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Alvirne turns to Rothe

When he was an assistant coach at Alvirne High School, Tarek Rothe used to spend time thinking about how he would do things if he ever became the program’s head coach. Turns out that was time well spent, because Rothe was elevated from assistant coach to head coach at Alvirne last week.

The blueprint that Rothe hopes will allow Alvirne to achieve some sustained success includes increasing the number of players in the program, demanding more of commitment from his team in the weight room and getting the community more involved in the program.

“I used to think about things I would change, things I would do different,” Rothe said. “I applied because you don’t know how often these opportunities will come, and I felt like it was the right time to put my flavor on Alvirne football.

“I want to get the numbers up and make us competitive, and hopefully that will turn into some wins. Then we can move forward from there.”

Rothe, who has coached track and field coach at Alvirne since 2002, replaces Tim Walsh, who resigned in November after three seasons as the Broncos’ head coach. Walsh guided Alvirne to a 4-6 record and a playoff berth in his first season as Alvirne’s head coach, but the Broncos went 1-8 in both 2015 and 2016.

Rothe, 47, is Alvirne’s fourth coach in the last six seasons. He served as an assistant to former Alvirne head coaches Mike DeFelice and Bob Nimblett, and was Alvirne’s freshman coach last season. Rothe was also the defensive coordinator at Campbell High School when the Cougars won the Division III championship in 2014.

Since he works as a paraprofessional in the special ed department at Alvirne, Rothe is hoping he’ll have some success getting athletes in other sports to come out for football.

“That’s a little easier to do when you’re the head coach,” he said. “I’ll have to ask some of these kids, ‘Are you a baseball player or are you an athlete? Are you a basketball player or are you an athlete?'”

Rothe guided Alvirne’s freshman team to a 7-2 record last season. He said there were about 30 freshmen on that team, which accounted for nearly half of the players in the program.

“We had 30 upperclassmen, and we need those numbers to be in the 50s,” he said. “We have 30 good, talented kids at the freshman level, but in order to compete in Division I you need two good classes in a row.

“I’m going to start the best 11 kids. I anticipate a lot of sophomores playing. There is some talent in that freshman class.”

Rothe described himself as a run-first coach on offense, and said the Broncos will likely operate out of an I-formation with a tight end.

“I’m passionate about coaching and I believe I’m as qualified as anybody,” Rothe said. “I think I’m ready to help Alvirne take the next step.”

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