Kenston Forest School hired Joseph Kaiser as its new varsity football head coach this summer.

Kaiser, 26, comes to the job with experience as a player at the high school and college levels and is fresh off of his first football head coaching stint at the varsity high school level.

“I was the varsity head coach for two years at Richmond Christian School right out of college and had some good times there, some rough times as well,” he said. “Numbers were low. First year, we were in a transitional season where we had about five eighth-graders on the field and the rest of the team was freshmen, so it was a rough year to say the least going against some varsity competition with guys that are juniors and seniors, 17, 18 years old.

“And then the second season at Richmond Christian, we got better. We lost a couple games in overtime. The kids really worked hard in the weight room and were getting better.”

Tom Inge, who was the Kavs’ previous head coach, has a demanding work schedule outside of football and was friends with Kaiser. Kaiser said Inge reached out to him to see if he would be interested in interviewing for the Kenston Forest head coaching job.

“I said, ‘Absolutely. That’s something that I would love to be interviewed for,’” he said.

After an interview and a visit with good people in the area, “it just seemed like the right move for me and for my family at the time,” Kaiser said. “We have a 2-year-old, and she’s going to preschool, and it’s just a great area and good kids from what I’ve seen so far.”

He offered more information on his background in football.

“I played at Bridgewater College briefly my freshman year, and after my freshman year, I actually hurt my back,” he said. “… Unfortunately, I had to stop playing football. My college career was brief. But then (I) went on to earn my degree in English, stayed in contact with a lot of coaches in the area and helped them run camps, and that led to me receiving the job at Richmond Christian right out of college …”

He acknowledged that at 26, he is “a youngin’ in this business.”

“One thing that I rely on as a coach is just the knowledge that I’ve gained from guys that I’ve worked for and that have worked with me, just like we opened our (Kenston Forest football) camp with speed camps, Tim Coleman speed camps,” he said. “Tim Coleman’s a guy that has won nine state championships. I consider him to be a friend and a colleague, and that is something that we opened our camp with just to show kids we care with NFL and NCAA speed training from Coach Coleman.”

Kaiser said he also started camp with what is called “The Ten Commandments of Leadership and Success,” and he elaborated on the discipline with which he likes to run his practices.

“Everything is very organized,” he said. “The kids get a practice script before every practice, and they know exactly what we’re doing. So I just want to make sure that we do everything organized and get this program on its feet and rolling where it needs to go. There’s a lot of good kids out in Blackstone and the Nottoway area.”

He noted he will be pushing himself into somewhat new territory as a coach this year.

“I’ve been primarily an offensive coach,” he said. “I’ll be on the defensive side of the ball primarily this season.”

This will be his first time working in the realm of eight-man football, but in familiarizing himself with it, he found it to be familiar already.

“It was something that we did consider at Richmond Christian due to numbers,” he said. “They didn’t go that direction, but then obviously once I was interviewing at this job, I did do some research. Not much different from the 11-man game, a lot of the same rules … It really opens up the field for the skills guys.”

He affirmed that he believes eight-man football is good for Kenston Forest’s program.

“It’s football, it’s full speed, and we’ve got kids coming out wanting to play that never played before, and we’ve got kids coming out that played for years, so we have a diverse group and kids that are learning and very excited for the season,” he said.