Former Bengals Safety Promoted to Head Coach at Cincinnati High School

First Cris Collinsworth accepts a job at Highlands High School in Northern Kentucky as a wide receiver coach, and now former Cincinnati Bengals safety David Fulcher has been promoted to the head coach of Cincinnati Christian Schools football team.

It's a good time to be a high school football player and a Bengals fan in the Cincinnati area.

Fulcher, who was drafted by the Bengals in 1986 and played for them until 1992, was hired as the new Cougars defensive coordinator, but the head coach, Nate Johnson, resigned, Fulcher was offered the job by athletic director Steve Gillens. Fulcher accepted.

"I was concerned a new head coach might want to bring in his own staff and get rid of the coaches who had been with these kids for so many years," Fucher said. "Steve talked to me about stepping in as the head coach, and it just seemed like a perfect fit."

Fulcher hasn't necessarily set a goal of winning a state championship quite yet, but he did say that his team will hit and that they "will be physical."

"You're talking to a guy who loved to hit people," Fulcher said. "I give all the credit for the things I achieved to Dick LeBeau, my defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. I would love to take a page out of his book to where my kids can play that aggressive on defense.

I want to put our kids in position to make plays by just reacting," he continued. "We want to keep it as simple as we can. We don't want them thinking too much out there. Just react."

Fulcher went on to say that he will be a players coach, being that he is a former player. When one of his players makes a mistake, he'll explain what that player did wrong and coach him to correct the mistake. He said he's not going to "brow beat" any of his players and that he wants to do more teaching on the football field than he does coaching.

When it comes to the new hire, Gillens believes he's picked the right guy and that he wants Fulcher to not only win, but shape the kids he'll be coaching into young men.

"His passion is to work with young men and try to build them into better people," Gillens said. "He's not here just for wins and losses. The Biggest thing he's here to do is shape the character of the guys. That's what CCS is all about, build kids' relationship with the Lord and teaching them how to be great young men."

In his eight-year career in the NFL (seven with the Bengals and one with the L.A. Raiders), he intercepted 31 passes, had eight and a half sacks and two touchdowns. He was voted into the Pro Bowl three times, as a Bengal. Once in 1988, 1989 and 1990.