Falls City will bring back a legend to run its program.

Falls City ISD announced at a school board meeting on Wednesday night that it would hire Mark Kirchoff to the position of athletic director and head football coach at Falls City.

Kirchhoff, who came out of retirement last year to take over at Harper, returns to the site of his greatest success as a head coach leading the Beavers from 1996-2011, including leading Falls City to a state championship in 2010. Kirchhoff posted a 137-56 overall record during his 16 seasons at Falls City. 

Kirchhoff departed Falls City in 2011 and headed out west to Iraan where he led the Braves from 2012-2017. He led Iraan to the state championship game in 2016 and his team’s posted an impressive 43-game regular season winning streak between 2013 and 2017.  In six seasons at Iraan, Kirchhoff’s teams were an incredible 62-15.

Kirchhoff retired after the 2017 season and was out of coaching during 2018 before jumping back in to take over a year ago at Harper, where the Longhorns posted a disappointing 2-8 record. The new Falls City head coach will likely install his flexbone offense, which has brought major success at Falls City and Iraan. It’ll be a bit of a transition for a young Beavers squad that’s run a version of the Wing-T offense.

Falls City has earned less than 11 wins in a season just twice since his departure and under former head coach Britt Hart, the Beavers posted consecutive Region IV championships, falling in the semifinals in two straight years to eventual 2A-Division II state champions Mart.

Kirchhoff has an impressive career record of 225-99 in 27 seasons as a head coach.