HHF / GID Interview with New Albany Head Coach Steve Cooley

[Guest DT]

HHF Interview with New Albany Heads Coach Steve Cooley

 

The Bulldogs return 18 starters and should be the prime challenger to Columbus East in the Hoosier Hills Conference.

 

Hello Coach Cooley and thanks for joining us at Hoosier High School Football and The Gridiron Digest

 

Question 1

Many of our readers are from northern and central Indiana and are not familiar with your background. Tell us a little about your playing career, and also about how you got into coaching and eventually wound up at New Albany..

Response

I played LBer at Penn high school in the late 80s, and got my start in coaching in the late 80’s and early 90s as the D Coordinator at Bloomington South. I went on to be a head coach in Fort Wayne at Harding in 1994 at the age of 24. We took a 1-8 program and went 8-3 in our first year, I spent 6 years at Harding and then moved on to Jeffersonville. I was there for 10 years and then had a brief stint at Louisville Trinity as an assistant, then I took over the Clarksville Program with limited numbers and a tough schedule, but enjoyed my time there. I went on to be an assistant at New Albany for one year and then the Head Coaching job opened and I accepted it.

 

Question 2

What has been your primary focus with summer drills, and what strengths and weaknesses are you finding with your team as you work group workouts and 7 on 7 competitons?

Response

Our summer focus has been really on building depth and turning around our Defense.

We have a lot of talent returning on offense and we need to improve our D this year to make a playoff run.

 

Question 3.

Coach, you spent a decade at Jeffersonville and you obviously were quite familiar with the surroundings when you arrived at NA 5 years ago. How has big school southern Indiana football changed since your time at Jeff, and what did you see in the New Albany position that piqued your interest to return?

Response

Really since I arrived here in 2000, East has been the dominant team in our league, I enjoyed my time at Jeff and built great relationships with many of my former colleagues and players. The New Albany job was intriguing because of the people I work with there. There isn’t a better working situation where people care about you and the kids. It’s a great place to go to work every day.

 

Question 4

New Albany has always been blessed with a lot of talented athletes. With regard to the overall status and health of your program as you continue to build, how would assess NA football in terms of numbers and positional depth, strength and speed development, skill level, and player adaptation to your basic core offensive and defensive philosophies and schemes?

Response

We have a core group of seniors that have had a lot of success playing football and are ready for all challenges this year.

Our numbers are recovering from a limited Covid season last year where our numbers dropped. However we are on the right track and look forward to the future.

 

Question 5

Columbus East has been the dominant program in the Hoosier Hills for decades now, and the conference lost founding member Madison after the school chose to look for a better fit based on its falling enrollment. Do you feel the HHC is in good standing currently at 7 members, or would you like to see some possible expansion to 8, or possibly even ten schools if that expansion were to improve the league's competitive profile?

Response

I think its in great shape, I’d like to see Bloomington South and Bloomington North join our league down the road. We already play both of them in the regular season, and its been a good experience.

 

Question 6

You lost some talented kids to graduation after last season. How do you plan to reload this year, and will we see any scheme changes this season based on your returning personnel? Who will be some of the key players on offense and defense?

Response

We’re very fortunate to return 18 starters from a 6-3 team, We have many 3 year starters back so experience is a premium for us.

We have overhauled our Defense and made a few changes to our offense , and overhauled our kicking game.

Key players, Sebastian Landon, Charlie Wilson, Nate Wood, Blake Osborne, Derrell Simmons, Kyondre Winford, Myles Johnson, Dejon Winburn, Daquan High and Jayraylan Johnson all return on offense

Key player Zach Fleming returns as our kicker

Key players Darius Lewis Hickebottom, Avarion Chambers, Don Houchins, Nate Wood, Myles Johnson, Kyondre Winford ,Dakota Johnson, Dejon Winburn, Tyrese Winburn, Daquan High, Jashon Groves all return.

 

Question 7

Lots of Indiana football fans are looking for one of the big southern Indiana schools to break thru and make a run to the state title. What are the primary obstacles standing in your way, and what are your goals and expectations for this season from your football team?

Response

For us we have to stay healthy and make it through a brutal first couple of games.

We start with Bloomington South who has a couple Power 5 players move in that will be a challenge and game 2 we play a great QB in Purdue commit Brady Allen from Gibson Southern. These 2 games will help get us ready for our season and the tournament.

As far as obstacles go, we have to beat the returning sectional champ in Jeffersonville a 6A team playing down due to success factor of other schools moving up. If we continue to work hard and improve each week we can have a special season before its over.

 

Thanks Coach and best of luck this season

Edited July 28, 2021 by DT

[southend]

Man has been all over the state collecting knowledge. Trinity also. 

[DanteEstonia]

10 hours ago, DT said:

I think its in great shape, I’d like to see Bloomington South and Bloomington North join our league down the road. We already play both of them in the regular season, and its been a good experience.

Only both if Jennings County leaves.