RetiredCoach91

Any insight as to if Madison or Jennings County has made their hires yet? Or if they have even started interviewing? Talking to some friends in the southeastern area of the state, its been pretty quiet on their hiring fronts. 

With these new enrollments that came out, will we see the Hoosier Hills start to look differently in make up? 

In the sports recap of the Johnson County Paper this morning 

Braves’ Gillin steps down

Indian Creek football coach Casey Gillin has resigned after two seasons at the school. Gillin, who was 15-8 in his two seasons with the Braves, will be working as an assistant for his father, former Creek coach Mike Gillin, at Mooresville.

Look for more on Gillin’s departure in Saturday’s Daily Journal.

That is too bad for JC, seemed like the coach was doing good things. Where do they go from here? Another outside hire or did Newton have a coordinator in place that could be the guy? Hope to see them continue improving.

What does Madison's enrollment look like now? Werent they a shrinking enrollment school of late? Likely to be 3a? 

Would love to see Jennings County win a few of these conference games at the end of their conference schedule and finish in that top 3 of the conference. Know this is Floyd's conference championship to lose at this point in the year, but wont be surprised if East surprises everyone and upsets the conference standings. 

Will be interested to see how long Seymour and JC are able to hold onto their coaches with their recent success. Schools always come calling. 

This conference appears more wide open than in many years past. At least five different teams with a legitimate shot to win the league title. The coaching in this conference is at a pretty high level right now. I wont be surprised to see one of these teams making a deep run in 5A south again. 

Just a curious question for you East fans. Have heard that a lot of their assistant coaches are no longer around. Is this true? Hard to keep the success up they had all those years with many of those coaches moving on. Is the current head coach one that will get a 20 year run in there? 

In regards to Brown County, I have heard from some coaches that scrimmage them in the summer. BC has a lot of trouble getting kids to show up for summer workouts and practices, so miss out on a lot of opportunities the other schools are getting. It is noted that this is a lot to do with transportation issues in the county school. 

Even with Vasilchek having indiana roots, the move across the county is still one that isnt a normal move. Once he rescinded the first time and came back, I think the whole situation was set up for failure. 

Now as far as where they go next, in my opinion they need to find a well put together young coordinator that is looking for their own program. One that wants to come in and make it their own, and grow the program to match the rest of the HHC. They surprisingly pay decent in comparison to many schools in the southern half of the state (for teacher and coach pay), so they could be a good opportunity for a young upcomer. Looked up their facilities and they are pretty nice as well. Maybe a coordinator from the river schools or columbus area. Hope they get it figured out quick. 

I feel for those kids. From what I have rad they had a solid coach in Sharp before he had to step away. Then had a hometown guy as interim and they didnt bring him back. Now the fiasco with this out of state fellow. What a mess for those kids and those parents. This can only hurt their already struggling situation. 

Jennings County listed on IHSAA Job Postings again, with 4/28 date stamp. So I would guess the out of state coach backed out again. Feel for the kids, having a coach back out twice before ever getting to campus. Maybe they have other candidates they interviewed that may still be interested. 

Jennings County listed on IHSAA Job Postings again, with 4/28 date stamp. 

A comment in another thread led me to this thought. Thought other readers may be interested as well. Who are some of the promising young (under 35) assistant coaches and coordinators that we could see as Head Coaches in the next 5-7 years? 

I have enjoyed your interviews with coaches around the state. I like to read about the experiences and factors that led to them being in their positions. One thing that might be interesting is to interview assistant coaches (coordinators) around the state that are doing good things. Might let the readers around the state get to know the assistants before they move on to become HC down the road. Just a thought! 

I too believe Center Grove ends up in the HCC. However, I think if this doesnt happen by Football season of 2023, then we will see a new conference formed with CG at the driving seat with schools from the MIC, HCC, and maybe even schools within conferences in that 1 hour time frame around the city. 

Everything I have heard about Coach Nolting at GC is good things! I think he is in for the long haul at GC, but I wouldnt write off the big name schools chasing after him in the future. I think it will depend largely on those big name schools preferred style of play, as he is a wishbone guy through and through (has success with it). 

You are spot on with your take on IU. They have to find a way to keep guys like Curry, Popeye Williams (just first two lineman from the current class that came to mind) in Indiana at IU. The 2022 season is going to be huge for IU moving forward. They have to find a way to get on track or the 2020 season is essentially a fluke. I root for IU football and want to see them succeed, but after last season, the 2022 is the make it or break it season to see if IU is going to work their way consistently into the top half of the B1G. 

30 minutes ago, Frozen Tundra said:

After further consideration, Nic Vasilchek has decided not to take the coaching job at Jennings County. Back to the drawing board for the Panthers.

Cant imagine this goes well for Jennings... in talking with a coach who had an assistant that interviewed for that job, he said that the call came before Christmas that he didnt get the job after interviewing. With that much time lapsed, and the time it will take for a new approval, cant imagine any of the "no's" are interested this time around. 

Pike Opening via Coach Echevveria twitter post. @fbcoachech is twitter name and post was shared by Pike HS account. 

"After conversations w/ my family, I have decided to step down as the Head Football Coach at Pike High School. I want to thank the administration, teachers, and coaching staff for their support. Players, thanks so much for your dedication and hard work. Keep grinding and raise the bar."

https://dailyjournal.net/2021/12/14/casey-gillin-named-new-indian-creek-football-coach/

A Gillin back leading the Indian Creek Program. 

The hard part is the teaching scenarios that go with the coaching openings. Some schools cant move on their coaching search until they know what teaching openings they are going to have for the coming year. 

As far as when is too late, I think once you get into April, due to summer planning and offseason program lost time, thats the absolute latest most coaches would be interested. Ideally, most coaches would like to be in place by early second semester to get their offseason rolling and start building those relationships with the kids. Especially now that Indiana allows spring ball during limited contact periods. With the new spring rules, you can have a foundation started prior to summer which is huge for new coaches. 

1 hour ago, oldtimeqb said:

I stand by my observation that single school counties - like Connersville, Rushville, Franklin Co., as well as Jennings, Pike Central, Benton Central, Jay County - generally struggle to build football success.  The geographic size puts them in a class 1 or 2 levels above their "true" football playing level based on the economic realities of a mainly rural county. 

Youre spot on there. The county schools have the land area but that produces enrollment numbers, but doesnt have the actual athletics numbers that non county schools would have. Looking at the ones you mentioned, they are 3a and 4a programs with realistically having participation numbers in the 2a level and struggling to compete. Catch 22 of you have to win to get kids interested in coming out, but you have to get more kids out to win. Tough on those schools. 

Being unfamiliar with the job and school, whats the prospect of the job look like? You mention 75% of the Friday guys graduating, but are the participation numbers high enough to field the program's needs? Some coaches view programs as fixable, so the losses might not scare people away if they see potential for improvement there. 

Whats the offseason look like for the conference teams? Saw online some teams around the state doing open workouts this time of year. Any conference teams have winter practices going? 

Is Jeffersonville now looking for a new coach? Listed on JH http://scoreboard.homestead.com/football/coachingchanges.htm#loaded 

Any news or information on this situation? 

Any news out of Jennings County Coaching Search? 

Trying to learn more about the Southern part of the state's football schools!

Goshen going to open according to their news outlet 

goshennews.com/sports/

This young man from Gibson Southern is the real deal. After getting to see him live in the tournament, I'd say he was even better than advertised in the chat rooms. Kid has a bright future. I think Gibson Southern wins this one by a couple scores. 

Appears to be a great run by New Albany! Cathedral is a different type of team. I believe they go up to 6A for next 2 years and with their success might stay there for a long while. How does New Albany's roster look? Do they have the rooster coming back to make another run at it next year? Any updates in the conference that make us think another HHC team could be in that position in 2022?

49 minutes ago, MICFan34 said:

Greenwood Christian Academy is starting a program in the next several years. They're really good across all sports at the 1A level and gives Johnson County kids a private-school alternative to Roncalli. 

Thats great they are in the process of starting a program. Who do they have as the coach starting it off? In that area, I am sure they have a great pool of coaches to choose from. Johnson County Football traditionally, with the addition of Roncalli nearby, produces solid Football teams - CG, Whiteland, Indian Creek, Greenwood & Franklin have shown flashes. 

4 hours ago, Frozen Tundra said:

As someone who has a lot of visibility to the program and the school as a whole, there’s just not the level of commitment there to make them competitive. I’m a firm believer that you need to start kids at the youth levels and build them up so that they have the skills and the knowledge necessary to succeed by the time they get in high school. Jennings County should have an advantage in this area considering it’s the only high school in the entire county. There’s also only one middle school in the county.

The unfortunate thing is, Justun Sharp was fully committed to the program and wanted to build them up from the ground level. He was a young guy who played at Jennings County himself so the passion and energy were there to make them successful. However, being a dad came first and he had to take care of his daughter. Sadly, I’m not sure they’ll find someone with the ability or the motivation to stay at Jennings County and build them up into a contender. You don’t get many Howard Joneses at Jennings County. What he did with wrestling (and Jim Harr before him) has yet to be duplicated in other sports.

Jennings County has had a long history of politics in the past and that has stunted the growth of the athletic program as a whole. It’s why so many kids have transferred to other area schools, especially South Decatur (which has been given the nickname Jennings County North High School). Columbus East, Columbus North, Greensburg, Seymour, and Brownstown Central are the most common schools kids transfer to. I’ve even heard of one kid transferring as far away as New Castle.

Nevertheless, the culture overall is changing a little bit. The athletic director that was hired within the last few years is an outsider and he’s been bringing outsiders in as head coaches. When you’re known for losing, it’s best not to higher from within because things won’t change. The AD also doesn’t kowtow or play politics. He’s a good guy and a breath of fresh air. Hopefully he doesn’t get chased off.

Jennings County has the potential to be good at sports but it’s going to take a lot of time to reverse the skeletons of the past and the reputation of being a losing program. The pieces are in place. There just needs to be some buy-in from the student-athletes and their families and full commitment by the coaches.

Sounds like some great insight into the situation. Glad you were able to share that knowledge. Unfortunate for Coach Sharp but I think we can all understand the situation. Hopefully Jennings County will be able to find a high character coach that wants to committ to the lengthy rebuilding task that will be needed! Maybe they will get some good applicants looking for an opportunity to be a HC or move up as a HC to a larger school. Good luck to the Jennings County area.