WAYNESFIELD – Shane Wireman has his work cut out for him in his first job as the Waynesfield-Goshen head football coach. Not only does he inherit a team that went winless last year but must deal with the long standing problem of getting the numbers out for the football team.
However, that has not deterred Wireman’s enthusiasm and determination to return the Tigers to being competitive again.
“Last year we were 0-10 and what I have been saying is ‘hey we have to try something different around here,’” Wireman said. “Not that what they were doing last year was necessarily bad, but just putting a new twist on things. New voices. New ideas. Just mix things up enough to keep things interesting.”
Wireman equates it to teaching and keeping the students engaged in what you are trying to teach.
But most importantly, Wireman said he wants to stay positive.
Wireman’ first step to being successful was hiring a veteran coaching staff to help him along as his first year as a head coach.
Wireman’s second step will be to teaching the team his style of coaching and building up their confidence as the season progresses.
“I’ve put some real experienced guys around me with coach Rod Miller and Dan Faralia helping me and picking up the slack in the areas that I lack a little knowledge in. I also have Nathan Swaney and I actually am fortunate to have a younger brother, Travis, to help out and that has been a cool experience.”
With a number hovering around 20 players, Wireman said the Tigers will have to be creative on both offense and defense to offset the depth the team lacks. He said he is preaching to his staff to stay flexible with guys.
To help with the flexibility, Wireman is introducing the arm band system to help with players who will play on both sides of the ball.
“We are going to teach the terminology to everybody and then the bands will kind of make it simple because they can be interchangeable,” Wireman said. “Then we have to be smart in practice. We need to use a lot of bags and dummies and things like that to keep guys healthy and keep them on their feet. Tackle enough to be game ready but not go too extreme and have guys getting injured.”
The Tigers return seven letterwinners, including senior Chandler Little, a second-team, all-NWCC selection and senior Cheyene Tate, an honorable mention, All-NWCC selection. Also returning are senior Josh Searson, Dustin Plummer Zane Wickers, Dustin Klenke and Wes Eller.
Due to the numbers dilemma, Wireman said he expects to play nine freshmen and four of five of those will be thrown right in the fray on Friday nights.
Senior leadership is something Wireman said this team will need in order to help underclassmen adjust to life at the varsity level.
“All four of my seniors are very smart guys,” he said. “They are good leaders in the weight room. They play multiple sports. We have some leaders who lead by example and also some vocal leaders. We need those seniors to take those younger players under their wings and show them what to do and stay positive.”
Another aspect of introducing the armbands is to run the spread offense that Wireman is also bringing to Waynesfield-Goshen.
Even though Wireman comes from a background of running the ball and said he believes you need to establish a solid ground game, but because the Tigers are more built for speed instead of size, the Tigers will look to utilize their natural talents by getting the skilled player in open space and create yardage.
“We have a lot of speed here. We are kind of a track school so we are going to try and utilize that track speed and get them out in space and get some blocks out in front of them and use their speed to make some plays.”
Wireman said Tate, who will be lined up in different positions, will be their primary weapon on offense and added that they are going to find ways to get him the ball other than just handing it off to him.
As a junior Tate rushed for 573 yards on 105 carries and three touchdowns.
The Tigers will be going with the traditional 4-3 on defense. Like the offense, the defense will also need to be creative to offset their size and depth.
“We need to run to the football,” Wireman said. “We need 11 helmets on the ball on every play and give ourselves a chance to make some turnovers. I think that is the biggest way we can make a difference is to get some turnovers. We work turnover drills every day.”
Wireman said he knows this first year is going to be one filled with a lot of hard knock learning but said if the team can keep making progress things will begin to work itself out. He knows the learning curve will be steep and he expects a rough start at the onset of the season.
Wireman added that the biggest thing is getting confidence throughout the season and he says it starts with the coaching staff.
“Last year was not a good year for us at 0-10 so we want to start the process of climbing out of that kind of season and start moving in the right direction.”
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