Jeff Gafford will return for his fourth season as an assistant coach at Capital University and begins his 36th year in the coaching profession. He enters his second year overseeing the tight ends and H-backs.
Gafford joined the Capital staff in 2013 as a volunteer coach, working with the offensive line. After a year away, he rejoined the staff in 2015 and coached the quarterbacks and fullbacks.
He was a high school teacher for 33 years and coached football for 32 seasons, including 27 years as a head coach in Central Ohio in the Ohio Capital Conference (OCC).
He began his career as the head coach at Franklin Heights High School from 1984-91 before taking the helm at Worthington Kilbourne High School until 2005. During his career at Worthington Kilbourne, Gafford guided the Wolves to nine consecutive winning seasons, two regional runner-up finishes and a pair of OHSAA Final Four appearances. He closed out his high school coaching career at Marysville Exempted Village Schools (2007-12) and finished with a 168 career wins.
Over the course of his coaching career his teams have had a constant presence in the state playoffs with numerous OCC championships, including two Final Four appearances.
Gafford is a member of the Dublin High School Athletic Hall of Fame, the Worthington Kilbourne High School Hall of Fame, and the Central District Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The athletic game field at Worthington Kilbourne is named “Jeff Gafford Field”, in his honor. In 2014, he received the Larry Larson Coaches Award from the Columbus Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Nineteen former players earned NCAA Division I football scholarships, seven attended one of our country’s military academies, and many more athletes played Division I-AA (now FCS), Division II and III football. Gafford mentored eight former assistant coaches who went on to be high school head coaches.
A 1979 Ohio State University graduate in physical education, Gafford retired from his 33-year career in teaching in May 2012. He and his wife of 35 years, Susie, have two sons, A.J. (wife, Jennifer) and Jordan (wife, Maggie). They have five grandsons: Eli (7), Caleb (5), Luke (3), Malachi (2), and Levi (1). They currently reside in Columbus.
