Brett Oberzan the new head coach at SM South

Brett Oberzan. LJWorld.

The fifth, and final Sunflower League head coaching vacancy was filled this weekend when Lawrence Free State defensive coordinator Brett Oberzan accepted the head coaching job at SM South.

Oberzan is a Sunflower League veteran, through and through. His introduction to the league came with Lawrence High during their hay-days in the late 1980s, where he starred as a wide receiver.

After graduating from LHS, Oberzan played football at Emporia State in the early 1990s. Following his time at Emporia, he ventured to East Bay (FL) High School in Tampa, where he served as an assistant football coach for close to a decade.

Oberzan came back to Kansas in the early 2000s, and settled in at Free State, where he's served as the defensive coordinator for the last 11 seasons.

Oberzan replaces former SM South head coach, Ryan Lonergan, who walked away in December following a record of 13-24 from 2011 to 2014.

In his time at Free State, Oberzan has coached multiple defenders who went FBS, including Christian Ballard, Fred Wyatt and Joe Dineen, among others.

His trademark with the Firebirds has been an attacking 3-5-3 scheme not often seen in the high school ranks. One would imagine his first line of schematic business at SM South will be installing the defensive approach.