New Wawasee Grid Boss Does His Homework
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
SYRACUSE - So excited was tall, slender 33-year-old Joseph Rietveld over being named Wawasee High School's new football coach that he broke into his thank-you speech before the board "officially" accepted the motion to hire him.
But Rietveld was in -Êsuperintendent Mark Stock had already handed him a green and gold Wawasee shirt and cap - so all his eagerness did was cause board members sitting in the front of the room to burst out laughing.
Make no mistake, Wawasee is glad to have this guy, and he is glad to have the school.
"Professionally, this is the most exciting day of my life," is what Rietveld said right before the board "officially" presented him with a two-year contract. Rietveld will teach three or four periods of math and share lunch room supervising duties with principal Alan Frank.
"That's REET-veld," he tells you. "Long 'e' with a 'v.' My students in my class still have trouble pronouncing it."
Rietveld has been coaching since 1986. Wawasee is Rietveld's first high school varsity football head coaching job, but his resume packs punch.
He has been an assistant varsity coach at Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 1991. All Anderson has done since 1991 is go 61-13 and win the conference championship every year.
At Anderson, Rietveld formed the game plan, coached the offensive line and directed the off-season strength and speed program.
"I wasn't directly calling the plays, but it was a check-with-me type of situation," he said. "Our head coach delegated a lot of responsibilities to me in those seven years. That's what has prepared me to come to the next level as head coach here.
"Ohio's a little different than Indiana in that only 16 teams make the playoffs. We're fortunate to have made it three out of the seven I've been there."
Rietveld preaches two Jimmy Johnson staples: running the ball and fast players on defense.
"No secret," he said. "Other teams are going to have to stop the tailback. We'll give him the ball most of the time. It will be a running philosophy on offense and a speed philosophy on defense.
"You can move people around on defense to get speed. The way the football's run today, you have to have some speed. If they don't have it now, we'll get it in the future. Somehow, some way."
So how does a guy living in the Queen City, a guy part of a football powerhouse, end up in Syracuse, you ask?
Simple. He's coming home, or at least close to it.
Rietveld and his wife of five years, Celeste, graduated from Mishawaka High School.
"Yeah, I played there, but I didn't have a very good playing career," Rietveld said. "I'm a lot better coach than I was a player."
And Celeste? "To make a long story short, we graduated from Mishawaka High School the same year," he said. "Re-met at our 10-year reunion, dated. Then married. Never dated in high school."
Rietveld's father still lives in Mishawaka, and he brought the job to his son's attention.
"My father is a retired teacher, and he was building a house for the father-in-law of an assistant coach here," Rietveld said. "He told me this may be the head coach's last year. I kept my eyes and ears open."
And when Rietveld's eyes saw that opening, he bombarded Wawasee athletic director Mary Hurley. He sent a resume. And a video tape he made of himself. And, oh yeah, a 40-page packet that covered everything from philosophies to practice schedule to the off-season program.
"Our football people enjoyed viewing that," Hurley said of Rietveld's 40-page packet.
A 40-page packet and video are part of his organizational skills. To make sure he would make the right choice, Rietveld visited Wawasee High School four times.
One time he stopped by on his own on a Sunday to visit the school. The second time he stopped in and paid an informal visit while school was in session. The third time he stopped by to meet with administrators, just to ask questions in an informal environment. The fourth time he went through an extensive formal interview in front of parents, administration, teachers and football people.
"He came to the top all by himself," Hurley said. "It was an easy job in the end. On paper we had 40 applicants. Once you begin to glean through those 40, it was easy to make this decision."
Visits alone weren't enough. Rietveld asked others what they thought of the opportunity.
"I have friends who coach in this area," he said. "They told me this is a great job. They told me the community is a great place to live, a great place to raise my family, a great place to teach. All those combined make this a great situation."
Four things kept jumping out at Hurley when she talked with Rietveld: youth, energy, teaching abilities, and yes, those organizational skills.
"I don't like to leave any stone unturned," Rietveld said. "We meet in# the off-season one day a week, and we meet during the regular season seven days a week. We watch a lot of film, have a lot of meetings."
Rietveld replaces Gene Mitz, who was 15-33 at Wawasee the last five years. The Warriors went 4-6 last season.
A few months ago, when asked what she wanted in a football coach, one of the things Hurley said she wanted was someone who ratcheted the off-season program up a notch or two.
When asked the key to developing a strong football program, Rietveld said: "Concrete example is the off-season program, the strength and speed program. Not only do kids get stronger and faster, this is when they build confidence. That's been the key to our success at Anderson. We take subpar athletes and make them into good football players.
"I hope to talk with people from successful programs in the area, find out what they do and implement that along with what I already know."
By the time this newspaper hits the porch, Rietveld already will have started his duties at Wawasee. At nine Tuesday evening, Hurley said, "We'll have him in here at 7:30 in the morning."
The first two things on Rietveld's to-do list, in this order, are meet with players and hire assistant coaches.
"Professionally, this is the most exciting day of my life," he had said. A reporter asked him what made that so.
"Coming to the area and attaining the goal I started out with 12 years ago," he answered. "That's to be a head coach. Not only am I a head coach, I'm a head coach at a great place."
He's already saying the right things. His 22-month-old son, Connor, has been wearing Anderson's orange and black. Orange and black are also the colors of Wawasee archrival Warsaw.
"He'll be in green and gold diapers shortly," Rietveld said. "I have to tell you, I prefer green and gold over orange and black. I'm getting rid of all the orange and black." [[In-content Ad]]
SYRACUSE - So excited was tall, slender 33-year-old Joseph Rietveld over being named Wawasee High School's new football coach that he broke into his thank-you speech before the board "officially" accepted the motion to hire him.
But Rietveld was in -Êsuperintendent Mark Stock had already handed him a green and gold Wawasee shirt and cap - so all his eagerness did was cause board members sitting in the front of the room to burst out laughing.
Make no mistake, Wawasee is glad to have this guy, and he is glad to have the school.
"Professionally, this is the most exciting day of my life," is what Rietveld said right before the board "officially" presented him with a two-year contract. Rietveld will teach three or four periods of math and share lunch room supervising duties with principal Alan Frank.
"That's REET-veld," he tells you. "Long 'e' with a 'v.' My students in my class still have trouble pronouncing it."
Rietveld has been coaching since 1986. Wawasee is Rietveld's first high school varsity football head coaching job, but his resume packs punch.
He has been an assistant varsity coach at Anderson High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 1991. All Anderson has done since 1991 is go 61-13 and win the conference championship every year.
At Anderson, Rietveld formed the game plan, coached the offensive line and directed the off-season strength and speed program.
"I wasn't directly calling the plays, but it was a check-with-me type of situation," he said. "Our head coach delegated a lot of responsibilities to me in those seven years. That's what has prepared me to come to the next level as head coach here.
"Ohio's a little different than Indiana in that only 16 teams make the playoffs. We're fortunate to have made it three out of the seven I've been there."
Rietveld preaches two Jimmy Johnson staples: running the ball and fast players on defense.
"No secret," he said. "Other teams are going to have to stop the tailback. We'll give him the ball most of the time. It will be a running philosophy on offense and a speed philosophy on defense.
"You can move people around on defense to get speed. The way the football's run today, you have to have some speed. If they don't have it now, we'll get it in the future. Somehow, some way."
So how does a guy living in the Queen City, a guy part of a football powerhouse, end up in Syracuse, you ask?
Simple. He's coming home, or at least close to it.
Rietveld and his wife of five years, Celeste, graduated from Mishawaka High School.
"Yeah, I played there, but I didn't have a very good playing career," Rietveld said. "I'm a lot better coach than I was a player."
And Celeste? "To make a long story short, we graduated from Mishawaka High School the same year," he said. "Re-met at our 10-year reunion, dated. Then married. Never dated in high school."
Rietveld's father still lives in Mishawaka, and he brought the job to his son's attention.
"My father is a retired teacher, and he was building a house for the father-in-law of an assistant coach here," Rietveld said. "He told me this may be the head coach's last year. I kept my eyes and ears open."
And when Rietveld's eyes saw that opening, he bombarded Wawasee athletic director Mary Hurley. He sent a resume. And a video tape he made of himself. And, oh yeah, a 40-page packet that covered everything from philosophies to practice schedule to the off-season program.
"Our football people enjoyed viewing that," Hurley said of Rietveld's 40-page packet.
A 40-page packet and video are part of his organizational skills. To make sure he would make the right choice, Rietveld visited Wawasee High School four times.
One time he stopped by on his own on a Sunday to visit the school. The second time he stopped in and paid an informal visit while school was in session. The third time he stopped by to meet with administrators, just to ask questions in an informal environment. The fourth time he went through an extensive formal interview in front of parents, administration, teachers and football people.
"He came to the top all by himself," Hurley said. "It was an easy job in the end. On paper we had 40 applicants. Once you begin to glean through those 40, it was easy to make this decision."
Visits alone weren't enough. Rietveld asked others what they thought of the opportunity.
"I have friends who coach in this area," he said. "They told me this is a great job. They told me the community is a great place to live, a great place to raise my family, a great place to teach. All those combined make this a great situation."
Four things kept jumping out at Hurley when she talked with Rietveld: youth, energy, teaching abilities, and yes, those organizational skills.
"I don't like to leave any stone unturned," Rietveld said. "We meet in# the off-season one day a week, and we meet during the regular season seven days a week. We watch a lot of film, have a lot of meetings."
Rietveld replaces Gene Mitz, who was 15-33 at Wawasee the last five years. The Warriors went 4-6 last season.
A few months ago, when asked what she wanted in a football coach, one of the things Hurley said she wanted was someone who ratcheted the off-season program up a notch or two.
When asked the key to developing a strong football program, Rietveld said: "Concrete example is the off-season program, the strength and speed program. Not only do kids get stronger and faster, this is when they build confidence. That's been the key to our success at Anderson. We take subpar athletes and make them into good football players.
"I hope to talk with people from successful programs in the area, find out what they do and implement that along with what I already know."
By the time this newspaper hits the porch, Rietveld already will have started his duties at Wawasee. At nine Tuesday evening, Hurley said, "We'll have him in here at 7:30 in the morning."
The first two things on Rietveld's to-do list, in this order, are meet with players and hire assistant coaches.
"Professionally, this is the most exciting day of my life," he had said. A reporter asked him what made that so.
"Coming to the area and attaining the goal I started out with 12 years ago," he answered. "That's to be a head coach. Not only am I a head coach, I'm a head coach at a great place."
He's already saying the right things. His 22-month-old son, Connor, has been wearing Anderson's orange and black. Orange and black are also the colors of Wawasee archrival Warsaw.
"He'll be in green and gold diapers shortly," Rietveld said. "I have to tell you, I prefer green and gold over orange and black. I'm getting rid of all the orange and black." [[In-content Ad]]