In the shadow of Bruce Cobleigh Stadium, its namesake has returned to Harrison’s football program.

Coleigh, who retired from coaching in 2007, returned to the Hoyas as the team’s offensive coordinator under coach Marty Galbraith.

“(Cobleigh) is a good at a lot of things, but he’s a good football coach,” Galbraith said. “He has insight into the community. It’s not like it used to be because of the economy and the overall general playing field. If you have a chance to hire a good coach and he’s already at the school, that just makes sense.

“I hired the guy with the stadium named after him. I went to the AD and said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ … He’s a tireless worker and does extra with the kids. He’s smart, and just does a really good job.”

But you won’t see Cobleigh taking victory laps and pointing up to the press box where his name is placed on the stadium.

“It’s uncomfortable,” he said. I don’t know. I just like coaching the kids. I just like to get them to improve. I try not to see all of that name stuff up there. I started the program from scratch, so (Galbraith) thought I could help out.”

From the football program’s inception in 1992, Cobleigh coached for 16 seasons with a 125-58 record. The Hoyas had three seasons with 10 wins or more and reached the state title game once in 2000, losing to Parkview. Since he left the program, the Hoyas have had just one winning season, as Harrison finished in 2008

However, Cobleigh never left Harrison, remaining on the staff at school at the department head for the physical education program at the school. So, when the opportunity arose, Galbraith decided to hand over his offense to Cobleigh.

“I’m involved in the offense, but we let him be the coordinator, so we put in the offense that he’s used to do doing.,” Galbraith said. “Then, we tweaked it a little bit. We just kind of blended it together.

“It’s his offense. It happens that what he’s doing is what I like to do. That makes it a lot easier. Some of the stuff we’ve done in the passing game, I’ve done at different places. He gets his input. His terminology is a little bit different. But it’s been used some during the program here even after he left.”

There will be no question as to who is calling the plays on Friday nights either.

“He’s called a gazillion plays, so I don’t have any problems with that,” Galbraith said. “I’ve got to coach the whole game and be involved in the defense, special teams and the line. It just makes it easier on me.”

Galbraith also said there’s no danger of Cobleigh wanting to more of a head coach than an offensive coordinator. As both are longtime friends and longtime coaches, both know exactly where to be and what to do.

“I didn’t really want to do all of the head coaching stuff, so I thought it might be fun just to do the X’s and O’s and not everything that goes with being a head coach,” Cobleigh said. “It’s been fun.”

But more than just being a staple of the Harrison community, Cobleigh came back simply because he was asked to by a friend.

“They just neeed some extra people,” Cobleigh said. “Coach Galbraith just called and asked me. We’ve been good friends since he was at Lassiter. I talk to him all the time, even when he was with the (NFL’s Tennessee) Titans.

“I retired and watched my son play. He’s finished playing. So, I had a little time and he said he needed some help, so I thought come back to help the program.”