By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Instead of selling one of his customers a car, Mark Asher got sold on coaching.

Although Asher had his hand in coaching at the time, the customer at Columbiana Buick convinced Asher that he should apply for the head football position at East Liverpool.

That was a few years ago — before Asher got the job and led East Liverpool to the playoffs after the Potters had won two games in the previous three years.

“One of my customers got me to apply, but they sold me instead of me selling them,” said the 55-year-old Asher, who was named head football coach at Struthers High School on Tuesday evening after a unanimous vote by the district’s school board.

He replaces Dallas Saunders.

Asher, who served as Youngstown State’s offensive line coach from 1991-96, most recently piloted East Liverpool’s football program for two seasons.

The Potters went 8-3 in 2010, including a season-ending loss in the first round of the playoffs. East Liverpool was 4-6 in Asher’s first year. His big achievements included a much-improved home-game record as well as two wins over Beaver Local, a rival that beat the Potters 12 of 13 times previously.

“We beat them both years, so that was a good thing,” said Asher, who was selected Eastern Ohio district coach of the year and Quad County coach of the year in 2010.

The hiring at Struthers comes at the right time.

“I live in New Middletown, so it’s close to home,” said Asher. “Plus, Struthers is a prestigious job. It has great tradition, is a great football community,” Asher said of his familiarity with the Wildcats when he was at YSU and when he was at Ohio State in the early 1980s.

Most importantly, Asher thinks he can make a difference.

“They have players, so I think we have the athletes to turn that thing around.”

Struthers Superintendent Robert Rostan said that 13 applications were received and that Asher was among six who got interviews.

“We had a lot of good applicants, but Mark brought a lot of things, like enthusiasm. There’s no question that all of the candidates knew football, but Mark impressed our committee with his whole approach and we think he’s going to come in and carry that enthusiasm to the kids, parents and community.”

After leaving YSU, Asher bounced around for the next several years at various schools including East Palestine, Lisbon, Kettering.

At East Palestine, he served as a consultant to coach Brian Blevins, who then left for Kettering in Dayton.

Asher’s role as consultant was calling offensive plays on Friday nights.

During the week, he was in sales and management at Columbiana Buick and was did TV commercials for the car dealership.

Then, last year he switched professions and joined Community First Real Estate out of Poland as an agent.

Before YSU, Asher was head coach at Otterbein College in Westerville from 1987-91.

Originally from Kansas, Asher attended Coffeyville Jr. College and graduated from Emporia State, where he played football and tennis.

“I had some larger Div. I offers, but I chose Emporia because they let me do both.”