HHF / GID Interview with New Prairie Head Coach Casey McKim

[Guest DT]

HHF Interview with New Prairie Head Coach Casey McKim

 

6-7, 320lb Illinois recruit Hunter Whitenack will lead a host of returning lettermen as the Cougars look to shake off a disappointing end to their 2020 season.

 

Question 1

Last year was clearly a learning experience for you, staff, team and community as your group

came in to replace the departed Hall of Famer Russ Radtke. Coach Radtke had built New

Prairie into a northern 4A powerhouse, and his departure was somewhat unexpected, at least

from an outside perspective. Heading into your second season, do you feel that you have been

able to put your imprint on the program, has there been complete community buyin to what you

and your staff are doing with the Cougars, and do you feel that things have settled down to the

point where you can return things back to a sense of normalcy?

Response

Conventional wisdom in coaching circles says that you should never follow a coach that has had

the type of tremendous success that coach Radtke had in his time here, but I have never been a

person to shy away from high standards. Coming in late I knew it would be a very difficult

transition. Covid was a major challenge throughout the year. Whether it was building

relationships with players or the increased amount of administrative tasks it definitely was a

challenge. Other challenges I knew coming in was the considerable amount of talent that was

lost to graduation the previous year. In the end there are no excuses and the expectation is to

rise to the occasion. The one significant factor that helped was that I felt very fortunate that I

inherited a staff that has coached under the likes of both Coach Radtke and Coach Curtis. In the

end a lack of time made it very hard to implement the changes that we wanted to make as a

staff last year. I believe now that we have had an off season to prepare that we are in a much

better position than we were a year ago. There are a lot of positive changes that have happened

throughout the program in the last year. Specifically our numbers have increased at every level

in the program. At the high school we are at 90 players for 9th-12th grade, a drastic increase

from the 63 we ended up with last year. Our youth program has grown so much this year that

we have had to order new helmets to meet the demand. We have also increased the size of the

coaching staff in order to ensure better player development. While we did not meet the

standards that we set for ourselves as a program last year I believe that we made progress that

will lead to the results we expect.

 

 

Question 2

Your team started out strong last year with a nice win over rival Laporte, but ended with losses

to 6A schools Penn and Elkhart and then a first round sectional defeat at the hands of

Plymouth. Did you feel like the team just ran out of gas in the final 3rd of the season last year,

or were other mitigating factors at play relative to your performance on the field?

Response

The end of the season was extremely disappointing for our staff and players. The schedule just

changed last year to where we play Penn and Elkhart to close out the regular season. Both

programs are physical, talented, and extremely deep. Our Elkhart game was extremely

competitive as we were down one score with less than a minute left to go in the game. Health

was definitely a factor that affected the end of our season. We lost four starters, some of whom

were 2-way players, in the last two weeks of the season to either injury or Covid. Plymouth

played a tremendous game with great intensity and physicality. No matter what the

circumstances were we felt we should have finished the season stronger.

 

 

Question 3

Tell our readers a little about your personal background. Where are you from originally? What

is your educational and playing background, and when and why did you decide to get into

coaching? What set of circumstances came together to match you up with the opportunity to

succeed Coach Radtke at NP?

Response

I grew up just outside of Valparaiso. I went through Valparaiso schools my entire life. I didn’t

start playing football until middle school. In High School I was a sophomore special teams

player on the 2001 team that lost in the state championship to Ben Davis and I graduated in

2004. I knew in high school that I wanted to go into education and become a coach someday.

After high school I became a student manager at Purdue University under the late Coach Tiller.

As a manager, defensive coordinator Brock Spack afforded me the opportunity to breakdown

film and do simple tasks that helped me grow as a coach. After college I got hired by Coach

Buzea to coach the middle school defense in Michigan City. After one year I was looking to

become a high school coach and I ended up as the varsity offensive line coach at Blackford

County High School. After 3 years there I wanted to get back in the area and accepted a

teaching job at Valparaiso High School. The first 2 years I was a volunteer coach and helped Bill

Marshall coach the defensive line. After 2 years I became the wide receivers coach and JV

offensive coordinator under Bill Marshall who was the head JV coach. When Marshall became

the head coach after a peculiar set of circumstances at the end of the 2017 season he gave me

the opportunity to become the varsity offensive coordinator. After two seasons as offensive

coordinator of a semi-state and state runner-up team, I applied only for the New Prairie job

because of the tremendous opportunity that I believe it represented.

 

 

Question 4

Pound for Pound, New Prairie might play one of the toughest schedules in the entire state. You

play Laporte, Lowell and Mishawaka Marian in the first month of the season, and then close out

with 6A NIC powers Elkhart and Penn. The NIC for years had a reputation as Penn and

everybody else, but the conference has seen its competitive profile improve with the

consolidation in Elkhart, Marian's stellar current run, and certainly the success of your own

program. What are your thoughts on the current schedule, do you like the NIC divisional setup,

and do you feel this schedule positions your team for postseason success?

Response

The schedule changed drastically last year with Mishawaka Marian moving up to the large

school division and the Elkhart consolidation. I believe that facing a high level of competition is

always good in the long run. This last year we had an opening and we filled it with Lowell. In

order to have consistent postseason success we need to face a high level of competition and I

believe our schedule provides that.

 

 

Question 5

New Prairie has a long history of big , rugged offensive and defensive linemen, and you've got

another one in University of Illinois recruit Hunter Whitenack, who seems to be a perfect fit for a

Bret Bielema offensive line position. Hunter is listed anywhere from 6-7 290, to 315. What will

be his projected playing weight this season, and what improvements in his game have you

observed that opened the doors to a Power 5 D1 scholarship in the Big 10 for your talented

senior lineman?

Response

Hunter is playing at close to 320 pounds at this moment in time. He has worked extremely hard

in the weight room after wrestling season to put on muscle. Hunter has made tremendous

strides from last year in terms of body, skill set, and leadership. Hunter possesses tremendous

flexibility, strength, and has an extremely aggressive style of play that you rarely see. I believed

Hunter was going to be a Power 5 player all along, but with the massive changes in recruiting it

took longer than it would have otherwise.

 

 

Question 6

New Prairie is used to piling up lots of yards on the ground and lighting up the scoreboard with

its wishbone option offense from the Radtke regime. What is your philosophy on offense, will

you be making any changes based on returning personnel, and who are some of your top kids

returning who will be offensive playmakers this fall for the Cougars?

Response

The previous few years to my arrival the offense was primarily a shotgun empty power run

offense. With a change in verbiage slowing the learning process and a lack of time it was very

difficult to install all of the offense needed to face the defensive diversity in the NIC. In terms of

offensive philosophy I believe personnel dictates everything. Any good system utilizes the types

of players a program has the most of while accentuating the talents of their elite athletes. Every

year we have the flexibility to change personnel, formations, and base schemes that give our

athletes the best opportunity to succeed. In high school coaches must morph to the talent of

their players while keeping enough base principles that allow for continuity year to year.

 

 

Question 7

What is your primary scheme on defense, and who are your top returning starters?

Response

We run a 3-3 defense for a multitude of reasons. The first reason is it allows you to be extremely

multiple from week to week or year to year. We can utilize different body types within our

system. If we need to use more linebacker type bodies or more defensive back type bodies we

have the ability to morph into different fronts and coverages. I firmly believe that having a variety

of defenses can make it very difficult for offenses to plan for. Returning starters include:

(DL-Jacob Meyers)(DL- Michael Rodriguez)(-Tayvion Ortman)(LB-Jacob Mrozinski)(DB-Hunter

Groves)(DB-Ben Fronk)(OL-Hunter Whitenack)(OL-Adam Borror)(WR-Dallas

Ryans)(WR-Hayden Clark)(RB-Noah Mungia)(TE-Thomas Sanders)

 

 

Question 8

We have asked all of our coaches during the summer interviews about the Success Factor and

its impact on Indiana High School Football, and especially on its effect on the maintenance of

competitive balance in the postseason tournament. What are your thoughts on the SF, and

would you like to see any changes made to the post season tournament, including the

possibility of seeding or the use of neutral sites for regional and semi state matchups?

Response

I believe that SF has achieved what it has set out to do, and that is to create more competitive

balance in the tournament. In my opinion it has led to more parity. There are some schools that

have significant advantages due to a wide variety of factors. In the end I believe you control

what you can control and just focus on getting better. I am sure I am in the minority in my beliefs

on seeding but I believe the randomness of the tournament draw is unique and makes it

interesting for many. The bottom line is you have to go out and win games if you want to reap

the rewards. In terms of neutral site games, I do believe it would be worth looking at semi-state

games. If you look back into the history of the tournament home field advantage at the

semi-state level is a significant factor.

 

 

Question 9

New Prairie for years has been a hard nosed, gutsy, aggressive football team that people just

love to watch play. You have lots of fans in both the South Bend area and The Region, giving

the school broad appeal across the entire Michiana area. That creates a lot of interest in the

program statewide as well. What are your expectations for the fall season ahead, do you feel

the team is in position to shake off the tough 2020 season and look ahead to again becoming a

team to be reckoned with in the postseason?

Response

The answer is YES! If you asked me a year ago it would have been the same answer. The

standard is the standard and we do not shy away from it. Anyone who has had success knows

how difficult it is to find it and sustain it, but we will not expect anything less. As you have

pointed out, we have a very difficult schedule but at the end of the day it is about the

tournament. That means we need to be healthy, rested, and the best version of ourselves rolling

into the tournament. In order to be our best we have to focus on the challenge in front of us and focus on getting better every single day.

 

 

Thanks Coach and have a great 2021 season.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by DT