Clodfelter has more than 25 years of coaching experience, including 15 years as a head coach. For the past five years, Clodfelter turned around a struggling football program at Bethel High School, according to Carlisle Athletic Director John Augustine.
Clodfelter’s 2017 team finished 9-1 and qualified for the state playoffs for only the second time in school history. He was also named the Miami Valley Football Coaches Association Division 6 Coach of the Year in both 2016 and 2017.
Prior to Bethel High School, Clodfelter was head football coach at Beavercreek High School. During his tenure with the Beavers, he was selected as the Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Coach of the Year three times, in 2006, 2007, and 2012, when Beavercreek won its first championship in 28 years.
In 2011, Clodfelter was also selected as the Southwest Ohio Division I Football Coach of the Year, as well as the Miami Valley Football Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year.
“I am thrilled and excited about coaching football at Carlisle,” Clodfelter said. “I have been fortunate in my career to have been able to turn around several struggling programs. Our program will focus on teamwork, resiliency, competitiveness, enthusiasm, and belief in self.
Clodfelter said these attributes are critical to the entire developmental process of young people and the focus on life skills is a huge part of his program.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have Scott Clodfelter as our head football coach,” Augustine said. “I am even more excited for our student-athletes, our school and our community in general.”
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Clodfelter replaces Thomas “T.J.” Smart, who resigned May 23 following his May 21 arrest by Beavercreek police for allegedly stealing about $600 in ticket sales proceeds following a May 9 girls lacrosse game from his full-time employer, Beavercreek Local Schools.
On May 21, a police officer escorted Smart from his Beavercreek High School classroom to the police department where he admitted to a detective that he stole the lacrosse game cash box from the school. He also admitted to taking adult and student ticket rolls and the ticket sales ledger.
Police said Smart used a master key for the high school building to gain entry to the office, to which he had access when he was a “site manager” for the district. He was no longer working in that capacity and should not have had access to it, according to the police report.
Police recovered the ticket log from Smart’s vehicle and found the adult and student ticket rolls, both of which were used to determine how much money was taken, at his Kettering home, according to the report.
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The Carlisle board formally accepted his resignation May 29. Carlisle schools hired Smart on Feb. 11 to his first head coaching position. He had been an assistant coach at several area schools, including Oakwood, Tipp City Bethel and Beavercreek. While he would be Carlisle’s head coach, Smart had planned to keep his “day job” with Beavercreek schools.
Smart replaced former coach Mike Brown who led the Carlisle program for the past four years.
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Smart resigned his job as a special education aide with Beavercreek schools and a report has been sent to the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct for review and investigation of his education license. He has a pre-trial conference scheduled for June 24 in Fairborn Municipal Court where he is facing a petty theft charge, a first-degree misdemeanor.
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