Milford High School announced Friday that head football coach Tom Grippa is retiring from the position after 10 seasons leading the Eagles. His departure closes out a coaching career that has spanned nearly five decades and several of Greater Cincinnati's best-known programs.
Grippa, 70, leaves as the winningest coach in Milford history, with a 57-51 record. The Eagles reached the playoffs in seven of his 10 years. He has been one of the area's longest-tenured and most successful coaches since the 1980s.
Athletic director Mark Trout, who hired Grippa, praised his impact in a statement. He said Grippa had a positive influence "both on and off the field" and lifted Milford into a regular contender in one of the area's top conferences, restoring prominence in Southwest Ohio. The school district said the search for a successor will begin immediately. Milford went 1-9 in 2026, including 1-8 in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference.
Grippa said the people around him matter most when he looks back on 49 years in the game. "In those 49 years, I have had many championships and a lot of wins, but my fondest memories are being around outstanding assistants and awesome young men who loved the great game of football," he said. He thanked his assistants, players and the head coaches he worked under, calling it "a wonderful ride."
The turnaround at Milford came quickly. His first team went 8-3 in 2017, reached the Ohio High School Athletic Association playoffs for the first time since 1986 and shared the conference title. A year later, the program earned its first playoff win, a come-from-behind victory over Fairfield that capped a 9-3 season.
After making the postseason every year from 2020 through 2022, the Eagles produced the best season in school history in 2023. They went 10-0 in the regular season, won the ECC outright and beat Fairfield in the first round of the playoffs. The run ended with a second-round loss to Mason.
Under Grippa, Milford produced 11 All-Ohio honorees and 80 All-ECC performers, and nearly 50 players went on to college football. He was named the 2023 ECC Coach of the Year and received the Cincinnati Bengals' Paul Brown Excellence in Coaching Award that same year.
Before Milford, Grippa was head coach at Elder from 1987 to 1996, Fairfield from 1997 to 2002 and La Salle from 2003 to 2012. He also spent four years as an assistant at Mount St. Joseph University. He retires with a career head coaching record of 233-150.
