“The ultimate goal I have for every player I coach,” new head football coach Kevin Kiesel said, “is that they become good husbands and even better fathers.” “When you look at the players that you coached when they come back and they’ve got a wife and a trail of little kids behind them, I think that’s when you realize that you’ve done what you’re supposed to do.”

Kiesel’s office walls have a few motivational placards and a dry-erase board. Family photographs and black-marker drawings of SpongeBob Squarepants from his children fill up the rest of the space.

Kiesel is 45 years old and 5’10, with blue-gray eyes and pale brown hair. He talks animatedly of his family, quickly retelling how he and his wife Annette named each of their three children, Julianne, Eddie, and Robert, after important people- Julianne for the Naval Academy’s first female head of midshipmen, Eddie for a figure at Albright College, and Robert for Kiesel’s father, who forced integration of the Sugar Bowl during his coaching career.

Kiesel hopes that his emphasis on family and success will help to turn around a struggling football team.

“Our ultimate goal is to be consistent champions of the ODAC and be a consistent NCAA Division III play-off caliber team,” he says.

A signed Fairfield University Stags football sits on his bookshelf in a Plexiglas case. Kiesel began Fairfield’s football team from scratch when their program started in 1996. He won their league’s Coach of the Year award, and the 1999 club ranked fifth in the country for Division I-AA non-scholarship teams.

Photos of past teams are also hanging, like those of Albright College and the US Naval academy. He has coached for 25 years and has a reputation for improving lagging teams. Starting at Albright in 1993, he brought their 0-10 team to 8-3 in two years, with an overall record of 15-15-1.

“I liked the fact that he was really organized and confident, and he brought in a belief,” said junior Kyle Kiser. He and junior Charlie Stroup told the search committee about the team’s opinions during the selection process.

“He’s taken a team that wasn’t terribly successful and made them successful. He knows how to do it and he wants us to do it.”

All of Kiesel’s mannerisms are enthusiastic. During the interview he leans across his desk or reclines with his arms tucked behind his head. At one point, he jumps from his chair and grabs a dry erase marker, squeaking a coaching diagram onto the board.

“Everyone says it’s a challenge to take a team that’s, you know, down, and bring ’em up. But, to me, that’s the most fun,” he says.

“I think the hardest thing to do is when you’re on top, to stay on top, but I think the climb up is just the most fun thing to do. Everyone looks at you and you’re here,” he gestures with his hand, raising it as he speaks, “so as you go up the ladder, you have absolutely nothing to lose. You just go out and do your best.”

Head Athletic Director Marion Kirby mentioned that Kiesel’s Division III football experience means that he is used to its difficulties, such as smaller budgets than at larger schools.

“Sometimes a (Division I) coach has all the amenities, he’s got all the support staff, he doesn’t have to worry about the field getting lined off, he doesn’t have to worry about things they’re used to having support staff do for them,” Kirby said. “That’s not true here, and it’s not true at most Division III schools. A coach has to be willing to get his hands dirty.”

Kirby said that recruiting is difficult since Division III gives no athletic scholarships. He thinks that Kiesel will be able to find athletes who fit Guilford’s community.

Kiser said that Kiesel struck the players as a confident, organized coach, with plans to help retention rates.

“In all Division III schools, the retention of players is a problem, whether that be because of academic reasons or otherwise, but the one thing we can control would be the academic reasons,” Kiser said. “We wanted a coach that would have a plan to have study halls, help his athletes get organized and do better in classes.”

“In the short time that he’s been here, our youngsters seem to be warming to him; they seem to be responding,” Kirby said.

Kiesel mentions a warm reception not just from players, but also from administration.

“The people here are so nice, and you can see the support for athletics,” he says. “There’s another capital campaign, and there’s a big plan to build a baseball-football pavilion and get lockers out there.”

Stroup said in an e-mail that Kiesel’s appointment has strengthened the team’s hopes for next year.

“Since the arrival of Coach Kiesel, there seems to be a renewed since of enthusiasm. We believe in his ideas and are very excited about what the future will bring.