Benjamin Mujcic is eager to start the next chapter of his life associated with Bowling Green High School soccer.

Mujcic, a 2013 Bowling Green graduate, was a four-year varsity player on the Purples’ boys’ soccer team and played in four straight Region 4 tournament championship games.

After high school, Mujcic went on to earn a degree from Western Kentucky and stayed involved with the game as a founding member of the Bowling Green FC Golden Lions, a semi-professional club in the United Premier Soccer League that also offers developmental training for area youth players.

On Wednesday, Mujcic embarked on a new challenge when he was officially introduced as Bowling Green’s new varsity head coach. Mujcic replaces Craig Widener, the man who coached him more more than a decade ago.

As part of Bowling Green’s Bosnian immigrant community, Mujcic found soccer provided an early pathway to forging a strong connection to his new hometown. Now he wants to do the same for current and future players in the program.

“It’s a honor,” Mujcic said. “I’ve been thinking about that for about a week now. It’s a different challenge, a different opportunity but it’s a very honorable moment for myself, my family. Bowling Green soccer, Bowling Green city school system helped develop me, who I am as a person. And I want to do the same thing moving forward for the next generation coming up.”

It’s a daunting task to replace Widener, who ended his second stint coaching the Purples in January following a 17-2 season that saw the Purples win the Region 4 tournament title and reach the second round of the KHSAA boys’ state tournament.

Widener, who previously coached the program from 2005-15, returned in 2021 and posted a five-year record of 71-17-4, earning three region titles and making the state quarterfinals twice during that span.

Combined with his first run as the Bowling Green’s coach – including when Mujcic was suiting up for the Purples – Widener compiled a 206-32-20 record with seven region titles and nine district titles. The Purples advanced to at least the state semifinals six times, winning state titles in 2006 and 2014.

Bowling Green athletic director Calvin Head had a list of qualities he was searching for in Widener’s potential replacement – energy, enthusiasm and a clear vision for the future of the program, plus proven leadership skills to guide the players.

In Mujcic, Head found the candidate that checked every box.

“During the search, one thing became very clear to me – that Purples soccer runs deep in this community,” Head said. “The pride and passion that you get associated with this program is special,” Head said. “And it was very important that we found someone who could not only understand that, but also embody it.”

Widener’s impact on his own development is something Mujcic hopes to transfer to the next generation of Purples.

“We want to be able to make sure that the program moves forward in the right direction,” Mujcic said. “And so a lot of that starts with what type of culture you have and how you want to invest your time into that culture. One of the biggest things from when Widener coached me was having a family-based culture, a brotherhood – being able to rely on each other not just on the pitch, but also off the pitch.”

Mujcic plans to continue as the director of coaching and president of the Bowling Green FC Golden Lions, a growing organization he helped found in 2021.

“Right now I’m the director of coaching and the president in the club,” Mujcic said. “I’ll continue being the president and director of coaching for the time being. We’re growing internally as staff, finding the right directors to move forward to take away a little bit of responsibility on my end. But right now a lot of my commitment is to Bowling Green High School.”

Mujcic knows what he is getting into taking over the Purples in the highly-competitive District 14, with in-town rivals Greenwood, South Warren and Warren Central all traditionally fielding strong programs.

“Much respect to all the other programs in the region and the district because they’ve been building programs the right way moving forward, but we’re going to continue to do that,” Mujcic said. “Our program and our mission is going to be on like a brief pause right now so we can figure out who we are as an identity, and then we’re going to keep building for the next six months until districts come into play. And the message is to the whole entire team and the program is there shouldn’t be any nerves. We’re just going to come out there and do what we all love to do together – play the game.”