Editorial: BHS Head Football Coach resigns to take university job

The March 31 resignation of DeJuan Rogers from his positions as Belleville High School Safety Liaison / Head Football Coach was accepted by the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education on Monday without comment.
Rogers had been approved as head football coach in December to take the place of Jermain Crowell who resigned after the Michigan High School Athletic Association suspended Crowell from coaching for the rest of the 2022 season and through June of 2024 for violating the state’s undue influence rule.
BHS was already on probation after an assistant coach within the football program self-reported an undue influence violation the previous April. That unnamed coach was suspended for the maximum four years for that violation.
The MHSAA describes its undue influence rule as “the anti-recruiting regulation.”
Rogers had served as Crowell’s assistant coach and Rogers took the football team through the final few games to its second state championship in a row.
Near the end of Monday’s meeting, School Supt. Pete Kudlak explained that Rogers got a college coaching position at Tiffin University in Ohio as a backfield coach. His goal had been college football, Kudlak said. Kudlak said the district now has a committee conducting interviews for the position. The future of BHS football hangs in the balance.