Former Wittenberg assistant football coach dies at 38

Ross coached nine seasons at Wittenberg from 2007-15 and was one of the longest-tenured full-time assistant coaches Joe Fincham has had in 25 years as the head coach.

“Everybody loved Sean Ross,” Fincham said Thursday. “He was one of those guys that had a great personality and really liked people and connected with everybody.”

Ross was from Bentleyville, Pa. He attended Bentworth Senior High School south of Pittsburgh and loved all Pittsburgh sports teams, Fincham said. He was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starting linebacker at Waynesburg University in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania.

Ross arrived at Wittenberg in 2007. He coached linebackers, and his first star was Brad McKinley, who was the North Coast Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year that season.

In 2009, linebackers McKinley, Zach Hurtt and Kyle Lohrman were among the stars for the nation’s top-ranked defense. Wittenberg finished 12-1 that season and won the first of back-to-back NCAC championships and first of five titles it would win during the nine seasons Ross was on the staff.

Ross was elevated to defensive coordinator in 2013 when defensive coordinator Andy Waddle got the head coaching job at Marietta.

“He coached some really good ones in his time here,” Fincham said. “He did what a lot of other good coaches do, and he took some guys who weren’t quite as good and coached them into being better than maybe what they should have been.”

In 2016, Ross left the football program but stayed at the university, moving into the position of associate director of leadership giving. He held that position until 2018 and then moved to a job at Kentucky State University as director of major gifts. Fincham said he was working for the United Way at the time of his death.

Friends mourned Ross on social media Thursday.

“The world and the Wittenberg football family has lost our friend, brother, coach, and mentor, Sean Ross,” wrote Claire Linkhart, the wife of former Wittenberg assistant coach Rob Linkhart. “A best friend to my husband and I, and our roommate of nearly a decade, our hearts are completely broken. To know him was to love him. We’ll miss you forever, Saucey.”

Dan Bauder, a former Wittenberg assistant, wrote, “Live in the moment, and have a great time doin it. That was Rossy for sure. Never know what tomorrow might bring. Loved my time with Witt football, and Sean Ross was a huge part of that. Hard to believe right now. Rest easy my man.”