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After five seasons as head wrestling coach and one as head football coach, Nick Hoth is leaving the Mexico High School sports scene, albeit very reluctantly in some ways.
Making a move back to the St. Louis area where he grew up, Hoth and wife Jan (also a Bulldog coach) will bid adieu to Mexico at the end of the 2011-12 school year in an effort to move themselves and their young daughter closer to his family.
“We’re trying to get closer to family,” Hoth told The Ledger on Tuesday afternoon after an emotional meeting with his athletes. Nick teaches physical education and Jan social studies at MHS. The Hoths wrote their letters of resignation last week and those letters were part of the Mexico School Board meeting Tuesday night.
With another successful wrestling campaign ending for the Bulldogs last weekend, Hoth normally would be closing the books this week on his winter sport. But when an opportunity came up to accept the head football coaching position at Northwest House Springs High School, personal considerations prompted the making of an unexpected decision.
“Mexico has been home for us for some time now and, under other circumstances, we thought it would be home for a long time,” Hoth noted.
“We love the town; I met my wife here, we bought our first house here, we had our first child here – we’re always going to have a lot of good memories about Mexico.”
With rumors of his departure starting to circulate around the halls of MHS, Hoth tried to keep the meeting with his Bulldogs short and sweet, admitting to emotions running high on his part.
“I felt it was important for them to hear about this from me,” he said. “It was tough talking to my athletes, even though there wasn’t much said.”
A wild 60-56 home triumph gave Hoth, the former Mexico defensive coordinator, a 5-5 finish in his first gridiron campaign. He became the 19th MHS head football coach when Devin Brown moved to Boonville in late July and he credited at the time his assistants in both football and wrestling for making it possible for him to direct both programs.
“I want to see Mexico succeed in both football and wrestling after I’m gone, I really do,” he said. “One of the challenges of being a head football coach is getting the kids to be their own leaders and my football guys did just that.
“I enjoyed my only football season here a heck of a lot and I owe it all to those kids and how they responded.”
Hoth’s matmen entered last week’s MSHSAA championships with high hopes of equaling or even surpassing last season’s third-place team finish, the program’s best ever. Mexico had to settle for seventh place this time, but still brought home four medals compared to five the winter before.
“We had two pretty exciting years of wrestling together and I was very proud of how when we asked those guys to do some thinking outside the box,they did it. That attitude made them special.”
Hoth is a graduate of Francis Howell High School and Lindenwood University in St. Charles. He served as an assistant football coach Lindenwood for two years and he also was an assistant at St. Dominic High School before coming to Mexico.
“One of our best memories of Mexico will be all the kids the two of us have gotten to know in our time here,” he said. “We got to know so many of them. A lot of our dates were going to basketball games in the winter and volleyball games in the fall and we’ve tried to continue doing that as a family.”
Jan Hoth will be coaching boys tennis this spring and Nick will continue to supervise the MHS weight room. He will not be coaching wrestling at Northwest, using his free time to earn his master’s degree.
After five seasons as head wrestling coach and one as head football coach, Nick Hoth is leaving the Mexico High School sports scene, albeit very reluctantly in some ways.
Making a move back to the St. Louis area where he grew up, Hoth and wife Jan (also a Bulldog coach) will bid adieu to Mexico at the end of the 2011-12 school year in an effort to move themselves and their young daughter closer to his family.
“We’re trying to get closer to family,” Hoth told The Ledger on Tuesday afternoon after an emotional meeting with his athletes. Nick teaches physical education and Jan social studies at MHS. The Hoths wrote their letters of resignation last week and those letters were part of the Mexico School Board meeting Tuesday night.
With another successful wrestling campaign ending for the Bulldogs last weekend, Hoth normally would be closing the books this week on his winter sport. But when an opportunity came up to accept the head football coaching position at Northwest House Springs High School, personal considerations prompted the making of an unexpected decision.
“Mexico has been home for us for some time now and, under other circumstances, we thought it would be home for a long time,” Hoth noted.
“We love the town; I met my wife here, we bought our first house here, we had our first child here – we’re always going to have a lot of good memories about Mexico.”
With rumors of his departure starting to circulate around the halls of MHS, Hoth tried to keep the meeting with his Bulldogs short and sweet, admitting to emotions running high on his part.
“I felt it was important for them to hear about this from me,” he said. “It was tough talking to my athletes, even though there wasn’t much said.”
A wild 60-56 home triumph gave Hoth, the former Mexico defensive coordinator, a 5-5 finish in his first gridiron campaign. He became the 19th MHS head football coach when Devin Brown moved to Boonville in late July and he credited at the time his assistants in both football and wrestling for making it possible for him to direct both programs.
“I want to see Mexico succeed in both football and wrestling after I’m gone, I really do,” he said. “One of the challenges of being a head football coach is getting the kids to be their own leaders and my football guys did just that.
“I enjoyed my only football season here a heck of a lot and I owe it all to those kids and how they responded.”
Hoth’s matmen entered last week’s MSHSAA championships with high hopes of equaling or even surpassing last season’s third-place team finish, the program’s best ever. Mexico had to settle for seventh place this time, but still brought home four medals compared to five the winter before.
“We had two pretty exciting years of wrestling together and I was very proud of how when we asked those guys to do some thinking outside the box,they did it. That attitude made them special.”
Hoth is a graduate of Francis Howell High School and Lindenwood University in St. Charles. He served as an assistant football coach Lindenwood for two years and he also was an assistant at St. Dominic High School before coming to Mexico.
“One of our best memories of Mexico will be all the kids the two of us have gotten to know in our time here,” he said. “We got to know so many of them. A lot of our dates were going to basketball games in the winter and volleyball games in the fall and we’ve tried to continue doing that as a family.”
Jan Hoth will be coaching boys tennis this spring and Nick will continue to supervise the MHS weight room. He will not be coaching wrestling at Northwest, using his free time to earn his master’s degree.
