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| Barberton's head football coach, Tony Gotto, interviews after a 2023 overtime loss to Aurora. (Photo: Gene Simmons/extracted from Ohsfbmedia.com Youtube) |
BARBERTON, Ohio - The Barberton football team will have a new look when the 2026 season returns, following Tony Gotto's resignation after 12 seasons, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Gotto leaves as Barberton's all-time winningest coach with a 77-53 record, surpassing Rudy Sharkey, for whom the stadium is named, winning 71 games.
After completing a 1-9 season this past year, but had some success in his tenure, there was some controversy during a week seven game that was canceled because of what Barbertom deemed for safety concerns due to multiple injured starting players. According to a previous Ohsfbmedia story, this was Highland's homecoming week game, and additional events were planned.
The cancellation caused a stir as the Highland High School Athletic Director, Jonathan Bailey, requested that they be removed from the Suburban League due to an agreement to move forward, then a retraction later.
There was no specific reason listed for his resignation.
Gotto is a former athlete from Barberton, where he played multiple positions in football before graduating in 1992. He continued his athletic career at Clarion, West Liberty, and Walsh University, where he obtained degrees in education from Walsh and later completed his Master's degree in Administration at the University of Akron.
As of publication time, there was no Board of Education information on his resignation.
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