coach at Marietta College and went 5-5.
St. Ignatius has 11 state championships, which is an OHSAA record for Division I. They haven't won one since 2011 under the legendary Chuck Kyle.
Kyle coached 40 seasons before retiring in 2022.
In the last three seasons, St. Ignatius has gone just 5-29. Each of the last two seasons, the Wildcats were 1-10.
St. Ignatius continues to play an extremely difficult schedule, which hasn't helped as the program has fallen on harder-than-usual times.
Kaufman is the man they're hoping can turn it all around.
MORE: LeBron James confused his head coach by usurping Luka Doncic