​As a little kid, Mike Blaut spent Roger Bacon football games playing backyard football in the end zone at what is now Bron Bacevich Memorial Stadium.Over four decades later, Blaut stood on the same field as the head coach of his alma mater, watching the final seconds tick away on a night that made school history. Roger Bacon won its first regional championship in 2020, securing the program’s first berth in the state Final Four. For Blaut, who graduated from Roger Bacon in 1988 and spent the majority of his coaching career there, the moment was more than a football milestone.It’s also an accomplishment − winning a regional title at home − that will likely never happen again since regional playoff games were not held at neutral sites during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. More: What to know about Cincinnati’s 19 postseason football games, Week 11More: From 1 to 39, ranking Cincinnati’s football qualifiers by playoff winsMore: Here’s who made the list of the top 25 OH high school football teams”To be a part of that is just an incredible memory for me,” Blaut said. “I’m gonna have it forever.”After 12 seasons leading the Spartans, Blaut stepped away from the head-coaching position at the school he has called home for most of his life.Roger Bacon finished its season on Friday, Oct. 23, closing Blaut’s tenure after a 68-61 record from 2015-2026. Blaut said he considered retirement for around a year. “Just the fact that I’m getting old. I’ve done it for so long,” Blaut said. “I knew that I was on the back-9 of my career. I’ve been kicking it around and thinking maybe it was the right time. As the season was winding down, it became the right time for me to walk away.” Blaut began his coaching career with the Spartans as a defensive backs coach in 1988 shortly after graduating, starting a journey that would take him to multiple other programs before returning to Roger Bacon. “I grew up there. I don’t remember a time of not being there,” Blaut said. “It is home. That’s where my family has been. The hardest part is walking away from all of that.”That connection helped shape the coach he became. Blaut learned the program’s traditions under Ron Henke, a fellow Roger Bacon graduate who coached the Spartans with a mentality rooted in the school’s identity.”Spartans never quit. Spartans never die,” Blau said, recalling the mantra he carried into his own coaching career. “We played the same way that I was taught.” After a brief stint at Northwest, Blaut returned to Roger Bacon in 1993. After coaching stops at Oak Hills and North College Hill, he came back to his alma mater again in 2008 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Becoming the head coach in 2015 fulfilled a longtime ambition. “That was my ultimate goal,” Blaut said. “If I got it, great. I got the chance, so I took it.”The program’s defining stretch came in 2019 and 2020 with back-to-back 10-win seasons after moving to the Miami Valley Conference. The Spartans captured four MVC-Scarl