Wawasee A Good Fit For Eshbach
August 1, 2017 at 4:00 p.m.
Wawasee A Good Fit For Eshbach
By Mark [email protected]
After nine years as Eastside’s head coach, Eshbach said he was looking for a change that would help his family out as well.
“I’m at a time in my life where football certainly is a big part of it, but also we we’re looking for a good fit for our kids academically,” he said Monday as teams around the state held their first official practices. “I was in administration for 15 years and I was at the point where I was looking for a change.
“At the end of the day, we were looking for something that would be a good fit for our family. Wawasee is an outstanding school with a good academic history and we felt like it would be a good fit for us.”
Part of the “fit” was to have everyone at the same school; something that couldn’t be done at his former school in Butler.
“Our family was in a bit of a different situation with my daughter (Emily) going to DeKalb and my son (Evan) went to Eastside. She is a swimmer and Eastside didn’t have a team, and that created some issues there. So (Wawasee) wound up being a good fit for everybody.”
As anyone who’s ever moved to a new town knows, part of the settling in process is getting to know the people you work with. It’s a little more of a point of emphasis when the results of that process will be seen by the public, to a degree. There’s a lot going on right now with Eshbach and the Warriors.
“The good thing about Eastside was I didn’t have much turnover in the coaching staff. It didn’t take a whole lot for us to all be on the same page,” the Warrior coach said. “Now you have to start over, and we as a coaching staff are working on getting on the same page.
“We’re evaluating personnel and what fits here and who fits there. In some ways it’s been two steps forward and one back, and that’s just part of the transition.”
Everyone, including the student-athletes, is pitching in toward that goal, according to Eshbach.
“The kids have done an outstanding job of working hard and trying to learn the system,” he said. “At this point we’re just looking to get some practices in and have that time where they’re just focused on football. The next two weeks for us is going to be really, really important.
“We’ll spend a lot of time working on the things we want to do, and then next week we’ll start on preparing for a specific opponent. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Warriors open their season Aug. 18, hosting Lakeland in a non-conference game.
After nine years as Eastside’s head coach, Eshbach said he was looking for a change that would help his family out as well.
“I’m at a time in my life where football certainly is a big part of it, but also we we’re looking for a good fit for our kids academically,” he said Monday as teams around the state held their first official practices. “I was in administration for 15 years and I was at the point where I was looking for a change.
“At the end of the day, we were looking for something that would be a good fit for our family. Wawasee is an outstanding school with a good academic history and we felt like it would be a good fit for us.”
Part of the “fit” was to have everyone at the same school; something that couldn’t be done at his former school in Butler.
“Our family was in a bit of a different situation with my daughter (Emily) going to DeKalb and my son (Evan) went to Eastside. She is a swimmer and Eastside didn’t have a team, and that created some issues there. So (Wawasee) wound up being a good fit for everybody.”
As anyone who’s ever moved to a new town knows, part of the settling in process is getting to know the people you work with. It’s a little more of a point of emphasis when the results of that process will be seen by the public, to a degree. There’s a lot going on right now with Eshbach and the Warriors.
“The good thing about Eastside was I didn’t have much turnover in the coaching staff. It didn’t take a whole lot for us to all be on the same page,” the Warrior coach said. “Now you have to start over, and we as a coaching staff are working on getting on the same page.
“We’re evaluating personnel and what fits here and who fits there. In some ways it’s been two steps forward and one back, and that’s just part of the transition.”
Everyone, including the student-athletes, is pitching in toward that goal, according to Eshbach.
“The kids have done an outstanding job of working hard and trying to learn the system,” he said. “At this point we’re just looking to get some practices in and have that time where they’re just focused on football. The next two weeks for us is going to be really, really important.
“We’ll spend a lot of time working on the things we want to do, and then next week we’ll start on preparing for a specific opponent. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The Warriors open their season Aug. 18, hosting Lakeland in a non-conference game.
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