Despite an uneven season for Rossview football, Todd Hood maintains his love for coaching

Winning is what Rossview coach Todd Hood said keeps him motivated to remain coaching high school football after 30 years in and around Montgomery County.

But any head coach knows that winning isn't always easy.

Hood's Hawks have struggled this season, but picked up a 22-14 win over Kenwood on Thursday, scoring two touchdowns in the final eight minutes of the fourth quarter for the team's third win in 2022. A 3-5 record (1-2 in Region 5-6A) has Rossview hoping for a playoff berth with Hendersonville and Beech remaining on its schedule.

If winning is what keeps Hood going, finding alternative motivations has become key when those wins are few and far between.

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"It's really about building relationships too," Hood said. "Look, it has been a struggle for us this year. We're young, we're not very big and we don't have a ton of numbers on our roster. But these kids give me everything they've got. And I try to give them everything I've got. I can rest easy at night knowing I did my best that day."

Hood, 54, is a veteran. He was an assistant at Northwest in the early 2000's. He was a defensive coordinator for three straight Kentucky high school state championship teams at Fort Campbell and spent seven years as coach at Clarksville Academy. He's seen injuries decimate his teams. He's watched talent walk off his team and move to other cities and he's heard the moans from frustrated parents and players when a season goes awry.

"To be quite honest, every single year since I've been at Rossview has been vastly different then the year before," Hood said. "This is my sixth year at Rossview and there hasn't been a single season where things were the same."

Actually, his first two seasons at Rossview were identical. His team finished 6-5 in 2017 and '18 and made the Class 6A playoffs both years. Since then he's made one playoff appearance with losing records in 2019 and 2021. If he wins out this season, Rossview will salvage a .500 season.

"Coach Hood has been nothing but positive with us," Rossview first-year football player and soccer star Chance Siler said. "He's been a great mentor to me, and he's the one that got me to come out and play football this year."

Hood's intuition about Siler paid off Thursday after Siler caught the go-ahead 73-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback J.T. Sims with 7:29 left in the game to knock off the Knights (2-6) in a non-region game.

"We've had our ups and downs this year but that's football," Siler said. "We're finding our way."

Rossview has been finding its way with a young team, but playing in one of the city's largest schools. There's inherent pressures that comes with being a high school head football coach and one that has lost to rival Clarksville five straight times.

"The pressure I feel has always come from myself," Hood said. "It's never been about outside pressure. I hold myself to a high standard and that's what I'm reaching for every single day I'm teaching and coaching. I've been doing this for 30 years and that much hasn't changed."

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Reach sports writer George Robinson atgrobinson@gannett.com or (931) 245-0747 and on Twitter @Cville_Sports.