Returning to the Fort

FORT RECOVERY — Ten years ago, Wes Wenning caught a touchdown to help lead the Indians to their first and only state championship over the second-ranked Mogadore 33-14.

Now he’s coming back to the Fort to lead the Tribe once again.

Fort Recovery Local Schools board unanimously approved Wenning to take over the varsity football program on Monday.

“Just first and foremost, over the roof excited,” Wenning said. “This has been a job that’s been in the back of my mind coming up through this program and being a part of this community that has poured so much into me and developing me into becoming who I am. Then going out for a while to college and moving to Akron, to having this kind of full circle opportunity that we get to jump in and reignite a culture at Fort Recovery is truly a blessing and an honor. And I’m very excited to do so.”

Wenning is a 2016 graduate of Fort Recovery High School, and competed on the state champion football team, basketball team and was a state qualifier in track. 

After high school, Wenning played football at Ashland University, a Division II school in northern Ohio. Wenning graduated from Ashland in 2020 and started as an intervention specialist at Archbishop Hoban in Akron, while serving as an assistant on the football team under Tim Tyrrell for the last four seasons. (In 2024 he was promoted to associate principal and dean of student life.)

Wenning’s Fort Recovery roots and resume helped him stand out to FRHS athletics director Aimee Pottkotter and the hiring committee.

“We have our three core values of our athletic department … and those are commitment, integrity and relationships,” Pottkotter said. “We just thought he had embodied a lot of those values and has a lot of good ideas to bring those values to our community, into our football program. And we just liked a lot of the things he had to say about leadership and what he would like to see for our football program going forward.”

One of the major points that Wenning emphasized was encouraging student involvement. He wants more kids to try and be three-sport athletes while still focusing on academics and an outside job.

Wenning said he’s thought about eventually becoming the Indians’ coach for a long time, so when he got the opportunity to throw his hat in the ring, he jumped on it. While moving away from a bigger city like Akron will come with some adjustments for his family – he is married to Kendra Seifring Wenning, who also graduated from Fort Recovery in 2016, and has two children with her – he is excited to return home and be closer to his family.

“At the end of the day, there’s no place like home,” Wenning said. “I think we just made the call as a family that if all the stars aligned with this job, that it’s time to go home. I threw my name in the mix and thought that Fort Recovery did an outstanding job. They blew me away with their interview process.”

Wenning succeeds Brent Niekamp, who served as the Indians’ head coach for 21 years. Niekamp led the Tribe to three playoff appearances. Wenning was a wide receiver for the first two playoff teams (2014 and 2015) including the state championship team from 2015. (The other playoff berth came in Niekamp’s last season as the Indians accepted a berth following a pair of other teams declining to compete.)

He finished with an 81-131 (38.2%) while climbing up as high as third in the Midwest Athletic Conference standings in 2015.

Wenning will look to draw on what he’s learned from Niekamp, while reinvigorating the culture surrounding Fort Recovery football.

“Coach Niekamp has just played such a pivotal role in developing (me and my friends) and so many of us classes that have gone through Fort Recovery,” Wenning said. “There’s so many things that he’s facilitated that were far beyond wins and losses in his coaching philosophy that culminated (into) a state championship. …

“I still remember some of those things he input for my senior class that were phenomenal, chemistry building, culture building, etc. So really looking to, as I step into this role, is reignite that fire for culture excitement.”