Canal Winchester Local Schools confirmed Monday that Jake Kuhner will not return for a fifth season as football coach.
The position was posted Sunday to the OHSAA's job openings webpage.
“Jake Kuhner will not return as football coach for the fall,” Megan Anthony, the director of communications for Canal Winchester schools, said in a statement to The Dispatch. “Our supplemental contracts are one-year contracts. Our athletic director (Jacob Ramsey) decided not to recommend coach Kuhner as head football coach for the 2025-2026 school year, and coach Kuhner notified us in writing last week that he does not intend to seek the position.”
Ramsey and Kuhner did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Kuhner went 33-16 at Canal Winchester, qualifying for the postseason all four years. Canal advanced to a Division II, Region 7 semifinal in 2023, going 11-2, and went 8-4 last fall.
Canal was 19-9 in OCC play under Kuhner, winning the OCC-Capital title (6-1) in 2023.
Kuhner, a 2003 Pickerington graduate, took over at Canal in 2021 after three seasons at Watkins Memorial in which he went 11-17. He went 14-16 at Whitehall from 2012-14, leading the Rams to the MSL-Ohio championship in his final year.
Kuhner was a two-time state placer in wrestling and three-time state qualifier in track and field in high school. He also was Pickerington North wrestling coach from 2015-18 and served as North’s defensive coordinator in 2017.
He is an intervention specialist at Canal Winchester.
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High school sports reporter Frank DiRenna can be reached at fdirenna@dispatch.com and at @DispatchFrank on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Canal Winchester football coach Jake Kuhner will not return
